It’s Time to Give Yourself Some Wonderful Gifts
It’s the holidays, and if you celebrate them, you probably have been thinking about, shopping for, wrapping, and giving gifts to those you care about. You choose things you think they may like or need. Well what about you? Maybe it’s time to stop for a moment and think about some gifts you can give to yourself this year, and they cost nothing.
The Gift of Letting Go. Of perfect. Of outcomes we cannot control. Of other people’s choices. Of their treatment of you or their lack of support and encouragement. Acceptance means no longer wishing it to be different. Maybe you just practice a bit each day NOT focusing on what you can’t control. Also letting go of being able to do it all.
The Gift of Contentment and Quiet Joy. Those moments you will notice this season, little and big, that evoke happiness, laughter, or simply profound awe. Just let yourself stop, be still, breathe, and take it in. Allow yourself to feel the good for a moment. Or maybe at the end of the day sitting back and focusing on what you are grateful for.
The Gift of Starting Over. Maybe again. You get to choose to start fresh this coming year, redoing or doing anew things you want to so that you can feel more grounded, organized or focused. Just because this year got away from you – didn’t it do that to us all? – doesn’t mean you don’t Begin Again.
The Gift of Wonder and Curiosity. Sometimes as grownups we get so caught up in the grind of responsibilities that we don’t take time to daydream, imagine or just be curious. The new brain science suggests it’s when we are just sitting or doing mindless stuff like taking a shower that the best ideas come…that’s because our brain has time to put together all the data we’ve been absorbing the rest of the day. So take some moments this season to just sit and wonder. To visualize. You never know what might come up, and it can inspire you to be motivated and have hope.
The first question is can you receive them? If it feels awkward or anxiety inducing to do so it’s ok. Receiving means believing that we both deserve the gift, know what to do with it, and can trust that it’s good to take it in. Keep reminding yourself that you DO deserve. We all do. Our self-worth isn’t conditional upon not making mistakes. Upon not being the person we’d like to be.
In fact, it’s only by loving ourselves FIRST will we have the ego strength to look at what needs to change, and have the courage to do so.
So go on…open it 😊
