This advice was not so good

The other day, my daughter, Zoe, told me that she had seen a post on Instagram that she wanted to share with me. 

She said, “The lady who wrote the post said that people who are celebrating the holidays this year should be ashamed of themselves. With so much going on in the world, especially the wars, celebrating is a terrible thing to do.”

Of course, I immediately wanted to vehemently tell Zoe why that post was so wrong but I stopped myself short to get curious about her thoughts first.

“What do you think about that?” I asked (with tremendous restraint - *giving myself a little pat on the back right now).

Zoe said, “I don’t think that’s true. There’s always something to celebrate. That’s how people get through challenging times.”

“Exactly!” I cried enthusiastically (with a little inner cheer that Zoe already knew what I was going to tell her). 

“During the First and Second World Wars, people danced as often as they could. They went to hear live music when they were on leave. People still fell in love, got married, had babies and celebrated even the tiniest occasions. Celebrating is so important!”

We both agreed that we could see where the woman was coming from. Being in any kind of conflict doesn’t necessarily lead one to say, “This is so hard and terrifying - hooray! Let’s celebrate!”

However, it showed that she wasn’t yet aware of a few very important truths. 

1- Celebration is how the Universe vibrates

The Universe vibrates at the frequency of celebration. The more we can experience joy, delight, happiness and other such feelings, the more aligned we become with how things work. In fact, we do a great service to the world by celebrating because we rise out of the lower frequency vibrations and help to pour more light into the conflicts and challenges.

2- Choose to be a part of the energetic solution

If you meet a conflict or crisis with the same energy that it’s emanating (such as anger), you’re actually contributing to the challenge and perpetuating the issue. If you want to be part of the solution, by all means, honour how you’re really feeling, love that part of you, breathe into it and then choose the experience that you want. 

I recently heard the great Jean Houston say that if you’re going to tune into the news at all, only do so when you’re ready to be compassionate to everyone involved. That way, you’re choosing to pour light in and be part of the solution.

3- For the most impact, go within

While getting my Body Awake Yoga® Certification a couple of years ago, I learned about the ancient practice of Pradiyahara, which means withdrawing of the senses. 

The way that you’ll make the biggest contribution to the world is by going within - especially when the outer world is mesmerizing. At our core, we are pure light and love. When you can connect with that core through practices like Central Channel Breathing, meditation, chanting mantras, yoga and the like, you effortlessly radiate peaceful, calm, grounded, loving energy. 

You don’t even have to leave the house to make a major positive energetic impact. 

So, is it really okay to be happy?

I’ve coached a lot of people who say they feel guilty being happy when so many are suffering. Hopefully, now you can see that it’s actually in everyone’s favour to be as happy as possible.

What can you celebrate right now? 

Every day, throughout the day, I’m constantly looking for things to celebrate and moments of victory. Yesterday, I felt very victorious when I did a deep cleaning of the bathroom. Today I celebrated that I went for a walk, even though I didn’t feel like it. In a few minutes, I’ll be congratulating myself for finishing up this piece of writing. 

The more we can celebrate, the greater the contribution we are making to humanity. Isn’t that great news? It’s almost like it was planned that way…

May you find a multitude of things to celebrate this week. 

As your friend and mine (Winnie T. Pooh) says: Who can stop us from celebrating?

And if you’re looking for some guided celebrations to wrap up the year, we’ve got the Year End Retrospective and the Conscious New Year's Celebration coming up at the end of this month. Click either link for details. 

If you want to take that celebration to the next level, you can get the special deal and attend both classes for just $67 instead of $47 each. Email [email protected] to request the super secret coupon code. 

With scintillating love and luminous courage,

Christina

>Creator of Courageous Self-Care

>Looking forward to seeing my kids perform their martial arts demo for the holiday party this weekend. They’ve been working so hard to pull it all together. 

>Super excited to go see the play The Christmas Truce next weekend. It’s based on a true story of a brief ceasefire in 1914 when both sides on the front lines came together to sing, connect and celebrate. 

First, I'm recommending our two Courageous Self-Care events where we will close out the year by celebrating your growth and pausing to look back before we charge forth into 2024. Click the links for more info. 

Year End Retrospective

Conscious New Years Celebration

And while you’re here, I also recommend Tom Hanks’ newest novel. I just finished it this week and LOVED it! It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read. It was funny, charming, captivating and a wonderful peek behind the curtains of the film industry. The Making Of Another Major - Motion Picture Masterpiece - check it out.

Here’s a song I often use when I teach my live yoga clases. It’s an excellent piece for meditating or any other Pradiyahara activity. It’s also great for calming, soothing background music. 

I love all music by Meditative Mind. There are so many options and they are all fantastic. This one’s called The Butterfly Effect. I hope it amplifies your inner peace. 

Listen to the Butterfly Effect on iTunes

Listen to the Butterfly Effect on Spotify