Happy Holidays! It’s Dr. Ericka here. I am a Harvard trained, double board-certified psychiatrist and integrative lifestyle coach. I’m irrationally passionate about helping people like you be better, so you can do better and live better. I know this holiday season is not what you anticipated. You probably envisioned holiday parties, family gatherings, vacations, and holiday cheer. Who knew we would be missing ugly Christmas sweater parties? Like with everything else this year, it’s all gone sideways. However, there is a way to still improve the holidays, despite the craziness we all have gone through this year.
What is one of those ways, you ask? Acceptance is a superpower that can make your holiday season better. Some people think acceptance is passive and simply giving up, but that is a myth. Acceptance is active, and it can be very intentional. So, let’s talk about how to harness that intention and put it into action.
- Accept What You Cannot Change
As much as we hate to admit it, we can’t change what has already happened, and we cannot undo what is out of our control. We can’t make the pandemic disappear; even though, it would be great to be able to snap our fingers like Thanos and change reality. No one can make the financial struggles magically better or change that we all should be physical distancing. Consequently, we’re not doing all of the get-togethers and gatherings we typically do at this time of year. Nobody can make any of that change. So, acceptance releases you from stressing out about the fact that you can’t change things.
- Accept When Things Don’t Turn Out How You Want
It is natural to be frustrated, sad, or disappointed when things don’t go as planned, but accepting things as they are allows you to release those feelings. This is huge. You have to focus on what you can control. The more frustration, anger, disappointment you hold on to, the higher probability is that you will be more anxious, more irritable, or more depressed, and nobody wants any of that. All of these emotions are definitely not making you feel better.
- Release Your Expectations
Acceptance helps you release expectations because these expectations can lead to disappointment. If my expectation was that my family is going to do a lot of our usual traditions and gatherings, what’s going to happen? None of that is happening because we are in what feels like a never-ending pandemic. Releasing those expectations rids us of all that disappointment, sadness, and frustration that comes with it because we’re no longer expecting it to be as it was in years past.
- Acceptance Turns Potential Failure into Opportunity
If you continue to have expectations or desires for things that can’t happen, then you may feel you failed. Failure never feels good. So why set yourself up for it? When you accept what has happened and what is done is done, then you are open to new options. When we don’t accept what is, we’re blocked to seeing new options. Acceptance helps you release mental and emotional weight, which then allows you to be in a place to uncover new experiences.
- You Learn New Things
When we open ourselves up to all these opportunities, we can have new experiences, make new choices, and make new memories. At the end of the day, the goal is to make meaningful memories and to be able to harness positive emotions.
I realize some of you have experienced some profound losses. I’m not saying don’t feel the loss, or to accept it and be jumping up and down happy. I’m giving you tools to help you move forward, when you are ready. I want you to be able to have something positive come out of every day. The holidays are about love and relationships, and you can still have that even amongst the chaos and craziness of this past year.
Hold onto love and embrace that we all have the superpower of acceptance! Start today! For more practical tips and inspiration of how you can be better, do better, and live better, please join my online group, Butterflies with Dr. Ericka, at www.ButterfliesGroup.co. Have a phenomenal day that is filled with an abundance of blessings!
