Sometimes the holidays can get too much.
Especially if you’re a sensitive type of person.
The music is louder, the lights are brighter and the expectations are higher. We sometimes spend more time with people that we don’t usually spend a lot of time with, and that can sometimes get messy.
If you’re the kind of person that needs to have some time on your own all of this can make Christmas seem more like a burden than a pleasure.
If to add to this, you are in a job that isn’t right for you, feelings can surface about having got to the end of another year in what isn’t your right work.
All of this can make you feel more ‘ba humbug’ than ‘ho ho ho.’
Part of the pain we can cause ourselves around the holidays comes from comparing the Christmas or holiday period we are actually experiencing with the one that we would ultimately wish we were experiencing.
When we do this we can find that we come up short and then sometimes blame ourselves for just not getting it right.
I used to do this at birthdays and on holidays and ended up crying at some point in the day.
Then I realised that the sadness was caused by the pressure I was putting myself under for things to be perfect, for them to be just so, for them to be wonderful in a Christmas film montage way.
I eventually realised that Christmas or any holiday period doesn’t only become special if it is the movie kind. Christmas can be special if it is appreciated for its ordinariness.
Instead of being under an internal pressure for Christmas to look a certain way and then comparing this with magazine and Pinterest gloss I can take expectations off and just experience it as it comes. (while still ordering the ingredients for a nice family meal)
Then I can set the intention to appreciate what shows up.
So if your Christmas is showing up in its imperfect glory realise that whatever its form this is your Christmas, part of your journey, part of your story, part of your life.
That is what ultimately makes it special, because there is only one you and you are the only person who can experience Christmas the way you do, and the only person who ever will.