“Glad tidings of comfort and joy”, says the holiday carol. A similar wish could declare “happy stories of cheerful ease!” But is this your usual holiday experience? At this time in our lives, when we are living, creating, and acting from a place of increased sovereignty and power, the depression which can sneak up on us during the holiday season is often due to the way we set down our newfound freedom on these red letter days. I mean no shame in this statement. Habit rules the holidays. It’s often less complicated to play our usual roles than shake everybody up with our new or refreshed desires. It’s easy in the onslaught of family and late nights to forget our hard-fought boundaries. The Christmas carols roll out over radio station and grocery store and without even thinking we’re once again playing those parts we’ve worked so hard to shake off. With this in mind, I would like to take this moment, deep in December’s Yule, Solstice, and Christmas feast times, to help us find another way, a way more honoring to our bodies and hearts.
A Comfortable Holiday Manifesto
This holiday, I am allowed to ditch the traditions which have lost their glow, or which no longer work for me. I am changing, and it’s reasonable that my life will reflect those changes.
This holiday, I will make time for the people I love and the people who love me in return. Everyone else can wait.
This holiday, I will say no to things and people I just don’t feel up for. I don’t have to explain if I don’t want to. I can just say no.
This holiday, I will take a break from the shoulds (holiday cards, open houses, etc.) and listen instead to my deepest desires (quiet mornings by the tree, dinner with friends).
This holiday, I will embrace the unexpected and unplanned (illness, schedule changes, etc.) as gifts in disguise (open evenings, time to rest).
This holiday, I will try to make peace with my present. I will release my expectations of myself and just do the best I can. My life is imperfect and I don’t have to show up perfectly in every moment.
This holiday, I will honor my belly and temperature with the clothes I wear. I will not kill my feet or my back for beauty. I will try to worry less about other people’s opinions. I will pay attention to my own needs and happiness first.
This holiday, I won’t try to cram everything in by the 24th or 25th of December, or even by New Year’s Eve. The long, empty days of January can use a little spilling-over of cheer and I can use more room to breathe.
This holiday, I want comfort and joy instead of anxiety and stress. I choose a happier story for this season.
Add your own thoughts and wishes and then print this out and post it on your bathroom mirror for this week. We can do this. It’s completely sane and reasonable to make comfort our main goal. We’ve created a gorgeous printable of this Manifesto as a holiday gift to you, download it here: A Vivid Holiday Manifesto
Wishing you a week of happy news and beautiful ease, friends. Comfort and joy to all of us.
xo,
Annagrace
