The holiday season can be the best and worst time for all of us. It can bring us together as families & friends and make us go out of our way to help others. It can also drive us absolutely crazy from the amount of money we spend, relatives we have to please and just overall stress of it all.
I don’t think it is the stressful parking lots, extra scrutiny of family or even financial burdens that pushes any of us over the edge during this time though. Yes, all of that contributes to it overall, but really I think it is knowing that another year has passed in our personal histories. It is looking around ourselves and feeling like something is missing, something needs to be changed or someone’s life is better than ours. While I’m not against self-improvement if it is truly warranted, dwelling and allowing our own self-pity & judgement to affect how we lead our lives gets us no where but back in the exact same spot a year from now.
So why not just forget it? Laugh it off when your family asks “Still single?”, smile & nod when you run into that ex with their new squeeze, resist the urge to make resolutions that you will forget in two weeks time. Your life is what you make of it and not just at the holidays. Rudolph’s nose may shine a bright light on some of the things you aren’t as happy with right now, but there’s 8 other reindeer for a reason. A different set of eyes (or nose), brings a different perspective, so don’t let this time of year ruin your attitude. Before you tell off your family, complain too much about your work, end that relationship or just flip someone off in a parking lot, ask yourself if you would be doing the same things 2 months from now. No? Then why are you doing it now?
Folks, let the jolly man in the red suit do what he is supposed to. Enjoy your days off, hug your family, enjoy the company of friends and loved ones or even just those people you are starting to like. You will thank yourself for it later when you are saving money on the apology texts and cards you would have had to send and when you still have that special someone curled up next to you.
Besides you just survived the Mayan Apocalypse, kind of ending the year on a major high note already. Go you!. 😉