The last month of the calendar year is often our most spiritual. Regardless of your religious beliefs and practices, it's important to acknowledge the things in your life that connect you with your spirituality.
For many people, this time of year is too busy for us to savor. When we are reminded of "the reason for the season," we often feel guilty for focusing on gift-giving and office parties at the expense of our personal relationship with Deity. Every year, as we wait in line at the cash register in the mall, we hear other shoppers saying what we're thinking, "Next year will be different."
If you haven't already done so, pause right now with your planner or calendar. Schedule your top three most important holiday activities. If gift giving is important to you, plan to complete your shopping no later than the second weekend in December. If you are making Christmas gifts, schedule your shopping even sooner.
Most of all, give yourself permission to fall short of the "perfect holiday season" that you see in the media. Each year your goal should be to have a better, more spiritually rich holiday. Do not measure yourself against unrealistic ideas of what others have done to celebrate the season; they are probably working with different goals and different resources.
By focusing on your own spiritual experiences and celebrations, you'll have more of the holiday spirit to share with your family, friends, and co-workers. Do not succumb to others' cues or unrealistic expectations. By setting an example with your own truly a merry Christmas or other yuletide celebration, others may see ways to enjoy the season more, themselves.
Reflect on your own childhood and the things that made the holiday season magical. If you have children at home during the holidays, think about the things that made them smile in past years. Whether it was the family outing to select the perfect tree, watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas," going to midnight Mass, gathering with your extended family, spinning the dreidel with your cousins, or making holiday cookies with your family, bring these celebrations of back into your life.
As the holiday approaches, try to let go of the commercial aspects and pressures. To enrich your own spiritual experience, consider attending a religious service at a church that is completely different from your own. This can highlight the concepts and beliefs that we all have in common. It can also help you see ways to deepen your own holiday celebrations. And, it may give you a new appreciation of holiday rituals and services that had become rote as you became caught up in homogenized and commercialized versions of this season.
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