Post Christmas

So, Christmas 2009 has been and gone and is by now in the process of being neatly packaged away, preserving its magic for year’s to come.  While I am reminded that it is these few days loitering between the bookends of Christmas and New Year that are the true gift of the festive season; a handful of days, which revel in their uniqueness from every other day of the year.

And they are unique.  They have a different feel, a different energy to them.

They are like a summer breeze caressing against our skin, reminding us all that there is a different way: that there is hope.

These are the sort of days which have the ability to offer a soothing balm to our exhausted energy levels and frayed nerves after the craziness of Christmas preparations, family demands and responsibilities and those final grueling weeks as we approach the end of the year. 

Days that can create a welcome respite, and where we can take a necessary deep breath before diving head long in to the blank pages and rigors of the New Year. 

Even if you’re forced to work through these days, holiday rules often apply during this transitional period, which leaves office blocks spookily silent with depleted staff.  This is a time when the focus for employees is on chatting about Christmas and plans for New Years Eve, enjoying left over office nibbles and a relaxed dress code, rather than the usual workloads and deadlines. 

For those of us lucky enough to be at home we feel able to disregard our usual busy schedules to spend days visiting family or friends, relishing lazy afternoons in front of the television to watch some corny Christmas special, guzzling foods that we would normally avoid the rest of the year at all costs.

Perhaps because we feel so cocooned within these days, which effortlessly transition us between the past year and the fresh one we are about to enter, allowing us a taste of space and freedom that we otherwise may not be aware of or feel entitled to.

These are precious days.  And if we utilize their gift well, they permit us time to take an overview of our lives, to assess our previous year, of what we enjoyed, what made us happy and proud of ourselves and what was successful.  And then just as importantly where did we go wrong.  Where and how did we let ourselves down and what mistakes must we not repeat this time round?

These are the days to plan who and what we want to be, to become, and to harness our motivation to make this happen in the oncoming year.

Because once we hit January 1^st our year is in motion and we need to be there, and to know where it is we are heading.  It is essential that we are prepared, crouched on the starting blocks, ready to dive in swiftly and efficiently, to make a solid start on these new and unchartered twelve months of 2010. 

In this moment, right now, we are still nestled within the protection and fun of those initial planning stages where our imagination is the one in control, running riot, sparking ideas that at times can seem crazy and even slightly scary.  While our internal Creativity department jumps on these thoughts, mulling upon them, spinning out further ideas and trying to make them work for us.

This is a time when our unconscious mind is in its element.  Thrilled by the freedom we allow it to play and stretch itself, it runs rampant.  We may not even know that it is whirring away so productively while we lay slumped in the armchair, top button of our jeans undone, feeling woozy and hung over with sugar. 

And that’s okay. 

We don’t need to, we just need to be open minded when the ideas pop in to our head and we say to our loved ones, ‘Guess what I’ve decided to do this year...’

And they stare blankly at us, before their face transforms into a look of alarm and then horror.

And this is why I love this time of year, these special days. 

This year, Christmas day was barely over.  The dishwasher was still groaning under the strain of its task, when deep down inside of me I could begin to feel the bubble of excitement building, growing and making it’s way to the surface; at the thought of a new year, a fresh start with new challenges and risks. 

At new possibilities, of new pathways I may or may not take.

I’ve always been like this. I used to feel exactly the same when we drove the three-to-four hour journey home from Wales when I was a teenager, after we’d visited family.  In the backseat of the car my head would be buzzing with ideas and schemes.  Things I must start doing, those things that I could and had to change.

Nowadays it’s any long journey in a car, ferry, train or plane that can create a similar experience for me. 

I’m not sure whether it is the repetitive motion of travel or the changing views through the windows or simply the opportunity of time alone with my thoughts.  What I do know is that whenever I travel I feel inspired to review my life, plan new directions and make important decisions. 

Which is how I feel now as we sit poised waiting for the fresh start of the year 2010.  Just as I have done during this week every other Christmas-New Year week for as far back as I can remember.

It’s not about New Year resolutions or quick fixes.  I’m not a huge fan of those having failed over too many New Year’s in the past.  It’s more about taking a breather and having time to reflect, and then taking the next and crucial step of adapting my lifestyle and my life to meet my goals.  And also, revamping my goals to adapt to the changing me. 

We all can change and develop so much during the course of the twelve months cycle of a year, and if we don’t allow ourselves time for reflection we may not recognize these changes, which for our own personal development it is essential that we do. 

Sometimes we make choices in life that implement changes within our lives and other times life intercedes and events happen, leaving us to forge a new and unexpected pathway for ourselves.  But whichever way change arrives at our doorstep we have to recognize and acknowledge it, and then begin to redefine who we have become and where we are now.

And the New Year, which heralds a fresh start, is a welcome and opportune moment to undertake a personal inventory, before sticking pins in the road map of the coming year to clearly mark our intended journey through the four seasons. 

Undoubtedly, we’ll sail off the route from time to time.  It’s to be expected.  But it doesn’t matter.  As long as we know where we are going we can improvise when we get blown off course. 

By year’s end we may not end up where we expect to be; but we’ll at least arrive somewhere, having had some kind of a journey and with some amazing stories to tell.

A year’s worth of living to reflect upon on.

There is much to acknowledge from last year, much to be grateful for and so very much to be excited about in this New Year that is now hovering on the sidelines waiting to burst upon us and share all it has to offer.  I for one, can't wait to dive in.