Breaking the mould

The 10 foods to avoid this Christmas, Top tips to avoid massive weight gain this Christmas make for common reading this time of year. So I am sorry to disappoint but I am going to change tack a little and come at Christmas from a completely different angle. I want to play around with the concept of taking the emotions out of Christmas. Stay with me, I’ll explain.

I don't mean to sound heartless and cold but I feel a lot of over indulging and excessive behavior occurring over Christmas and the festive season may be due to the huge emotional highs caused by the sense of freedom this time of year brings. This sense of freedom leads to huge doses of happiness, no thoughts for tomorrow and the desire to keep that big high on overdrive is fueled by excessive behaviors such as alcohol, food, sugar and even drugs which all effect the states of our brain and hormones in some capacity. Any time your happy hormone is sparked into action the brain gets a little high. So mix the freedom of the festive season with the little highs received from rich, delicious yet naughty foods, alcohol and whatever else is going you can start to see where the excessive behavior fueled by our emotions can start to take hold. What's my solution?

Don’t get too happy!!! Get grateful. Instead of chasing the highest of highs why not look for all the reasons to be grateful for what we have this Christmas. If that means comparing your life to others so be it. But I am thinking being grateful for the quality of life you have, the people around you and the love and admiration they have for you and you for them, your health, your financial status, the opportunities you are regularly presented with in this lucky country and the luxury we are afforded to be able to stop, relax and enjoy this time of year without the constant threat of disease, war, crime or wondering where your next meal is coming from.

Stay in Balance!!! Life has an uncanny way of bringing you back into balance. You only have to look at nature and how balance always seems to occur eventually. Bush fires bring new growth; the extinction of a species brings life to another and the list goes on. Same with us this time of year, excessive behavior will be matched with a balancing action such as a hangover, energy loss due to the body trying to cope with too much food and what is commonly reported is festive season or holiday blues caused by the high associated with freedom and time off routine then good old life bringing you back into balance and into a routine. See you can't go too far past neutral or the balance point (equilibrium) without getting drawn back, it's nature’s way. So don't go too far either way is my advice.

So in summary what I think, for what it's worth, is you would be well served this Christmas and New Year period to get excessively grateful and enjoy the period for what it is and not for the emotional roller coaster that it often is and can be. Sorry to be boring but I have a sneaky feeling your memories and recollections of this Christmas will be held in higher regard than all of the others if you treat it this way.