…and social media makes it easier. You go through peoples posts and feel what you feel and that is a mirror. Do you feel lonely, jealous, sad, hurt, pain, joy… It all represents your inner state to a large extent. How is your life going? How are you feeling about yourself?

The 50 shades of emotions that you go through say a lot about your state of being. It has nothing to do with others. It has nothing to do with who is happy and who is not, who is faking it and who is breaking apart, who is getting engaged and who is getting divorced. Christmas only enhances and magnifies what already exists in your life. If you are happy Christmas probably makes you realise more of how happy and grateful you are. If there’s holes and gaps in your life that you feel need to be filled, this time magnifies it so you can clearly see and understand what you believe. Yes there is the whole Christmas spirit and it makes you happy and it can hide the truth of what you feel deep inside, but only for so long.

Festivals are great. Don’t get me wrong. They bring families together, there is a lot of joy that people share and lots of wonderful memories are built. However, festivals and solar changes don’t change who we are. We still go back to bed with our thoughts and beliefs and feelings and emotions. This is a time of deep contemplation. A time where life is in our face questioning us about what really matters, what is it that we really want.

A friend who has been in social services for years told me that both, number of divorces and number of job changes peak every year post Christmas and post summer holidays. People have enough time to take a back seat and view their lives to see it clearly for what it is. And this is amazing. I think holidays are great. If they can bring our life back in perspective, help us change our tracks to make us happier and guide us towards a better future, why not? I, for one, know for sure that the most important things in my life will never come in a box.

I say we celebrate Christmas often and keep our needle pointed due north all the time to guide us and keep us real.