Clarity is Queen!

by  Cindia Carrere

Looking back over our shoulders at the crazy covid holidays of 2020, some people spent them alone, some were cooped up with relatives, roommates, or friends in their bubbles, and others were longing for family they couldn’t get to. Traditions were modified or thrown out altogether. Reports emerged of a much more casual approach.

What will it be like this year? Will family and friends make extra effort to attend gatherings that they begged off in the past, will people amp it up this year celebrating and making up for lost time, or is a new age of Christmas caszh here to stay?

Whether you avoid the holidays, love them with a decorating passion, or somewhere in between, the holiday season evokes a wide range of feelings, including nostalgia, hope, excitement, as well as stress, disappointment, and depression.

Yeah, it’s complicated — memories, good or bad, from childhood, financial pressures, challenging relationships, work stress, juggling the good china with your meat-n-potato peeps on one side of your dining table, and your gluten-free, ovo-lacto vegetarians, flexitarians, and pescatarians on the other.

Let’s simplify it. The villain in this holiday story is EXPECTATION; the belief that someone should do something. You probably feel the cold, judgy fingers of expectation when all eyes are on you, or perhaps you’ve gotten your hopes up and someone else — or many someone elses — have dashed them.

Hearts are bruised and broken over expectations. Elizabeth George has this to say about them, “Expectations destroy our peace of mind, don’t they? They are future disappointments planned out in advance.”    

Another word for expectation is assume. If all the world’s a stage, then most communication pratfalls are caused by characters assuming, expecting, or misunderstanding.  

The heroine in this story then, is CLARITY. Yas, Clarity is Queen!

• Is understanding what you want
• Brings simplicity and precision to your goals
  
• Eliminates confusion and clears up misaligned energy
• Gets you to your destination through creating a clear and written plan
• Builds momentum for manifesting

And just so you know, Boo, unless you have a psychic on the payroll, most people can’t read your mind. There’s power in using your words, both written and spoken, to clarify and call in what you’d like.

“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon . . . must inevitably come to pass.” #NationalGoalWritingDay

Guess what? Coming up on December 27th is National Goal Writing Day. We’re celebrating people who are goal getters, who choose results instead of excuses, and hold themselves accountable to their vision.

‘Tis the season for giving AND receiving. Whoever said, “Thinking about yourself all the time is enough to depress anybody,” was spot on. On the other hand, if you have a desire but you don’t prepare to receive it, what happens? Probably nothing. That’s because women have been taught to give and give and give, but not receive. It’s like a badge of honor or a form of pride. Pride that comes with strings and resentment.

Giving and receiving are two halves of a whole. Please, seriously, pleeeeaaaase, avoid hogging just one of them. Be a generous giver AND a generous receiver. Life gets a whole lot better when you’re a part of the prosperity and abundance cycle.

The energy, expectations, and emotions you live in during the holidays can be shifted by doing something positive for others, and for yourself. Here are a few ideas to spark your imagination for others:

• Buy a beverage for the next person in line at the café
• Surprise a stranger by picking up the tab for somebody at a restaurant
• Have pizzas or meals delivered to your local police or fire department, health care workers, cleaning crew, or whoever is working hard and could use a delicious, nutritious break
• Leave a big tip somewhere
• Create inspiring notes and hide them for people to find, like in a library book, in a magazine at the store, in between products on a shelf, at a bus stop …
• Hand write a letter or card to someone
• Acknowledge people’s kindness and effort wherever you go, from the janitor cleaning up, to the store clerk, to the airline representative …
• Call someone who’s lonely or isolated and give them your attention
• Bless everyone and everything
• Offer up a prayer and an encouraging word to someone who could use it
• Express what you like about someone
• Check in on an elderly neighbor. Chop or stack wood for them, shovel snow, rake leaves, haul their garbage can on collection day, or pay to have their house cleaned if you’re able to
• Volunteer for someone under the weather to walk their dog, run an errand, babysit, or take them to an appointment
• Sing or read to someone
• Write someone a poem, a story, or draw them a picture
• Blow someone’s mind by apologizing, telling them “Thank You,” or saying, “I love you”

Now it’s your turn! Allow yourself to receive with grace. Taking a few moments to write out your answers to the following questions will help bring what’s hiding in the shadows of expectation out into the light.

Expectations for the Holidays: What I want for Christmas is —

Helping others: Here’s what I’m going to do to help others this season —

Creating a Self-Care Plan: Here's what I'm going to do to take care of myself this holiday season —

If you’d like to have more clarity about what you’re manifesting, or creating in your life, join the Living Vision Board’s Mini Vision Quest: A 5-day journey to connect with your heart’s desires, clarify your vision, and craft your next steps.