Today’s holiday prep doesn’t start in the kitchen. In fact, this preparation doesn’t have to do with food at all. But no worries for those who are baking and may require my grandma’s butter cookie recipe:

JUST CLICK HERE

As for those still here, we’re going beyond that.

Not only are we going beyond, we’re also going within.

We won’t overwhelm ourselves by attempting to delve into all the various issues that may challenge us during the holiday season because I can’t stress enough the importance of micro-steps.

So we’ll place our focus on the challenge most often at the core of the others– especially during the holiday season but pretty much always:

Other people.

Though in actuality it’s not about others.

It’s about you.

And I’m saying YOU in the sense of each one of us, so yeah, ME.

Because, and please repeat after me:

the only one I can work on is me.

PERIOD. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Just making it crystal clear for all of us recovered recovering codependents. 😏

It’s been laid on my heart that if our work on self can begin by respecting that the others around us, regardless of appearances, are also enduring trials of their own, we can more readily understand behavioral responses that may not bode well with our own behavioral responses and prepare ourselves to respond mindfully rather than react erratically.

Everybody has something going on within them. FACT.

Grasping this understanding as fact grants you the grace to mindfully prepare yourself ahead of time, allowing you to operate from a level of yourself that’s capable of rising above negative energetic forces.

Visualize this: there’s a putrid smell on the bottom floor so you’re going to climb the stairs and get yourself to the next level where the stink can’t affect you.

*pretending energy has a “smell” often helps people to more readily accept that it’s real– which it IS*

These “stairs” always exist but often we default to becoming part of the stink rather than taking the stairs to a higher level because we’re human and incapable of perfection.

And that’s as it should be.

We’re here to learn and every time we fuck up we are doing just that: learning by engaging in the soul workouts that strengthen the muscles of our being and increase our soul stamina.

Climbing “stairs” is a soul workout that increases soul stamina.

But how do we mindfully prepare ourselves ahead of time to take the stairs to the next level into a higher (positive) vibration of energy rather than becoming part of an energetic stink?

BE KIND.

To YOURSELF.

FIRST.

Yes, it’s a cliché, and yes you already know it because you’ve heard it a bazillion times, but let me ask you this:

are you doing it?

Start today and pay attention to how you’re speaking to and treating yourself. Negative self-talk, criticizing, judging, bullying, depriving, etc… are off the table. Separate the you from you and treat yourself as kindly as you’d treat your child, bestie, or anyone you love.

We need to love ourselves first in order to foster the willingness necessary to climb the stairs to the level that can more readily love others at our highest capacity when the easier thing to do is to yield to the toxic energy and become part of the stink rather than rising above it.

Don’t expect yourself to come by rising above naturally.

Like any other muscle, it must be strengthened through continuous workouts that serve to BUILD it.

But that muscle IS and ALWAYS HAS BEEN there. It’s up to you to access, strengthen, and utilize it.

Begin with kindness by starting with yourself.

You’ll be led from there.

“Don’t let yourself go
‘Cause everybody cries
Everybody hurts sometimes

Sometimes everything is wrong
Now it’s time to sing along…” Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Peter Lawrence Buck / Michael E. Mills / William Thomas Berry / John Michael Stipe

Everybody Hurts lyrics © Night Garden Music