|
|
|
Better Health and Happiness for Your Baby:
The design of your home has an amazing affect on the health and well being of your baby. If it is in harmony with nature, it will have a positive influence on young children. If not, problems will become apparent in subtle and ways. According...
Crisis in Child Care
Article: Childcare Written By: Veola Momon Words: 527 Authors Email: info@vecaps.com Authors website:http://www.vecaps.com Crisis in Child Care Today there is a crisis in the child care industry. Parents are looking to the government to solve the...
Dating chat up lines for men
Here are some chat up lines that men can use with women. If they don't work, I
suggest that you investigate online dating .
Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?
I seem to have lost my phone number, could I borrow...
Dating Tips: The First Impression Matters
Ever had a love at first sight encounter? Totally captured by her beauty the first time you laid your eyes on her? Having sleepless nights thinking about her? That first impression she left with you was sure astonishing wasn’t it?
The first...
Dessert In The Dessert
Dessert In The Desert Helaine Iris © 2004 “As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others”. Robert H. Schuller Last week, on my vacation I was having dinner with a group of special friends. These friends are...
Diabetes and its Management
Diabetes and its Management Diabetes Mellitus is one of the most costly burdensome chronic diseases of our time and is condition that is increasing in epidemic population in the whole world. The complications resulting from the diseases are a...
Say "YES" to Life!
Lately, all we've been hearing is to say, "NO" to so many things. Say no to carbs, saturated fat, Vioxx, etc. The list goes on and on. I do understand saying "NO" to unreasonable demands on your life, but saying "YES" brings so much more to...
This is my Story
This is My Story (And I have to stick to it, I don’t want to, but that is the way it is) I am currently in Recovery from Drug Addiction. I have been clean now for nearly eight years. I relapsed on my drug of choice-cocaine-when my mother died in...
Trends in Gift Giving – Jewelry a Timeless Favorite
In times of rapid change, constants lend comfort to our lives. Since ancient times, jewelry has been one of the most popular gifts to give and to receive, and it still ranks among the top gifts as a universal, particularly pearls and birthstones....
Your home is a toxic waste dump!
Did you know that the household and beauty products that you purchase at your local store are unhealthy for your family? You probably don't know this because the chemical and manufacturing industries don't have to provide us with this information....
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Holiday Intentions
Over the course of the last 2,000 or so years, we've managed to cram our three biggest holidays into the space of about six weeks. We don't spread them out so that we can savor each event. Instead, we choose a time of year in which the weather is likely to be lousy (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), and cram parties, travel, feasts, and loads of stress all into a short period of time. No wonder the holiday season exhausts our pocketbooks, our patience, our diets, our will power, and ourselves.
Please don't get me wrong. I love the holidays. I was (and in some ways, still am) the "queen" of holiday over-doing. Every year I had to outdo the year before: more decorations, more parties, more gifts, more baking, more food, more guests, more chocolate . . . you get the picture. And then I noticed that the harder I tried to improve the season with all this running around and doing and stuff, the worse it got. It made my entire family cranky, stressed, and miserable. It didn't take long before we all began to dread the very season we used to love. And then it took a couple of years more before I figured out the problem: the holidays aren't about doing; they're about being. Once I realized that, and changed my focus, we started to enjoy the holidays again.
This is a different slant from the "giving not getting" spiel we hear, or heard, as we were growing up. My old, stressed, frantic holidays were all about giving, giving as much as I could, until there was nothing left for me. "Being vs. doing" goes beyond that. You can still give, give, give, or get, get, get all you want. It's the intention behind the giving and getting (or partying, or traveling, or baking or. . .) that we're looking at here.
So that's what I want to address: setting an intention for the holidays. Simply put, setting an intention is about deciding what it is you really want from something, like a vacation, a dinner party, or even today. Depending upon the situation, you might ask, "What do I want to take away from this?" or "What is the purpose of this?" In our case, "What do I really want to get from this holiday season?"
I don't mean "a red Lamborghini Diablo", or "a new refrigerator," although I wouldn't turn those down. I don't even mean something as practical and essential as ten pounds of chocolate. Nor am I asking you to examine the
real meaning of Christmas, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanza, rampant commercialism, or whatever it is you celebrate. Instead, I want you to connect with that deeply personal, being part, and decide what you want from there.
What I'm asking you to do is to reach deep down inside yourself, your heart, soul, or whatever you call that special place, and discover what it is you really want this holiday season to mean for you. So, stop, right now. Close your eyes, and lean back in your chair. What is the first thing that comes up for you?
One way, but by no means the only way, you can look at holiday intentions is to remember back to some of the best times you've ever had. What were the feelings about those times that made them so very special? Are any of those feelings ones you'd like to experience this season? Or is there another, different purpose or feeling you'd like to have?
If you're absolutely drawing a blank, here are some ideas for holiday intentions that might get you started on your own:
• reconnect with (family, friends, the world, the Divine Being...)
• discover the (joy, beauty, wonder...) in (small things, life, myself...)
• let go of (negativity, stress, anger, suffering, hate...)
• honor (my body, my values, others...)
• celebrate (beauty, life, laughter, family,...)
• laugh, love, and live (life, in the moment,...)
So my request of you is that you take some time, this week - today, preferably - and set your intentions for this holiday season. Write them out. Then make several copies of them, and stash them in places where you'll see them frequently throughout the next few weeks. Let them remind you that this season is about joy, love, celebration, and beauty, instead of stress, hurry, and rush. And take some time to just be.
NOTE: You're welcome to use this article online in electronic newsletters and e-zines as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end). If use of this article is desired in print, you must first contact Lynn Cutts at Lynn@ManageYourMuse.com.
Copyright 2004 Lynn Cutts
About the Author
Lynn Cutts, the Muse of Manage Your Muse, is a life coach, writer, and general chocolate lover. To learn more about Lynn and her coaching, please visit her site at http://www.ManageYourMuse.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|