Holiday friction

Holidays can be a real source of stress for a lot of us. Ideally, we're spending joyous time with our families, grateful for the love, acceptance and support we offer one another in life. For those who actually have that experience, wow, you are so lucky:) Many people are not in this position and it can be a struggle to find our way through this time feeling a sense of connection, happiness and peace. So many people (men, in particular, Lol) hate Valentine's Day for this reason as well. To feel certain things on command and on schedule just doesn't fly sometimes ;) When we don't fit into the norm, we can fell less than and disconnected. So what do we do when we find ourselves more and more anxious as holidays approach?

It seems that we need to find a sense of family outside of genetics. This is why many doctors advise the elderly to get a pet. Connection with others is a biological imperative and without it, we are pretty much guaranteed a bout of depression or illness. We can cultivate our own sense of family with pets, like-minded people, community groups etc. Society is more friendly toward the various sexually oriented relationships and we're heading toward many accepted forms of family as well. Perhaps as individuals we have to allow ourselves to feel "normal" and acceptable, even if we don't fit into the typical nuclear family or primary relationship status at Xmas time. Everything seems to arrive back at us and how we feel about ourselves... whether we can find peace with who we are, no matter what our circumstances, accomplishments, background, financial status etc. It's so easy to compare ourselves with others and feel less fortunate or less successful... or just plain different. The Law of Forgiveness (Connie Domino), and the comforting statements letting us off the hook may come in handy right now. We may actually have to convince ourselves that we're ok, everything is going to be ok and then fake it 'til we make it. Hugs.

Blessings,

Chatgirl