The Magic of Intentions: Navigating Christmas, Cultivating Self-Love, and Crafting Your Reality
Christmas and feeling triggered
As we enter the Christmas and holiday season it can be triggering for some of us.
Feelings of loneliness, expectations for the perfect family gathering and a desire to feel loved by those closest to us can leave us feeling like Christmas is a period that we want to avoid rather than embrace.
I remember feeling triggered by Christmas. Seeing other families on social media and what I thought in my head were the perfect families. Gathering around a big lunch table, smiling, and happy. Decorating extravagant Christmas trees adorned with huge boxes of presents, whilst couples wear matching Christmas jumpers. That’s what I thought was the norm.
But I realised that wasn’t always the case. Expecting or projecting what you want Christmas to look like only sets you up for failure.
Changing the Narrative
Herein also lay an opportunity to change the narrative and story I was telling myself by going inward, rather than projecting outward to others what I expected of them or the situation. By reflecting on what I really wanted, and focusing on self-love and compassion towards myself, I redirected the energy away from others and what I expected towards myself and what I wanted. Naturally, in doing so I filled up my own self-love cup by doing the things that energise me.
The takeaway?
The more you focus on yourself and how you want to feel, the more you will put yourself into a state where you can focus on creating what you want in your life - because you’re energetically feeling great and in a position to set intentions that feel aligned to who you are and the energy you’re in.
Like the saying ‘where attention goes energy flows’. So let’s focus on putting attention and energy on the right things.
Self Love:
Self-love is simply ‘loving yourself’ and developing a practice of nurturing your own mental, physical and emotional well-being. It’s critical to one’s survival and overall health.
In today’s society with feelings of pressure to constantly be ‘doing’, the career rat race and burning the candle on both ends we tend to forget about our own well-being. Not only that but when we focus on extrinsic factors like satisfying others or putting other people’s needs first, we tend to forget ourselves and our own needs, which over time can lead to burnout, anxiety or depression amongst many other health issues.
What does self-love mean to you? What activities, or rituals could you create that will focus the attention away from external factors and people, towards internally and how you feel? This could be in the form of health centred activities such as sports, going for walks, yoga or other activities that also help to drive down your parasympathetic nervous system, which is where your body is able to repair and replenish virtual life force energy. You may also want to focus on mental wellbeing practices such as journaling, writing, or finding a creative hobby that allows you to express yourself and funnel energy towards something you’re passionate about. Maybe that’s music, taking a new course, creative writing, or learning a new skill. Or you may want to indulge in a massage, meditation or breathwork which too are nourishing for your body.
The great thing is you get to choose and remember to focus on yourself and filling your cup!
How you Think, Act & Feel:
Focusing on how you feel on the inside automatically improves your mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. Not just how you consciously feel but also from an energetic perspective. As humans we’re made up of 99% atoms which are simply put energy, or positive and negative nuclei. Therefore if you feel positive on the inside you create positive energy inside yourself and around you. Without getting too scientific this means you attract around you how you feel inside of you.
Therefore how you think, act and feel has a direct impact and correlation towards your outer environment.
Something you can practice and cultivate during the holiday period is focusing on how you feel on the inside and doing things that energise, and invigorate you. What do you love doing? What brings you joy? Do more of that in your life, and during the holiday period, and watch how things start to shift around you.
Set Intentions for 2024 and What You Want to Create
Setting intentions for the year ahead is also a great practice to shift your focus from the now and perhaps how you’re feeling, towards a future vision of what you want to create in your life.
An intention is bigger than a goal and more positive than a New Year resolution for example, which can set you up for feelings of failure if you don’t achieve it.
How to set intentions:
Pick ONE desire or dream that you have for 2024 that you would love to welcome into your life
Write in detail what that desire and intention is
Where are you?
Whom are you with?
How will you feel? Really connect with the feeling of having that desire. Is it love, joy, confidence, excitement, fulfilment?
Finally, practice visualising your intention on a daily basis - have fun with this, especially over the holiday period!
My recommendation is to create a ritual. Find a sacred space where you can connect with your intention on a daily basis, preferably in the morning or evening - these are the most powerful times to tap into your subconscious and alter your reality. You can use meditation either on your own, or through guided meditations, to visualise your intention. Feel into the emotion and connect with that feeling.
Continue creating powerful intentions and gift yourself the Intentions journal to create your most magnetic, intentional life in 2024!
