'Tis The SeasonWritten by Dr. Susan Rempel
‘Tis Season to be Jolly?By Dr. Susan Rempel I was listening to one of my favorite radio talk programs today. The topic of hour was “do you feel burdened by Christmas?” Much to my amazement host, and majority of his guests, spent better part of an hour whining and moaning about burdensome nature of holiday season. “I hate being with my relatives.” “Why do I have to spend all this money on presents for people I don’t like?” “There’s too much pressure!” “The traffic in stores is ridiculous.” It went on and on and on! It’s a well known fact that people tend to be more depressed during holiday season. It can be distressing if you live far away from your family. Some people actually become depressed because of decrease in their exposure to sunlight during winter months. However, what I heard today was different. People were just whining! They sounded like young children who were being forced to do their chores. Then, it hit me. Those people were suffering from PHLOP! What is PHLOP (pronounced “flop”)? Pre-Holiday Lack of Planning! It is my own term for describing what causes successful people turn into grinches during holiday season. Anyone who suffers from PHLOP will experience a range of symptoms that include: anxiety, sleeplessness, irritability, overeating (particularly of chocolate), anger, and irrationality. All of these symptoms cause them to miss out on true joy that should be experienced during holiday season. People who suffer from PHLOP get their first dose of anxiety when they begin to consider enormous list of things to do between Thanksgiving and end of year. There are cards to be sent, gifts to be bought and wrapped, parties to be planned, activities to be enjoyed, and thank you notes to be written. It’s enough to give a person indigestion! Then, add all of subtasks (e.g., everything that is involved in planning a party) to list. By then, that person has a major case of indigestion and beginning symptoms of a migraine. Of course, only reason that person experiences anxiety is because he or she is not organized. Do you suffer from PHLOP? It’s not too late to change things – even for this holiday season! Consider consequences of not planning out how you will get everything done before January 31. Your tasks will get done at last minute. They will not be done well. Worst of all, you may not finish them at all! Let’s face it, there is nothing worse than looking at a stack of holidays cards that were signed, sealed, and addressed, but just didn’t make it to post office. If you would like some help organizing your holiday schedule for this and future Christmas seasons, you should get a copy UnCommon Courtesy & Coaching’s PHLOP busting holiday organizer by visiting our Christmas Corner at: http://www.uncommoncourtesy.com/holidayplanner.htm . Let me also take a moment to suggest some things that will help you to enjoy this holiday season. First, consider making some of your gifts. People generally think about making gifts only when they are very young, super organized, or short on cash. You need not begin crocheting purses for your friends in August in order to make presents. Think about baking a few batches of bar cookies and then dividing them up onto colorful Christmas plates. Wrap them in cellophane and tie them with colorful ribbon. It’s easy, cheap, and all your friends will love it. After all, have you ever had anyone tell you that they did not like a plate full of cookies? How about buying a number of inexpensive items and putting them in a basket. The presentation will impress heck out of recipient. Whatever you decide to make, constructing gift yourself will make it more meaningful to both you and person who receives it.
| | At Thanksgiving, Tap into AbundanceWritten by Louise Morganti Kaelin
Many of us live in a state of ‘scarcity’ thinking. We find it incredibly easy to imagine worst happening. We also feel extremely justified in feeling that way because we are bombarded daily with extremely negative and disturbing news. All of this negativity confirms our belief that, well, that life sucks and then we die. My personal theory is that this is a very definite ‘chicken and egg’ scenario. I believe we get all that confirmation because our belief is so strong, not that our belief is strong because of all that evidence. For example, have you ever bought a new car (or really, really wanted a particular model)? Suddenly, you’re driving down road and every second car seems to be car of your choice. Is that because all of a sudden there ARE MORE cars of that make and model out there? Or is it because your consciousness is more TUNED IN to that car? It’s same way with energy. We all know how effective it is with negative energy, but truth is it works just as effectively with positive energy. It does help, however, if we are familiar with feeling we are going for. We all know we want to be happy, or joyful, or confident, but it’s hard to truly experience feeling because it’s not a feeling we’re used to.
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