YOUR LIFE A-Z:JOLLY

                                                 JOLLY

BE JOLLY AND ENJOY 

Happy, cheerful, light-hearted and playful are some of the words that describe JOLLY.   Santa Claus is described as JOLLY and Christmas songs tell us to have a JOLLY Christmas.  Now, that is not possible if you have spun yourself into the commercial web and built a fortress of “should” for the holiday.  Let go of the holiday stress and make JOLLY an honorable goal for you and your family this season.  What do you want to joyfully do for this holiday season?  Do that and you will find that not only are you joyful but there will be a sense of JOLLINESS inside of you. You may find yourself belting out Christmas songs from the bottom of your solar plexus and dancing around holiday lights just because there is JOLLY sense of fun and excitement in the air.  When a “should” pops up and says, “You should ________________________.”  Laugh at it and speak your mind back to that “should.” Tell it, “Hey, I am having fun.  If you need to be grumpy right now, then go ahead but I am doing what I want.”  Use Christmas bags so that you don’t have to waste time wrapping gifts that will be torn up in seconds.  Give yourself permission to order Christmas dinner if you don’t want to cook.  If you don’t have small kids get up when you want.  If you do have small kids learn to enjoy the chaos.  Have a JOLLY good time enjoying precious moments with those you love and like.  Minimize your time with those you don’t like! Express JOLLY and watch it grow.  

YOUR LIFE A-Z:ELVES

Employ and Delicate some Help This Holiday Season

ELVES

There are several lessons that we can learn from Santa’s ELVES. They do not wait until the last minute to prepare for the holiday season; they work hard all year long making toys that Santa will deliver across the world on Christmas Eve.  The ELVES make an abundance of toys, so as the children’s Christmas list come in, the ELVES can quickly fill children’s orders and wrap them so that Santa’s sleigh is full on Christmas Eve. By Christmas Eve everything is complete and only the fun and delight of delivery waits. How many ELVES do you have helping you this year with the holiday?  It is more fun to decorate, bake, cook, shop and wrap if you have some ELVES to help you along the way.  It is also less stressful if you plan all year long what Christmas gifts you are going to purchase. You can even wrap them as they are purchased.  Santa can’t do it all by himself and you should not have to either.  ELVES flourish in a community rather than staying isolated and task orientated.  They have fun while they work so hard.  They feel a sense of importance and valuable to Santa.  Make your ELVES feel this way too.  Then of course, since 2005, we have become familiar with the ELF on the Shelf.  This ELF is so very important because he goes back to the North Pole every night to report to Santa as whether you have been naughty or nice.  Use this ELF to build personal responsibility in your homes, helping all family members get into to positive energy of the holiday season.

Labyrinth Mondays: Necessary Journeys

It is a journey to Bethlehem from Nazareth which is about 80 miles, traveled with donkey and on foot would be at least a four day journey, perhaps a week given that Joseph was an older man and Mary was with child, not any child, but the Christ Child. That is the traditional Christmas story. In our Labyrinth Mondays, we have been talking about the power of the journey. There are many journeys in our lives that we just do not want to take but for whatever that makes sense to us at the time, the journey feels like a must. Mary and Joseph had to take the Journey as they had to pay taxes. It was necessary.


The 3-Day Breast Cancer walk of 60 miles has become a phenomenon in America. It is a journey that breast cancer patients, their friends and relatives take to punctuate the power of survival and the hope for a cure. It is necessary!

It is only three days before Christmas and anticipation of Santa is in the air, the jolly fat guy that brings us gifts of cheer, journeying all over the globe in a twenty-four hour period to make children happy with delight that they are not forgotten and are gifted just because it is Christmas. It is necessary!

Really, Dr. Dilley, the journey of Santa Claus is necessary? I know it is easy to become cynical about the craziness of the perfect Hallmark Christmas. However, we have made it crazy, not Santa Claus. We have not dealt with are neurosis, our perfectionism, our need to be better, nor our competitive nature, such as “My Christmas lights are better than yours.” As Americans, Christmas has become crazy not because of commercialism, but because our neurosis, our unhealed selves have allowed ourselves to be seduced by more and better, not because the 1% is trying to make a bigger profit. We have contributed to this fiasco of “It is Necessary!” It is not the Jolly Fat Man’s fault.

So what now? Relax, get back on track. Take back a little bit of you for Christmas. Step back to the spirit of the Journey. Make a child smile. Make an adult feel appreciated. Make a loved one know that they are important. Take a step into the center and change turn down the throttle on Christmas chaos. It is necessary!

To have help in getting your life back into perspective, becoming centered, and moving forward, then please join me on the Labyrinth workshop January 7, 2012. That is the day after Epiphany. Come and move forward away from the chaos. Go to www.psycotherapyunlimited.com to register for the workshop today.

St Nicholas Day and the Labyrinth

Tomorrow, December 6, is St. Nick’s day. Legend has it that St. Nick was an orphan boy himself and that he always took special interest in giving to orphans and children. He would go throughout his village and toss sacks of coins through windows and if the windows were shut, then he would toss them on the roof, where they would come down the chimney. Thus, St. Nick’s legend developed from very humble beginnings and to the commercialism of Santa Claus that we have today.


Walking the Labyrinth while reflecting on the real meaning of Christmas, one that actually began out of benevolence and giving of the real St. Nick and not a baby in the manger, then Christmas can take on a whole different meaning for you, what can we give, vs. what can we get?

As you work on developing your own personal relationship with the Labyrinth, I would like to suggest that you take a Labyrinth walk in the spirit of giving. Start with presenting yourself at the opening of the Labyrinth and as you walk from circuit to circuit imagine holding your heart in the palms of your hands. Ask for the mystery of the Labyrinth to heal your heart and open it to be a heart of love and generosity. Each time you find yourself coming across a fearful thought, breath in deeply and let your breath go slowly, releasing the fear to the heart of the Labyrinth and taking the next step forward.

When you arrive at the center of the Labyrinth, imagine yourself placing your heart in the hands of a loving and generous Spirit of Kindness and allow the feeling of unconditional love to wash over you, releasing your hurt and fear and gifting you with an inner peace and unconditional acceptance.

Walk out of the Labyrinth with the gratitude of St. Nick, generous in spirit, full of hope, peace and unconditional love. From that space of gratitude, find ways to give generously this Holiday Season in meaningful ways.