"And that is the holiday; a restoring thing, which by a blast of magic, turns a man into himself." G.K. Chesterton

Due to rainy and cold gray days, I didn’t do much walking last week. That’s where I usually find inspiration to write about. Looking for a prompt for today’s meditation, I googled “inspirational holiday quotes,” or something similar. 

 

To my surprise, several of the quotes had to do with people’s resistance about taking time off from work. One celebrity, who admits it’s a problem, said she hides in the bathroom for as much time as is believable so she can sit in solitude and work from her phone. Been there, done that! And to be totally honest, I am still tempted at times to do it, even when I’m with the people I love the most.

 

Are we that addicted to staying disconnected? Or are we just so tired from overdoing that we escape from real people every chance we can to work silently or just plain zone out?

 

If you ask most of us what we really want our holidays to look like, I’m sure somewhere in our answers we would say we want to connect with family and friends and enjoy a sense of belonging and meaningful existence. Why then do we have so much trouble putting our work and our phones down to get what we want? Why do we push ourselves to the breaking point, aiming for a non-existent “you are enough, you’ve done enough” performance mark?

 

This may not be true for some readers and good for you. You’ll have to share with the rest of us how you set priorities for work, relaxing, health and relationships and manage to keep your intentions. For me, it’s still a challenge.

 

During the holidays, too many of us cave to pressures to perform at the level we’ve done in years past. We work extra hard as the year comes to a close. We decorate, cook, bake and of course, shop—determined to find the perfect gift for everyone on our list. We strive to meet perceived (or real) expectations from others and fall into the trap of perfectionism, tricking ourselves into doing just one more thing, again and again, and then we wonder where the day went and why we’re so exhausted.

 

Between our to-do lists, grocery lists and gift lists, our self-care habits fall off our lists! Life’s too short and I’m too tired to keep this up. How about you?

 

I’m reminded of the saying, “Remember your why.” What are our intentions for this holiday season? If our why’s aren’t clearly defined and kept in the front of our awareness, it’s too easy to get thrown off track.

 

Holidays or holi-days. Hmm… I think I want to enjoy holi-days this year. For me, that looks like: 

What do your ideal holi-days look like? Knowing the answer is a great place to start.