It’s that time of year again: with parties, and tinsel, and cookies and whiskey, oh my!
It is the Holiday Season and how many of you out there are staying out too late, drinking too much, or going to holiday get together that you weren’t all that interested in attending?
I know I’ve done these things in the past, but for the past three years I’ve done my holidays differently and it has helped me stay sane, stay in Self (mostly, anyway!) and to feel rested and recouped by the end of the hustle and bustle and I want for you to have a happy, healthy and sane holiday season.
Feeding the Holiday Desire
The irony is that if we tune into our bodies, we have a natural tendency this time of year to beef up, spend time with loved ones and celebrate our successes. It is natural to want to eat, drink and be merry, but the funny thing is – this natural tendency gets warped into yet another office Christmas Party, or one more present you have to buy for Aunt Mildred whom you met once at your cousin’s wedding, or stuffing our faces with sugar cookies.
Why do we do this to ourselves?
The answer is simple: because there are deeper desires yearning to be fulfilled and we don’t know how to fill them.
I’m going to take you through these deeper desires and tell you what to do about them so, as a man, you can go through this Holiday Season in you masculine and in your Self.
1. Eat, Drink and Be Merry
Our bodies actually crave sugar and fat during this season and back when we were cave people this made a lot of sense: we needed to fatten up for the winter months to make sure we survived until the planting and hunting season.
The trick is neither to deny ourselves the deliciousness of treats and neither to overindulge. The trick is to relax into it. Take a break from your normal workout routine and diet AND take care of yourself by not taking so much of a break that you bust your buttons.
Enjoy and participate in the festivities and listen to your body – go to bed early, have a glass of whiskey on ice, or treat yourself to a cookie – you know you want to anyway!
2. Take a Silent Night… or Three.
Get some cave time by yourself or with other men. Watch a football game or throw a ball around, read that book that you’ve wanted to read.
Give yourself the gift of time in your masculine space of doing nothing. Take at least one evening (or three!) to yourself during the next few weeks.
This is a natural period of rest in the seasons of the year. In the winter everything gets quiet and sleeps, we have a natural tendency for this too.
Take the time in your own man cave to recoup. You’ll need a rested self to move forward through the year and take care of business in 2013.
3. Close out Your Year
Honor the year that has been and prepare yourself for the year ahead. Any time something ends in our life; a relationship, a job, a season or a year, it is a good idea to create intentional closure around it so it doesn’t continue to follow you around.
To close out the year, play the months over in your mind from January to now. What were you doing? What major shift occurred for you personally? What did you learn?
Take the time to review the year so you can give it a proper goodbye.
4. Be Grateful for What You’ve Got
Life is precious and fragile and short. Remember to be grateful for it and for all the people (that you both love and don’t) that have brought you to where you are now.
Our families, or the people in our lives, can drive us crazy, they can be chaotic or ridiculous, or exacerbating! But they can also be beautiful relationships, caring and a kindness we don’t see elsewhere. They are our family, our blood, take the time to honor them for the role they’ve played in your life.
Be grateful for the family, the relationships, the love and the kindness you do have in your life.
5. Let Go of What Doesn’t Serve You (a.k.a. Begin Again)
This is the best time of year to begin again. Especially after you have spent time reviewing your year, release and let go of the things, people and environments that do not serve you.
How do you know what serves you?
If the person, place or thing doesn’t make you feel better after you’ve spent time with it, it doesn’t serve you.
Let go. Now.
6. Surrender to a Higher Potential Outcome (go into “the void”)
The masculine travels in a seasonal cycle (unlike the feminine which travels a lunar, or monthly, cycle). This turn of the cycle for the masculine is about rest and rejuvenation.
It is the time of year when there is nothing to be hunted, nothing to be harvested, nothing to be done. Our bodies need a rest, a moment of pause before we can begin again in the new year.
After you have let go of the past year, just hang out in the nothingness for two to three weeks. Our bodies naturally want to do this anyway from about Winter Solstice (December 21st) to around January 5th (just after New Year).
Have you noticed almost nobody gets jack shit done at work during this period? It’s because their body is already in The Void mode – or the space of the nothing.
Why is this time important? Inspiration cannot come to us when our mind is full – we must be empty in order to have our next big idea, our internal confirmation of a weighing decision, or a deep knowing.
Surrender to The Void, you’ll be glad you did!
Stay True to You
By staying true to your Self you are enabling your biggest, strongest, most masculine Self to emerge in 2013. How you end one year is how you begin the next.
“Destinations are where we begin again.” Josh Grobin
Good luck out there men – thank you for all that you have done in the past year to become better!
Wonderful post. I think form me number four is at the top of my list. It’s been a very trying year but I’ve come through it better than I started it. I’m very grateful for all those in my life who I love and who love me. That’s the best gift I can receive at this, or any time of the year. Have a great next year to all.