Whether we celebrate Christmas or not, festive occasions like Christmas do tend to bring up lots of our STUFF (to use the technical term!). I know for me this is often the case.

In the past I used to run from these yucky feelings or worse still try to subdue and ignore them, but now I welcome them with open arms. I use this time of year as a time for great personal growth and actually have fun with it. The key to it all is knowing that all of what you are experiencing; emotions both bad and good are all a reflection of what’s going on inside of you and how you are perceiving the world.  

So this year instead of subduing those yucky feelings why not welcome them and ask them what they are trying to tell you? Maybe it is time to finally let go of something you have been hanging on to for years, or perhaps it’s time to start loving yourself and stop always putting others needs before yours. Whatever the emotion and its message make sure to get excited as it is a gift which is going to help you grow and become a better person.

I wanted to share with you a great 8 step process which really helps me to dissolve those negative emotions as they surface. Why not try it out and see how it works for you? And make sure to have FUN in the process!!

1) First of all welcome the emotion and accept it.

2) Take 100% responsibility for how you are feeling. Stop blaming everyone and everything outside of you; remember you have a choice as to how you react to and feel about any situation.

3) Start to get excited as you are about to learn something which will really help you grow and become a better person.

4) Ask yourself what am I thinking about? Remember in order to feel a negative emotion you must be making pictures in your mind or thinking about things you don’t want, or how you don’t want things to be.

5) Now ask yourself what are the positive learning’s that I need to get from this that I have not yet learnt? Be gentle with yourself here and don’t analyze it too much. Sometimes when we ask our unconscious mind a question it takes a wee while for it to come back with the answer (have you ever forgotten someone’s name and about 3 hours later the answer just pops back into your head). If nothing comes up for you straight away don’t worry you can be guaranteed that within the next 24hours you will have an answer. The key here is to get the positive learning for yourself. Once you have learnt from a situation you can let go of it.

6) Thank the Universe for sending you this message which has helped you grow as a person.

7) Now comes the fun part. Remember earlier you were focusing on what you didn’t want well now’s your chance to focus on what you do want. Ask yourself what is it that you would like to create in your life? Have some fun with this, create nice pictures in your mind, make them vibrant and alive, adding lots of movement and great sounds to them. Now that you have some clarity as to what you would love to create make sure to write it down as a goal for yourself and put a date on it.

8)The eighth and final step you may find difficult but it is essential. You must detach from the outcome. Just let go and allow things to happen. You may be saying why on earth would I do that? Well attachment to an outcome can often cause suffering (I will explain more about this next month). For now just let go and allow the Universe to work its magic.

Have a wonderful month and wishing you a New Year that brings you an abundance of inner peace, love, joy and happiness.