Living A Guilt-Free Christmas

By Catherine Franz
 
Do you have feelings that you didn’t do something as well as
you would have liked this year? With the intention to solve
this by the end of the year? Many of us desire to begin the new
year in a new light in our relationships. The ultimate motive,
however, is that we don’t want to drag our emotional baggage
into the coming year.
 
Having Thanksgiving in November and Christmas in December all
leading to the beginning of new promises in the next year isn’t
a fluke. The emotional need for love and peace is set in our
emotional DNA and expands during this period. Gift giving is
normally the result of wanting to give something that relieves
the guilt of something. All for the promise of starting the New
Year with a clean slate.
 
Your motive during the holiday period depends on your beliefs.
Yet, it is a time to reconnect with love. Love is the greatest
need for all of us. It is the foundation for our need for
respect, honor, and interaction. We need love as proven in
studies on newborns — those touched and loved during their
first few weeks and those that aren’t. Our love for our family,
friends, but mostly with ourselves, is a strong desire that is
manipulated by retailers during this period. Yes, I honor the
fact that it has made the United States a great nation because
of it but have we ever thought of how life could be different
if we met it in another way?
 
There are other ways to balance the holiday season, this season
and for the rest of your life. Examine why you are purchasing
gifts. Is it the need to feel more loved? Is it to relieve the
guilt so you can begin the New Year with a clean slate — or at
least a cleaner slate? What is driving the guilt? Not enough
time spent with who? What are you working towards shedding
before the New Year enters?
 
I am sharing this with you because I know of other ways and
their results are greater than anything a gift will ever solve.
It begins with forgiveness and transfers into living a different
way of life — all year long. That’s 24/7, Monday-Sunday, with
everyone in your life currently, from the past, and in the
future that touch your life.
 
The message is to live a life of love, light all year long.
Imagine a life of being guilt-free and being in a state of love
and peace with yourself and others. No judgment with yourself.
No judgment of others. Is it possible? I say yes and I know you
know it as well. There are people living it. You have already
experienced parts of it. Begin with the choice today. Not
tomorrow, not as a New Year resolution. But today. Now. This
minute. This second. Live the next hour guilt-free. Then the
next hour. Live each hour whenever you can think of this
process. Let the hours merge together and eventually your life
changes dramatically and whole world that you touch shifts
around you. You know its possible. It begins with a choice and
shifts with awareness and the smallest of commitments.
 
(c) Copyright 2005, Catherine Franz. All rights reserved.

About The Author: Catherine Franz, business and writing coach,
resides in Virginia and is a syndicated columnist, radio
producer, International speaker, and author. Ezines and other
articles: http://www.abundancecenter.com
http://abundance.blogs.com