One Way to Protect Your Energy this Holiday Season: Make a Conscious Choice

Please enjoy this beautiful and authentic guest post by our friend and frequent RNFM Radio guest, Elizabeth Scala.

As I erase the ‘15’ on my Christmas-countdown chalkboard (yes, I still do this) and replace it with today’s ‘14’, I realize we’re getting closer and closer to (for those who celebrate) the ‘big day’.

For many this can elicit an enormous amount of mixed emotions:

• Freak out panic-mode as you realize you’re ‘not ready yet!’
• Joy and a warm sense of comfort as you know family time is around the corner
• Indifference if you don’t celebrate or don’t really care either way (smile)
• Or furious frustration as you eye the calendar work schedule, thinking to yourself ‘I worked LAST Christmas. How does this keep happening to me!?!’

To be perfectly honest, as I look at the calendar myself I’m burdened with a sense of doom. Only 14 days left and I still haven’t told my mother I’m not planning on coming home this year…

And here’s what this post is actually all about. It isn’t a post on how to deal with the holiday blues. It isn’t even a ‘how-to’ tip list on time-management over the holidays. What I’m setting up here is a discussion of energy and how to let go of any unnecessary drains.

As a means of total transparency (and for those of you who follow my work know, that’s the only way I roll)—I had an ugly Thanksgiving. Well, not most of it. But on the last day at home (and oh boy, I hope no one in my family ever stumbles across this blog), as I sat in my chair enjoying my pancake breakfast, I received an attack from a family member, which (not proud to say) was followed by a nasty and loud rebuttal from moi. We got into an outright screaming match!

Why do I tell you this? Well, this display of human emotions filled with negative psychosis is why I’d rather stay home, by myself, over the next holiday debacle.

And let me stop you right there- this is in NO way shape or form a pity party. I’m actually really, really excited about this!

But if you’ve read along with me this far, here’s the teaching points about energy.

We all have a choice. We can decide to surround ourselves with dread, anxiety, and anger or we can fill ourselves up with love. It all comes down to energy, thought, emotion, and ultimately the actions we create.

Here’s an example: you’re walking down the street in the rain and a bus drives by, splashing your entire body. You’re soaked. What can you do? Stomp in fury and disgust OR shake it off and move on.

We pick up, soak in, and digest the energy around us—whether we like it or not. Energy is within us, around us, and can be soaked up like water clings to a sponge. It’s impossible to avoid. If that energy is negative in any way at all- we put ourselves in harm’s way.

So what’s really awesome and empowering is that it’s up to you!

You can get upset and feel angry about what another person said or did. Or you can let it go. Shake it off, wring yourself out to dry, and move on.

As the holiday season is upon us, which for most of us means time with mixed-emotions of family fun, how can you protect yourself and your energetic boundaries? In what ways will you make a conscious and empowering choice? Share a comment below of what you plan to do to keep your emotions in check.

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Spiritual Practice Nurse Elizabeth Scala is on a mission to transform the profession of nursing from the inside out. Individuals typically enter nursing with a desire to provide compassionate, heart-based care. Challenged by regulations, financial pressures and technological advancements, today’s nurse struggles to balance the art with the science of nursing. As a speaker, trainer, facilitator and author, Elizabeth inspires nursing teams to reconnect with the passionate and fulfilling joy that once called them to their career. 

http://elizabethscala.com/; Back to the Basics: A Nurse’s Pocket Guide to Self-Care More