What I See on the Holiday Horizon

I hate to break this to you, but we are heading into “holiday season” here pretty quick. It starts with Halloween, we roll into Thanksgiving, steam through Christmas and wake up on New Year’s Day wondering what just happened.

I’m not the only one with this experience, right? Maybe this email is more for me than for you…

I spend November and December eating, drinking and spending too much. All the while telling myself I’ll get it together and clean myself up in January. And then we have “dry January” and Whole 30 January. Such cute names for a month of deprivation — basically self-punishment for over doing it.

This year I propose a new option… it’s going to sound crazy, but maybe this season we can stay off the rollercoaster of over-doing everything and under-doing everything. Maybe this year we can try a new perspective – something along the lines of “I love myself enough to moderate.” We humans are so bad at moderation. We’re “work hard, play hard.” We’re feast and famine. It’s why the human species has survived literal floods and droughts. It just doesn’t serve us now, when we have access everything all the time. We can eat, drink and spend any time… we do it when we’re having fun, and we do it when we’re nervous or sad.

I think the key to moderation lies in staying present. Staying in your body. I’m at a party and as I reach for another cheese cube, I ask myself if I’m really hungry. Um no, so I should walk away from the food altogether. (Then I look for signs of a pet in the house… because I’m an introvert. If I can’t eat, is there a cat or dog I can visit?) As I reach for another pretty glass of drink, as I ask myself how I feel right. Have I had enough? Am I just thirsty and maybe I should get some water? Maybe I can find some tea?

My point is, lets get through the holiday season with the spirit of loving ourselves the whole time, so we can keep loving ourselves in the new year. We’ll do it together, ok?