Is everyone ready for the Holidays to be over?!? Is the running around to get gifts, making sure that everything is being gotten for the Big Dinner, doing the Party thing, just everything that comes with the Holidays making people crazy?!?
Let me take one thing that, I think, really puts a lot of Negative stress on people and that is the gift giving area! Who is important in your life should be who is listed on your gift giving list, but it seems that who you want to give gifts to and who you think you must give gifts to doesn’t jive. Ourselves may be the biggest effect on the gift giving thing. We feel caring and effective and it reinforces our feelings of doing good. A lot of the pleasure is in the giving because we feel that we are taking care of someone. Gift giving is the way a partner can show Positive interest and by doing so strengthens the bond of the relationship. It is funny how men are more price-conscious and more practical (like giving the partner a new vacuum cleaner or washing machine!!) which isn’t the wrong thing at all! Because the partner has expressed wanting the item, but not for a birthday or Christmas!! Those should come just as a surprise gift! Women put more significance in the emotional aspect of receiving and giving gifts. Gift giving strengthens bonds between friends and family, but again, it seems that nowadays, it is what someone gets and if they don’t get it there is harbored resentment.
Gift giving should always be from the Heart ----- we need to get back to why we give gifts in the first place ---- because we want to be able to show our Positive appreciation and caring that people are in our lives and that we are grateful for that. Make these Holidays a Positive experience for all. Show the younger ones that it is not how much something cost or even what it is, but that someone wants to show you that you are an important being in their life.
Happy Holidays!!!
