Tips to prepare and support you over the holiday

Take an active role in planning:
• Start a new tradition
• Choose what works best for you – an activity, venue, timing, catering etc., start and end time.
• Schedule a walk or create space for those who need time out.
• Set a positive intention for the event.
• Decide to make the best of a less than ideal situation.

Remember:
• Nothing is every personal.
• It is not compulsory to take part in the drama.
• You don’t always have to be right.
• Other opinions are allowed!
• Its ok to say “that doesn’t work for me”.
• Your response or reaction is the only thing that you can control.

Ask yourself:
• Are my expectations realistic (life is not idyllic as portrayed in the media)
• Will it matter in an hour, a day or a week?

Be kind to yourself:
• Avoid too many commitments.
• Schedule some me/couple/treat time.
• Take a one or two-minute break and breathe deeply, inhale love, exhale negative thoughts.
• Do things that make you smile/laugh.
• Give yourself a hug or pat on the back – sometimes getting up/through the day is a major achievement.
• You are the best you in the whole universe.

Please share your experiences and any tips you have via email.

“The whole world’s broke and it ain’t worth fixing,
It’s time to start all over, make a new beginning,
There’s too much pain, too much suffering,
Let’s resolve to start all over make a new beginning.
Now don’t get me wrong I love life and living,
But when you wake up and look around at everything that’s going down,
All wrong.
You see we need to change it now, this world with too few happy endings
We can resolve to start all over make a new beginning,
Start all over
The world is broken into fragments and pieces,
That once were joined together in a unified whole,
But now too many stand alone,
There’s too much separation,
We can resolve to come together in the new beginning.
We can break the cycle – We can break the chain,
We can start all over – In the new beginning.
We can learn, we can teach,
We can share the myths, the dream, the prayer,
The notion that we can do better,
Change our lives and paths,
Create a new world,
And Start all over.
The whole world’s broke and it ain’t worth fixing,
It’s time to start all over, make a new beginning.
There’s too much fighting, too little understanding,
It’s time to stop and start all over,
Make a new beginning,
We need to make new symbols,
Make new signs,
Make a new language,
With these we’ll define the world,
And start all over.”

Tracy Chapman

A Blessing by John O’Donohue from ‘Benedictus, A book of blessings’

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Look at me
You may think you see
Who I really am
But you’ll never know me
Every day
It’s as if I play a part
Now I see
If I wear a mask
I can fool the world
But I cannot fool my heart
Who is that girl I see
Staring straight back at me?
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?
I am now
In a world where I
Have to hide my heart
And what I believe in
But somehow
I will show the world
What’s inside my heart
And be loved for who I am
Who is that girl I see
Staring straight back at me?
Why is my reflection
Someone I don’t know?
Must I pretend that I’m
Someone else for all time?
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?
There’s a heart that must be
Free to fly
That burns with a need to know
The reason why
Why must we all conceal
What we think, how we feel?
Must there be a secret me
I’m forced to hide?
I won’t pretend that I’m
Someone else for all time
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?
~ Christine Aguilera, Reflection:

I am a tree

Which stands by the path you tread.

If you can learn something from me

Stay awhile.

I cannot take you my way

Because my roots

Are in my own piece of ground,

And my branches

Reach up to my own personal sky.

If you wish to lean

Against me for a time

And warm in the sun

Which filters through my leaves

Then share my stillness

And become one with me.

But do not stay too long –

Or part of yourself

Will become lost within me.

Do not take one of my branches

To use as a prop

For even I am unaware

Of which are strong or weak.

In looking at me

Reflect on what you didn’t know

And make it your own truth,

I will not impede the path you tread

But I hope I have helped

To make your journey

Worthwhile.

by Barbara Griggs

by Katy Stevenson Wirth

In my heart of hearts,
I no longer want to be
Better than you
Smarter than you
Thinner than you
Prettier than you
Faster than you
Stronger than you
More accomplished than you
More creative than you
A better mother than you
A better friend than you
Better educated than you
ANYTHING more than you.

I want to walk this path
Side by side
In awe of who you are
In awe of what your gifts are
To see you only in love and light
With your beauty shining through
Just as you are.
And I want you to see me the same way.
For I really do love you
Just as you are.
I only thought I had to be better
In order for you to love me.

I drop this cloak of outshining at the gate.
It has been such a heavy burden,
An unnecessary burden
A self imposed burden.
Will you still love me
Being just as I am.
In my heart of hearts,
I know you will

The moon lights the night sky and

I am visible

The dawn chorus fills the air and

I am heard

The sunset takes my breath away

I am a success

The bonfire gives heat and light as it transforms

I give thanks for the gift of my experiences

Spring, summer, autumn, winter; rain, sun and snow

Everything that happens is perfect and

I accept myself

Mother earth gives me abundance, joy, love, peace, calmness, clarity, grace and ease

I give thanks

I am worthy

I am at peace with the world

I am at peace with other people

I am at peace with myself

I am

This is about me, its about you, its about everyone