Holidays expand us with a change of environment, a change of routines, and an opportunity for experiences that will broaden our minds simply because they are out of the ordinary.
Doing this with people you love takes it to another level entirely, as we expand our minds and widen our lives while we are supported in a base of unconditional love. All these experiences add up … joined together they give us a secure base from which to launch ourselves into life.
Spending time together in a new environment is an opportunity to take notice of the small spots between the big events.
How do we cope with (insert an appropriate holiday challenge)? How do we support each other as we all attempt to cope with said holiday challenge? The interactions between us are where the magic lives. It’s where we build our basis of unconditional love and reinforce our connections. It’s where we encounter another lesson on the art of resilience.
Holidays are a golden opportunity to reset. To try a new way of being and of passing our time. Our normal day-to-day routines are pleasantly changed, and what we’re looking for is the connection that arrives when we’re not busy. The relaxed, easy connection that comes when you have unhurried time together. A connection that grows over ice cream at the local store and a slow walk along the beach. Time to cook together, create together and have a game together. And time to pursue solitary activities like reading while you’re hanging out with the people you love.
How often do we have a great time and want to bring that home with us? Relaxed, happy, holiday self is allowed to show up at home too.
What is your way of being that you like better when you are on holiday? What if you showed up as your whole holiday self in your ‘real’ life? How much of a difference would that make?
After all, we’re human beings, not human doings.
Time spent on expansion is never wasted
Holidays will give us that in spades. How will your family spend their holidays this summer?
Holidays are all about a change in routine, a change in mindset, and a change in our approach to life.
And surprisingly, I find I even enjoy cooking meals with love and – yes – doing the dishes afterward! Yep, no dishwasher: just me and some soapy suds and some ‘alone’ time. Although usually there is one adolescent at the other end of the tea towel. And that’s nice too.
My (now adolescent) kids and I reminisce about holidays – we fondly remember the times spent swimming in a knee-deep lagoon, playing invented games on the beach, and making friends with the other kids in the camp as taking turns on the rope swing, shell collecting, getting ‘lost’ in the bush, making huts and roasting marshmallows on a fire.
Those very memories are often referred back to during our evening chats as we reminisce about the mini adventures our kids had while they were young. These memories, I wouldn’t swap them for anything.
They are jewels that shine brightly.
Change doesn’t have to be hard. Holidays are proof of that.
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