Holiday Happiness or Holiday Frenzy? It's Your Choice!

Holiday Happiness or Holiday Frenzy? It’s Your Choice!
by Michele & Sean Andersen, For All Seasons Life Coaching

Ahhhh …the holiday season. How we love the sweet sound of holiday tunes playing in the background, as well as the twinkling lights and cute holiday-themed decorations on display in our neighbors' yards, the streets of our towns, and at our local stores. It’s everywhere you go. Holiday cheer is represented everywhere to stimulate your physical senses. Add to it the incessant stream of holiday commercials on TV & the radio and we are well on the way to be programmed for holiday merriment….or is it holiday frenzy?

What is the “holiday frenzy?” This can be any number of events and activities that you have accumulated in your belief system as expectations as to what you and others should be doing this time of year. It is getting caught up on the hamster wheel of holiday activities without conscious awareness as to why one is doing them...or being consciously aware that one is doing them out of guilt, obligation, or choosing to believe "this is how it is always done." Holiday frenzy can include any number of the following: holiday work parties, holiday family gatherings, holiday gift exchanges, holiday donations to those less fortunate, holiday ceremonies, or even holiday shows (to put you in the “holiday spirit”).  And of course the biggest one that impacts 99% of the U.S. population through incessant tv/radio/print commericals is "holiday shopping" of which many commericals convey a meaning of  "let me buy your love."  All of this outside "noise" & mind programming can leave a person feeling “holy – dazed.”

For some, the “dazed” sensation may exacerbate into feelings of confusion, stress, being overwhelmed, experiencing sadness, and even depression. For some, it’s a month filled with a whirlwind of what appears as non-stop activity whereby you might not even know that you are mentally, physically and emotionally stressed because you are on hyper-drive requiring additional adrenaline reserves numbing you to your body’s physical sensations. At some point you may get to the “crash & burn” of exhaustion.

Then there are those of us who love the frenzy and addictive adrenaline state of “go, go, go.” I (Michele) am definitely addicted to this feeling where I love “BEING BUSY.” It allows me to avoid getting quiet and calming the mind and finding my own inner peace. When I get caught up on the hamster wheel of the holiday frenzy, I definitely notice a feeling of loss or sadness in January because the multitude of activities are no longer there to keep my mind preoccupied. There is definitely a feeling of loss to my sense of self-identity.

At the other end of the spectrum are those of us who will be experiencing this holiday season with a major loss in our lives. Losing one’s employment, or one’s home, or a loved one can evoke feelings in direct contrast to those of holiday merriment that we’ve been conditioned to experience. This can result in a feeling of aloneness…where I feel I am the ONLY person not feeling all the “holiday happiness.”

Getting caught up in the “holiday frenzy” may lead you down the path to a miserable holiday season. And if you are sensitive to the energy of large crowds… i.e. such as the shopping mall jam-filled with frantic shoppers one week before Christmas, you might notice your overall sense of wellness may be compromised.

How does one mitigate the “holiday frenzy”? Well, the key here (and to alleviating practically all mental & emotional suffering) is to practice mindful awareness.  This is a form of meditation which can be a powerful tool to implement in our day-to-day interactions.  Mindful awareness allows us to become the OBSERVER which creates spacial distance, freedom and inner peace between the regurgitated thoughts & associated chemical emotions so that we are not further providing fuel for the fire to keep our mind's hamster wheel spinning.  We are able to slow down the mind and soften the grip the chemical emotions have over us.  In this more quiet space, we can tune into our inner guidance for wisdom on inspired action to take....versus the auto-pilot action we tend to take out of our conditioned response system.  Mindful awareness helps us realize that the thought is simply “a thought”… an emotion is simply “an emotion.” Nothing more.  We realize that WE ARE NOT OUR THOUGHTS OR OUR EMOTIONS.  We are the OBSERVER of them.  We realize our eternal inner truth. We ALWAYS have access to inner peace, joy & happiness. We realize that these states of BEING are ALWAYS within our self…. and we ALWAYS have access to them.  We learn to tap into our INTUITION AND INNER POWER ... That the experiences that we have in this physical world DO NOT have the power to dictate or control how we feel. This is true spiritual liberation!

This is NOT an easy process because it is very easy to get caught up in the hamster wheel of living life based on our external circumstances and our conditioned auto-pilot responses. The practice of mindful awareness is a discipline and a way of life. An easy acronym to remember in practicing this tool for spiritual liberation is R.A.I.N.

Recognize

Allow

Investigate

Non-judgment

Recognize: Recognize and become consciously aware sooner than later that you are caught up in a series of thoughts and their emotional & physical ramifications. These could be thoughts of loneliness, fear, worry, jealousy, rage, etc. Or they could also be thoughts of fun, excitement and adventure. Why should you care about these latter thoughts if they feel good? Because a thought is just a thought. An emotion is just an emotion. You are neither of these. You are eternal and a part of Universal Consciousness. If you get “caught up” on the hamster wheel of good-feeling thoughts, you can easily get disappointed when your physical experience does not match those thoughts and results in your spin-off in the opposite direction of bad-feeling thoughts & emotions.

Allow: Allowing ourselves to be PRESENT and AWARE with the thoughts, emotions and physical feelings allows us to accept who we are without judgment. We are simply the OBSERVER and allowing our human selves to experience this human experience FULLY and CONSCIOUSLY. We are not repressing them. We are not running from them. We are simply allowing them to "BE".

Investigate: This is an interesting process as we start to become aware of how every thought has a direct effect on our physical bodies. If I have a fear-based thought, I may notice how my breath becomes short and choppy, my heart races, muscle constrict and a severe pain shoots through my mid-back.  I am now consciously aware of how my thoughts and the associated chemicals have created a toxic response in my body further creating "dis-ease."  I realize that my being unconscious of my choice of thoughts & emotions...THAT I AM EATING THE RAT POISON...and not affecting the rat!  I simply notice and allow these experiences and simply observe them with love and compassion for myself.

Non-judgment: Having NON-judgment towards ourself, our thoughts and our emotions is a difficult process. But this is where we will find true inner peace. It is our judgments towards our self and others that create suffering in this world.  Many spiritual teachers held this truth, especially Jesus Christ, who taught "Judge not that ye be not judged."  This is a powerful energetic & spiritual principle.  It is Universal Law that "like attracts like"....so whenever we hold a judgment about our self or another person/place/thing, we actually create more of the same energy (ie. judgment) towards our self...and we ultimately perpetuate that energy on the planet.

The above R.A.I.N. technique is typically taught through the process of mindful meditation. However, there are many paths that lead to the same goal. Other tools that can assist one on this inner journey are yoga, tai chi, qigong, and ecstatic dance as well as many that I am not even familiar with. I encourage you to experiment and find a tool that empowers you on your inner journey.

Give the best gift you can give to yourself and others this holiday season. Learn to find your own holiday happiness every day of the year by practicing mindful awareness and tapping into your own inner peace and joy.

Best wishes on your journey.

Namaste,

Michele & Sean Andersen

PS: To learn more about mindful meditation, an excellent online resource is http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/. Here you can access many free audio and online resources to learn more about this practice…. Including online meditations. We highly recommend the free online book that explains the discipline in more detail. The book is titled “The Issue At Hand” and can be found at http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/the-issue-at-hand. 

To practice in a group setting, we host a free monthly meditation sit. Go to www.meetup.com/Personal-Transformation-Team for upcoming scheduled meditations.