I’m imagining you may be thinking, where’s she going with this one?
Nurture my what?”

The holiday season is here for so many of us. It can be wonderful, heart
warming, stressful, busy and very triggering for our “inner addicts”. Self
discipline often goes out the window. Old feelings can come up that beg
to be avoided and numbed out.

Maybe you’ll be gathering with family, relatives, in-laws, old friends. Or,
maybe you have nobody to gather with and are feeling left out and alone.

Whatever your circumstance, the time is ripe for old patterns,
behaviors, habits and addictions to come to the surface. Often,
before we know what happened, the familiar “co-dependent family
trance” has settled right in. Words come out of our mouths, by surprise,
that we haven’t spoken in years!

It’s so easy to indulge and fall into addictive behaviors over the holidays;
be it obsessive thinking, eating, drinking, spending etc.. We then indulge
in feeling bad and critical of ourselves. There’s another more loving,
empowering way!

The one who’s triggered is probably a very young, vulnerable part
of ourselves. What I referred to earlier as the “inner addict” is often
the tender, vulnerable “inner child (or children)”. I know that’s true
for me.

This holiday season my intention is to stay very present with this
knowing, call in the spirit deer when I find myself wanting to over
indulge or regress into familiar addictive behaviors, and choose to
be gentle and kind with myself.

Instead of being critical of myself for wanting that extra piece of pie,
holiday cookie, or whatever; I plan to first pause, be present to, feel
and be gentle with my “inner child”. I’m imagining this will make
a wonderful difference in the quality of this holiday season for me.
I invite you to join me! 

Have a light filled, loving Thanksgiving!