Black Friday.
40% off!
Today only!
We’ve never had a bundle like this!
For those of you not in the States, you might not know that the day after our Thanksgiving holiday is known as Black Friday and the biggest shopping day of the year… then we give it a rest for the weekend and “Cyber Monday” is hot on Friday’s heels.
The mass consensus goes like this: stuff yourself Thursday. Shop till you drop Friday. Because of course, now Christmas is only a month away, and gotta get the goodies in!
If you follow me on social media, you know that last Friday I sequestered myself in my apartment for the weekend and KonMari’d my apartment. Kondo wrote the bestselling book, “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying up” and let me tell you, the book is true to its title.
Although not labeled as such, it truly was a spiritual book as she asks to to bring consciousness to each object in your home, and by witnessing its presence, deciding if it “sparks joy” in your life. You are left in a home surrounded by only the things you love.
Although the date chosen to undertake the project was not intentional at the time as an “anti-black-friday” event, that’s exactly what it became. I can’t tell you the liberation experienced knowing that I was shedding, bringing light and minimizing rather than consuming that day.
There are tides, seasons, swells of energy, astrological happenings and more that cultivate the ebbs and flows of our social experience in this world. It’s perfectly natural, encouraged and organic to rise, celebrate and participate in these flows.
December is a holiday month, not just for Christmas and Hanukkah, but around the world people celebrate Kwanza, Ramadan, Boxing Day, Saturnalia, Three Kings Day and obvi: New Year’s.
Even if we don’t celebrate any “holidays” everyone is in the spirit with festive parties, time off and gifts galore.
Yet it’s easy to lose the spirit of the season and get lost in overwhelm of planning, primping, presenting.
And even easier to drown in the “shoulds” of what media projects our life should look like.
However, we as conscious human beings, curious about our spiritual evolution have a responsibility to ourselves, our children and each other to be aware of what’s true spirit and what’s commercialism.
Hey, if you’ve been waiting to buy a new flatscreen TV and wanted to take advantage of the holiday sales, all the power to you: that’s some wise shopping.
But do we need to wake up at 5am and wait around a cold corner for the option on some discounted stuff? Did I need to get 25 emails that day about discounted bundles from unlikely suspects all the way from my akashic records reader to Oprah?
Let’s be mindful to rebalance so there’s still some juju in our jingle bells.
A couple alternative conscious options I’ve used in holiday seasons’ past:
- Donate to charity. For many years, in lieu of gifts, I made one large donation to an organization of my choice and then sent cards or emails about it to people. I love chia pets as much as the next person, but this gesture felt more valuable. Yeah, your 5 year old might not like this instead of a tangible something to rip open, but your team at work or your mom might just love it if/when accompanied by a heartfelt written note.
Heifer has a great mission to end hunger and poverty, where you can provide animals for family’s food (there’s a Honeybees option, how neat is that?) and a new “empowering women” tab where you can choose to send a girl to school or even a woman to a self help group. Right ON:
http://www.heifer.org/gift-catalog/empowerment/index.html
- Bless it. We don’t need to go to a big church service to tap into the spirit. Even people who aren’t spiritually minded are usually game for a moment honoring peace or silence during the season. At a holiday, up your table’s vibe by offering a prayer of gratitude and grace. An easy way to get out of ego mind is to give thanks for the togetherness present. So many senseless shootings and global violence lately— even just a few moments reminds us we are lucky to be be alive and that peace begins within.
- In the US, there is the “Be an Elf” program. It is not a charity, it is micro-philanthropy. Letters written from needy children are pulled at the post offices and you answer a child’s desires absolutely directly by sending them a gift. I first learned of this program more than a decade ago when in San Francisco doing a play— rather than Secret Santa for our entire cast, we got a bunch of letters and sent off dozens of gifts. The direct line makes it feel extra special.
http://beanelf.org
- I am light. When overwhelm hits, take a moment to B R E A T H E. A simple reminder to your heart such as “I am light. Holiday spirit, fill me baby,” can work wonders, even in the midst of a crowded department store.
Let’s choose our traditions and the way we honor ourselves and those around us. We can consciously create this time to truly be a season of LIGHT.
Sending you jingled juju,
all love,
