But I think there’s another aspect to “Christmas spirit.” I think it’s spiritual. And don’t close your screen on me because I said spiritual. I didn’t say religious, because it’s not. I think it comes from our souls.

I think deep down, each of us has a spirit that wants to be expressed. And I think at Christmas, when we’re naturally thinking of others, that spirit is more easily expressed. I think if you want to, you can have a spiritual Christmas. You can feel loving, caring, generous. You can feel like a kid at Christmas, just by opening up to your spirit.

So what do you want this year?

Angie Dixon helps small business owners get their acts together. She is a personal development coach specializing in helping people integrate their home and work lives so they feel less stretched and more balanced. Get her FREE EBOOK on balance at http://www.discoveringtruenorth.com. For questions or to discover how coaching can change your life, contact Angie at mailto:angie@discoveringtruenorth.com.

Where I get in trouble is when I go to other end of spectrum, usually because I’m depressed or discouraged, and spend all my time reading novels or playing computer games. Again, that’s another article.

But my point, and yes, I do indeed have one, is that it’s OKAY to take a break. You don’t need to be accomplishing something every minute of every day. I once told a very wise woman that I just had so much to do, I didn’t know how I was going to get it all done, and I was stressed beyond belief. She looked me deep in eyes, nodded, and said, “Do you have a trashy novel?” She then offered to lend me one if I didn’t, so I could go home, spend afternoon reading it, and get up refreshed to do things that needed to be done.

Downtime is essential if you’re going to accomplish right things. You can’t run on adrenaline indefinitely. It will catch up with you, and you’ll get a cold, strain a muscle, or worse.

So don’t worry about accomplishing anything for a few hours today. Go read a trash novel. I have a pretty good one you can borrow if you’d like.