Spend and Gift with Intention, Mindfulness and Greater Purpose

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">          Anyone else run around like a chicken with their head cut off around the holiday season? These days, Christmas decorations come out before November, we’re setting up our trees two months before the actual day and we feel the pressure to shop until we drop to show people we love them. Two years ago, enough was enough. I felt like I was being forced to celebrate in ways that didn’t even feel good to me.  I was tired of going into the new year broke from gift-giving and I had this strong feeling that this magical season was way more than just what’s under the tree. To stand in alignment with who I am, I went to my mom (scared shitless) and told her I would not be participating in the gift exchange this year. I was scared because I was choosing something different than my family but I did it anyway because it was important to me. I wanted to bring the magic back into Christmas; I wanted to feel the joy I had when I was little jumping up and down on my bed pretending I was Santa or the evening traditions of family Christmas movies and with all the shopping hoopla I had lost it. THIS is what this season was to me and I was determined to find it again! </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">          The holidays have grown into a monstrous societal disaster. I remember when I was younger decorations would come out in December. There would be a few weeks to get excited and prep to host our family and friends. Over the year’s I have watched stores showcase gifts and celebration items sooner and sooner, now arriving sometime in October. This begins to condition us to feel the need to buy more and buy for longer; it’s a sickness and it’s called a lack mentality and this is where the shift begins. It’s the feeling we don’t have enough to be happy and we need more and stores trick us into believing this even deeper. This creates this expectation that we all need to have our decorations up sooner. We all need more to feel happy around this time and shopping is how we will a