Living A Guilt-Free Christmas
By: Catherine FranzDo you have feelings that you didn¡¯t do something as well as you
would have liked this year? With the intention to solve this by the
end of the year? Many of us desire to begin the new year in a new
light in our relationships. The ultimate motive, however, is that we
don¡¯t want to drag our emotional baggage into the coming year.
Having Thanksgiving in November and Christmas in December all
leading to the beginning of new promises in the next year isn¡¯t a
fluke. The emotional need for love and peace is set in our
emotional DNA and expands during this period. Gift giving is
normally the result of wanting to give something that relieves the
guilt of something. All for the promise of starting the New Year
with a clean slate.
Your motive during the holiday period depends on your beliefs.
Yet, it is a time to reconnect with love. Love is the greatest need
for all of us. It is the foundation for our need for respect, honor,
and interaction. We need love as proven in studies on newborns
-- those touched and loved during their first few weeks and those
that aren¡¯t. Our love for our family, friends, but mostly with
ourselves, is a strong desire that is manipulated by retailers during
this period. Yes, I honor the fact that it has made the United
States a great nation because of it but have we ever thought of
how life could be different if we met it in another way?
There are other ways to balance the holiday season, this season
and for the rest of your life. Examine why you are purchasing gifts.
Is it the need to feel more loved? Is it to relieve the guilt so you
can begin the New Year with a clean slate -- or at least a cleaner
slate? What is driving the guilt? Not enough time spent with who?
What are you working towards shedding before the New Year
enters?
I am sharing this with you because I know of other ways and their
results are greater than anything a gift will ever solve. It begins
with forgiveness and transfers into living a different way of life --
all year long. That¡¯s 24/7, Monday-Sunday, with everyone in your
life currently, from the past, and in the future that touch your life.
The message is to live a life of love, light all year long. Imagine a
life of being guilt-free and being in a state of love and peace with
yourself and others. No judgment with yourself. No judgment of
others. Is it possible? I say yes and I know you know it as well.
There are people living it. You have already experienced parts of
it. Begin with the choice today. Not tomorrow, not as a New Year
resolution. But today. Now. This minute. This second. Live the
next hour guilt-free. Then the next hour. Live each hour
whenever you can think of this process. Let the hours merge
together and eventually your life changes dramatically and whole
world that you touch shifts around you. You know its possible. It
begins with a choice and shifts with awareness and the smallest of
commitments.
(c) Copyright 2005, Catherine Franz. All rights reserved.
Catherine Franz, business and writing coach, resides in Virginia and is a syndicated columnist, radio producer, International speaker, and author. Ezines and other articles: www.abundancecenter.com abundance.blogs.com