Minimal Christmas
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Cosy fairy lights on the trees and windows create the sensation of warmth and comfort. Festive window fronts appeal to our need for happiness, while magical Christmas markets invite us to celebrate together. And spend together.
Families and friends come together to spend time over drinks and food while bearing lavishly decorated packages brimming with surprises and excitement.
During these festive December days, everyone seems to want, more than ever, to let go and join the endless exhibition of ostensibly genuine happiness and generosity.
There is nothing wrong with feeling happy, content, generous and excited during these days, as long as one doesn’t force oneself to feel these big emotions with the intention of fitting in. To belong by joining the big party while neglecting their own needs, desires and feelings around these days.
The tremendous commercialisation of Christmas and the vast consumerism accompanying this celebration has led more and more people -including myself- to feel an immense pressure to follow certain “rituals”. Such as the ritual of inconsiderate gift shopping or celebrating.
Christmas has sadly turned into a celebration of money and energy spending. More more more. More quantity, more glam, more stuff. Less quality of interpersonal relationships and gift-giving. Less time to reflect, relax, and enjoy the moment and the special people in our lives.
Minimal Christmas
Minimal Christmas is a celebration of togetherness with the people whose company you truly relish. It is a period of fulfilment stemming from the quality time you spend with yourself and the people you love.
Minimal Christmas is when you reflect on your achievements and wrongs while focusing on the purpose and intentionality of your actions and behaviours.
Minimal Christmas is the days you take off to be with yourself to concentrate on the needs of your body, soul and spirit. It is also the time you put into transforming your home into a place you want to return to every day.
Minimal Christmas is the time you assign to decluttering your space, your office, your life. What brings you joy? What serves a purpose in your life? What do you really need to feel happy, fulfilled, and tranquil?
Minimal Christmas means directing our focus on the important, essential, and purposeful things in life while taming the impulses triggered by the high consumerism of these days.
I love the Christmas period, for it challenges me to look deep into my mind and soul to explore and comprehend what aligns with my values and beliefs. To face my impulse of desperately “needing” to purchase something or feel somehow by exploring intentionality and conforming to my personal boundaries.
