Connection, Christmas and Covid

Yep I've used the C word and its September, shoot me. But it may have caught some attention and that is my intention, so here we go.

Regarding the most recent announcements re covid - I’ve been quietly listening and observing. Overhearing people talking about Christmas and not being able to see their family on Christmas Day etc.

And I found myself asking - why.

Why are you allowing something that is not even here yet, 3 months away, to control so much of how you are feeling right now in this moment?

This is something that is continuously showing up for us and something I find myself repeatedly putting out there, the need to surrender and let go of wanting to control.

If you are constantly living in the future of what’s next or attaching yourself to something that isn’t even here yet, you are never fully enjoying the present moment right now. I know, because I've been there and I talk from experience. Detaching yourself from a situation or outcome of how you think, expect, or imagine it to be, enables you to be free within yourself, emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually.

As I delve deeper and listen to conversations re the ‘Christmas chats’ the root of the why becomes so apparent and i am not at all surprised. Because it always comes back to the same thing, That big L bomb - LOVE. If you fully open yourself up, it's actually got nothing to do with the fact of it being ‘Christmas’ the whole thing has been completely taken over by media hype anyway. Did you even know the true meaning of Christmas is ‘to give up oneself- to only think of others- how to bring the greatest happiness to others’ Even that’s got completely lost.

Strip all that back and quite simply it’s the fear of not being able to spend time with loved ones, simply put.

Yet the emotion you are feeling has nothing to actually do with Christmas, it’s just the media have over hyped the day which over time has been built up to have so much pressure, expectation and emotion attached to it. Delving deeper than that, it’s experiencing that feeling of love and the potential of not having it over the festive period. As always it comes back to love. It’s a time that opens up so much emotion about love and/or the potential lack in one's life. You’re not going to miss all the presents (no doubt some peoples ego will) but deep down its human interaction and the giving and receiving of love. The lack of love is still so apparent.

Why do we have to wait all year to do this? We can make the time and effort to see and spend time with others (yes before anyone reacts, I'm aware that COVID is making this a problem) but isn't that the point of all this?

What are we meant to be learning in all of this, what is it teaching you?

What's truly important to us as a human race?

Stop wasting time and energy on people or things that do not serve you.

Why do you have to wait and build it all up for a whole year and then cram it all in with those 2/3 days you get off work to then make yourself so busy seeing everyone, to then literally stuff yourself with food and alcohol so you fall asleep and feel like crap and then go and do it all again the next day. (Pure example Christmas Day) Then after those few days, did you actually spend quality time with anyone, be in the present moment playing with the children and actually listening to them, or were you too busy putting up all the pictures on social media to ‘portray’ the perfect Christmas to a load of people that really couldn't care less. Or potentially in turn people watch and they themselves then end up comparing to their own and end up going in a downwards spiral and you know how it goes. What it doesn’t showcase is how you and your partner had an argument an hour before and you're currently not even talking but you still post that ‘happy’ family picture with your Christmas hats on.

I will put my hands up now and say I have been have 100% been that person years ago. What I’m trying to do now is educate not only myself but others on the importance of being present in the moment and coming back to ourselves and what truly is important.

I also can’t help but think of the flip side of all of this. A time that is so portrayed as ‘love is all around’ yet so many force themselves through spending time with people they don’t get on with and then portray that they are having a lovely time. The media puts so much pressure out there for it to be this perfect family time that it then spurs such a high risk for anyone one that is feeling the lack of love, resulting in deep depression and suicides. Is that what we really want for each other?!

Forget Christmas for now and just think of this present moment.

What is lacking?

Where and how can you help and support others?

The seasons change and we enter what’s known as a dark night of the soul going into the months of fall. There is so much that needs to be done in the shape of humanity right now.

And quite honestly if you stop for a few minutes and really think deep, what is it that you truly miss deep down?

It’s seeing and spending time with the people you really care about. It’s not the food or the drinks or the entertainment so much as it's the people and memories you create within those intimate moments.

It’s sharing a connection, showing love, appreciation, being grateful, stopping and enjoying those precious moments with the people you care about.

Christmas is just another mass media thing that’s been blown up as another gimmick to be all about the ego and material. Yet wipe away all the outer surface stuff and look deep within and it's all about connection. And if you are reading this post thinking this is all about Christmas, I ask you to take the time to read it again.

And that’s what I keep getting drawn back to within all of this, the importance of human connection and showing love. That’s what's being taken away from all of us in this, the purest form of human interaction.

You ask your children what they missed most about not being at school, I bet you they would say creating and doing fun things and playing with my friends. Because I know damn well that's what I missed most about school days. You ask an elderly person in a care home what they have missed most during covid and I bet you they would say having friends and family come to visit. No one deep down, truly, honestly misses the material stuff.

I pledge you now to really just stop and think about what it is that makes you truly happy.

And as much as I know you may want to react to the situation right now, ask yourself, what does that achieve? Complaining about it is just wasted energy and literally gets you nowhere. Instead put that energy into thinking what you are really grateful for and what you can appreciate right now.

What seems to be forgotten is this is what we are being forced to do and have been for the last 6 months. Yet so quickly it has been lost. Therefore it is getting repeated to us again.

A cycle will continue to get repeated the same way over and over again for as long as YOU continue to do the same things. The only way to break the cycle is to do something different. Globally this is what we are being taught.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with this is completely up to you. I'm happy enough to have been able to surrender and let go and make myself completely open and vulnerable.

Try to just stop and put all your energy into where you are at right now.

Go within and find out what truly makes you happy, what warms your heart.

Keep it simple.

The only thing that is real, is love.