The holiday season is upon us. While not everyone celebrates Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, all of us are bombarded with the sights and sounds and shopping frenzy this time of year in addition to holiday parties with friends and coworkers.
Today, I would like to invite you into a practice around how you show up – regardless of your religious tradition:
Not presents, though there may be many – but presence – the qualities you bring to your relationships. Who are you? Do you show up as generosity, love, compassion, warmth? Perhaps you bring laughter and levity when stress is high. Maybe you are light when those around you are stuck, afraid or in pain.
Take a moment now and imagine seeing yourself as others see you.
- What energy do you bring?
- What qualities define how you show up?
- What is the impact on those around you?
Pause now. Let’s look from another perspective. Where do you see yourself as something other than your ideal? How might you shift in order to bring more of what you value, what you desire for others, into your life expression?
Throughout the month of December, consider a practice of opening your presence. Make a commitment to honor who and how you want to BE. Then, practice opening your powerful and positive PRESENCE, the BEING-NESS that you want for this world. Open first to yourself – feel it in your heart, your bones, your energy. Then open to those around you.
What aspect of presence are you ready to expand into?
What gift of presence will you give this holiday season?