Taking Back the Holidays: Reach Out Now

By meQuilibrium

You want this year to be different. And it can be! You’re invited to join us in this year’s challenge to give yourself a more centered season. Every week, we bring a new challenge to help you boost your resilience, calm your thoughts, and inspire your efforts to be the best you during the busiest time of year.

This week: Three ways for you to reconnect with the people you always mean to.

“If you can’t say it at Christmas, when can you?”

This line is both loved and reviled by anyone who’s seen the 2003 movie Love, Actually. It’s a theme of the movie, as a sweet, smitten receptionist says it to her boss (the Prime Minister of England), and a young man tells a married woman about his hopeless crush on her, and a British man and Portuguese woman manage to say ”I love you” to each other on Christmas Eve. On the one hand, thinking that Christmas somehow means that you must share your feelings is way too much pressure. On the other hand, why not take advantage of the season to reconnect with people?

Fact is, the holidays are as good an occasion as any to reach out to that person you have meant to reconnect with for months, maybe even years. When you celebrate genuine connection, you make your holidays (and your life) more meaningful and resilient.

Here are three tips to help you reach out now.

Make someone feel special. One of our favorite quotes comes from the late, great Maya Angelou: “Be the rainbow in someone else’s cloud.” And you don’t have to donate buckets of money or make a grand gesture. Send a card, or buy flowers. Give an unexpected compliment. Share a hug, if appropriate. (Read this inspiring story from Paula Rizzo, author of Listful Thinking, on the action she took to make sure the people in her life felt loved.)

Mend an old hurt. No matter who hurt whom, this is your chance to rebuild the relationship. And it can be as simple as saying, “I’m sorry. I’ve missed you. Let’s go for a walk.” A phone call can work, or a card. However you choose to reach out, you’re doing two things at once: making it possible to connect again, and freeing yourself from an emotional drain on your energy.

Reconnect with yourself. When was the last time you did something that made you simply and completely happy? Or that made you feel like you? If it’s been a while, what would you do? This week, put it on the calendar. Reconnecting with what gives you, and you alone, joy will boost your energy for all the rest of the holidays.

Want to feel happier? Enroll in meQuilibrium Select!