’Tis the Season to Be…

The holidays are in full swing! I read somewhere that there are in the neighborhood of 19 religious and spiritual holidays celebrated in December and then of course there is New Years Eve, which is pretty much universal. An interesting factoid: while 90% of Americans celebrate Christmas, only 55% regard it as a religious holiday according to Pew Research.

Regardless of your beliefs and practice, which may be completely different things, the year-end holidays are a mixed bag for most of us: Expectations, pressure, joy, love, giving, hate, stress and relaxation…. Everyone has a different take and at the end of the day no one is wrong or right. Our experience is our own and ours alone to claim.

But for every one of us our experience is borne of a choice that we make. The choice is to Be who really are, or to Be something else. And that’s today’s topic.

I often paraphrase Viktor Frankl. He taught from Auschwitz that the one and only inalienable right that each of us has, no matter our circumstance in life, is the freedom to choose how we will respond to any situation. And what a powerful teaching that is!

Our FB Live (archives here on our website) broadcasts over the past few weeks have been a countdown to the holidays of sorts. A series of topics offering the opportunity to approach the year-end holidays differently this year — the people, the places, and the things. And when we do that we transform what otherwise will surely be a predictable experience into something brand new and oftentimes oddly familiar. Let me explain.

The gift of taking the chance of doing things differently is the opportunity to return to who we really are. There is a familiarity when we get there because none of us was born to have grand expectations of ourselves and others, to choose to feel pressure, stress, or to hate. And when we experience these things the angst we feel comes from our disconnection from who we really are: joyful, loving, giving, relaxed.

The good news is that when we choose to respond to our situation differently — from a place of who we really are rather than by reacting to others, their demands, their expectations, or from being who we have been taught to be by well-meaning others and society — we instantly close that disconnect and return to what I call our Paradise (re)Discovered.

So practice some things this week to reconnect, won’t you? Give it a shot and notice what’s different:

• When you’re immersed in the goings-on that often bring out the worst in you along with the best, take a moment and ask yourself how you would PREFER to respond. And do that instead. No matter how others react.
• Take time for yourself. As much as you need and as often as you wish. No matter how others respond.
• Make decisions from your heart rather than from a place of obligation or expectations, self-imposed or by others. No matter how others see them.
• At the end of the day, take a two-minute inventory. How did you do in honoring yourself first? How did others respond? And then drift off to sleep knowing that if you honored yourself first today you gave others the very best of you. And feel good in that. No matter how others might have felt towards you at the end of the day.

Truly, no matter what you believe or practice, ’tis the season to Be. ‘Tis The Season To Be Who You Really Are! Your body, mind & soul will thank you in dramatic ways.

With lots of love and gratitude
from Santa Fe, New Mexico,
Dr Mark

PS – Are you ready for a Holiday Detox to jumpstart your manifesting in 2019? Sign up today for only $20 before the price doubles! Holiday Detox 2019.

PSS – If you haven’t already to be sure to sign up for our December Coaching Package Giveaway to win a FREE MONTH OF COACHING with Dr. Mark!  Enter here! — Ends December 31s!