By Amy Phillips-Gary
As I hang up my brand-new calendar for 2010 and prepare to welcome in a fresh decade, I can’t help but think about what I want to do differently in the coming year.
Yes, I’m thinking about New Year’s resolutions.
You might be doing the same thing. Many of us greet the new year with hopeful and ambitious lists of undesirable habits we’re finally going to kick and the new, healthier ones we’re going to adopt instead.
By Amy Phillips-Gary
It’s all about the light.
I love December. We live in a world where there is plenty of conflict and outright war due, in large part, to people believing that their religious beliefs are the only valid path.
But, if you really look at these so-called divisions and conflicts, we really aren’t that far apart after all. The many December holidays underscore my point.
I’m not a theological scholar; but, it’s undeniable that, as diverse as the major religions are, there are also symbols, messages and themes that interconnect them all.
By Amy Phillips-Gary
I tend to get really stressed out around the holidays. And I often can’t figure out exactly why.
Yes, I have extra shopping to do, baking, wrapping and traveling added to my already busy schedule. But still, my levels of tightness and tension don’t seem to match even those added activities and responsibilities.
Earlier this week, as I laid in a restorative yoga pose designed to open up my chest, I finally understood.
The ghosts of my Christmases past were rattling chains– and me.
By Amy Phillips-Gary
One of my favorite personal holiday traditions is to take a restorative yoga class.
If you haven’t heard of restorative yoga, let me clarify. This doesn’t feel like much of a class where one must study, concentrate or work hard.
Instead, it is an experience that is truly a treat. It is also one way that I relax, renew and restore my body, mind and soul during the often hectic holiday season.
By Amy Phillips-Gary
The letters from wonderful organizations that benefit communities across the globe, homeless people and animals in my city and the environment stuff my mailbox lately. Invitations to volunteer my time or donate money are abundant.
In addition to this is the list of gifts I’m in the process of purchasing for family members. Trips to various stores and online shopping are part of my already busy day.
There is no doubt about why December is often called the “Season of Giving.”
By Amy Phillips-Gary
Are you uncomfortable or even resistant to receiving?
During this time of year in which gifts are often exchanged, are you most focused in on the giving?
It’s quite likely that you are. When I think about giving and receiving, giving comes out as somehow more important in my mind.
We tend to live in a culture skewed against receiving.
“It’s better to give than to receive.” was probably taught to most of us growing up in our families, churches or schools. The stigma of those enrolled in low-income public assistance programs is still present today– what about those proverbial bootstraps we’re all supposed to pull ourselves up by?
