The holiday season is both a joy and a challenge. It is a season when you have to cope with heavy traffic, too many parties (which puts your dieting on hold and your workout results at risk), little rest or sleep, and a lot of juggling of time and budget.
If you will let yourself be dragged mindlessly by accepting all the invitations, gorging on all the rich food and drinks, and cutting back on sleep, you may be one of those trooping to the doctor’s clinic right after the start of the new year. I myself had witnessed how hospitals were overcrowded during the first week of the year so much so that I had to climb up 11 floors versus waiting in a winding line for the elevator.
Having said all that, this is also a season rich in tradition, fellowship, and meaning. Faith, family, and friends. If these are important to you, then the season is focused on them. Belief in a merciful and generous Savior provides us the hope that someone who loves us so much is bigger than all our problems and concerns.
Connection with family and friends surrounds us with the love, caring, and brotherhood we pine for to feel needed, to belong, and to be one with others in this journey called life. So, if you’re attending a lot of parties, focus on the real celebration. Enrich yourself with rekindling your connections instead of widening your midline by eating all you can.
If you wish to engage a friend or a relative in small talk, why not do it while walking around the neighborhood or the nearby park instead of just sitting down? Better yet, in this season of family reunions, why don’t you organize a family sports activity such as basketball, bowling or volleyball instead of just a regular party?
As we end this year, I would like to wish everyone the healing that you need. Whether it be the healing of relationships, the healing of self-confidence, the healing of belief, the healing of depression, the healing of emotions, the healing of memories, the healing of physical ailments, may your journey of healing start now.
Yes, healing does not happen overnight but healing is something we decide on. If we are open to healing, then our journey to complete healing begins. And it all begins with calmness, strength, and peace.
So, with all the glitter and the noise, the fanfare and the laughter, the busy-ness and stress of the holidays, I wish that we all experience the calm that there is hope for us all as this prayer aptly says:
O God, who is the only source of health and healing, the spirit of calm and the central piece of this universe, grant to me such a consciousness of your indwelling and surrounding presence that I may permit you to give me health and strength and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (from www.catholic.org)
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Post me a note at mylene@goldsgym.com.ph or mylenedayrit@gmail.com.