Your health can protect you from the over-commercialization of the holidays. More and more, we hear about how the holidays have turned into something different than what they used to be. Instead of the “true” meaning of Christmas and other holidays they have become about consumerization. Buying and selling and big online sales, they had taken over the season.
And the refrain changed from one of Christmas carols to one that says “what happened to the spirit of Christmas?” Wondered aloud while sitting in angry traffic snarls of people busy rushing to give gifts and create wonderful memories at family parties.
But just like the current situation comes from us, the solution is from inside of us as well. So the change has been on the backs of our own nature, that has been simply exposed in a way.
The story of commercialization however is one that comes from ourselves. “It’s advertising and big businesses!” They complain, citing commercial interests as the reason why Christmas has become about buying and selling instead of understanding and appreciating the gifts that we have been given. All of that advertising and those plastic widgets aren’t cheap of course, and wouldn’t persist without the hordes of consumers snapping them up. The hordes which are, of course, made up of us.
The part of our nature that likes things that are new and shiny and exciting, that likes quick fixes over hard earned results, and that wants something cool now as opposed to something truly beautiful and worthwhile later.
Which ironically is never more apparent with our health than with Christmas. The new “commercialized” version, so lamented, which says – buy now, give now, get now, be happy now – deal with the bills and the mess and the stuff and the overflowing closets later, is the idea of instant gratification. And in just the same way, the January gym craze silently acknowledges how we deal with ourselves – and our health. We can simply deal with it later.
And our health, just like an overdone last minute sale on Christmas Eve, gets “commercialized.”
That feeling when we know that we are focusing on our simplistic nature, of what we can get, and get now, as opposed to what we can truly create and enjoy.
I.e., what we can be proud of, like the true charitable giving to those in need?
This year allow your focus to sway towards real giving. Give yourself something that you don’t just enjoy now but is fulfilling in the long term. Align yourself with people and ideas that support you not just in a momentary indulgence now, but in giving yourself a true gift. The most valuable one you can give yourself, a body that you actually want to ‘live’ in. A gift to yourself in the future. And let that be one of the gifts you give to others, share those choices – and this idea with them, it could be the very best gift they get all year.