Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year. A very odd day for Christmas as it makes it much more difficult for people to get time off to travel to family. But for those that do get off you get a particularly long weekend, please enjoy it!
I particularly enjoy Christmas because even more than New Years it gives us all an opportunity to stop and reflect. Christmas, for many of us, is one of two holidays a year that most actually hold as a true day off (along with Thanksgiving).
Reflection is a lost art for so many of us. Smartphones, tablets and laptops have made us always connected to work any given day, night, weekend, holiday or vacation. It’s very hard to stop and reflect when it’s not possible to string together several days or nights in a row of uninterrupted time. For it is only in this free time that we can begin to process the lessons of the past year, the subconscious actions that we want to take on and the personal reflections of how we can improve ourselves.
So this is one of the reasons that I like Christmas – it’s the time when I typically learn more about myself by moving into this reflective state. Part of how I’m able to get into this reflective state is through family.
I now live about 7 hours away from most of my family and only get the opportunity to visit them a handful of times a year. So any visit becomes an important event. It’s this disconnect from the normal that also helps to bump me out of a normal state of mind.
To everyone out there, I wish you a disconnect from the normal and a reflection to the internal!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!