December's Letter
Let’s talk about pride. We all have it. Some more than others, admittedly. But what does it mean to be prideful? Pride is defined as a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority.
Pride can be beneficial in the sense that it can protect our boundaries, inspire us to want the best for ourselves and to work hard so to achieve our goals. However, pride can also serve as a blockage to our happiness and ability to be kind, empathise and relate to others. When someone has wronged us, or triggered an emotion in us that make us want to respond powerfully or hurtfully, we can become blinded by our pride and misjudge the reality of a lot of situations.
December, regardless of religion, for a lot of people involves celebrating Christmas. A time of giving and spending time with loved ones with a heavy emphasis centred around kindness, generosity, sharing, celebration and coming together. It tends to be a season where people want to close off from the everyday monotony, stress and pressure; to push away any differences or unresolved conflict and forgive so to enjoy this magical period with a sense of harmony, peace, and love. These un-coerced, all-encompassing feelings seemingly present themselves regardless of whether one practices Christianity or not. December evokes this ‘Friday Feeling’ within us as if it were another type of exogenous zeitgeber, triggering these feelings and behaviours. It inspires us to be more patient, kind and gives us this “warm and fuzzy feeling” as we wind down into this turkey-eating, present-opening, snack-grazing form of hibernation. Not only that, but we also become more open to contemplating our own lives, achievements and happiness as we descend through the snowy month and ascend up onto the other side of it, approaching the New Year. December therefore is not only a time of union and harmony, but also an annual trigger point for us all to reflect.
As we transition into the New Year 7lbs heavier, Instagram and Snapchat Stories filled with our best moments; we feel this breeze of fresh motivation blow through our hair and fill up our lungs. We have this brand new vigour to finally get our life in order under the guise of “New Year, New Me” - and just like that all off the warm, fuzzy, homey, feel-good feelings fade out of focus as we reform back to our grind. We gradually loosen the grip we once had on the pursuit of magic, urge to connect, love, share, forgive, be thoughtful and to do good. Careers once again become the front and centre of our world, along with our responsibilities, bills, and pride. Like a see-saw; where pride and our barriers once gave way so that humility and kindness could take centre-stage during the Holidays, pride rises up once again to take the spot light as we resume the fight for our own believed importance, dignity, merit and superiority.
My advice this month is to remember the special time we get to share every December, to take heed of our behaviours and feelings during this period and to hold onto those values and attitudes for every month and make it a way of living, not just for Christmas. Life and our relationships are what’s magical, not the annual crystalline-snow illusion that capitalism re-activates in us.
