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Welcome
to the "Riding the Wave - The Wave Riders™ "
Newsletter. http://www.thewaveriders.com
One
Moment in Time - a gift this Christmas!
by Indigo Irwin Kennedy
Are you ready? Soon you will
be Christmas shopping and massive numbers along with you,
will head to the malls. We think that our sole purpose is
to shop and we are often unaware of our desire "to impress".
Along with our shopping lists we take with us the pressure
to get - exactly "the right present". We like our
gifts to be "the best" that "they" will
receive. We shop to find that "wow" factor in our
gifts. Marketing departments know what drives us and they
play heavily on that information. Hallmark Cards knows just
the right "buttons" to push on us to get us in the
mood to spend more. Background music set to get us "in
the mood for shopping". We check our list- not once but
twice - don't really care who was naughty or nice.
We can become programmed to
believe that our friendship is measured in the price of the
gift we give and that the love for our family can be demonstrated
by how many gifts are piled under the tree. We try desperately
to create that "Hallmark" memory of Christmas for
our children, while shouting in their faces not to touch the
expensive ornaments we hang on the tree.
On my Christmas list each year,
I include ME as one of the people that "need' trinkets
and sparkles and each year I find just the right gift to give
to ME and I excitedly place it under the tree. I look forward
to heading out on my task to find something special for me.
It might be a great "TLC pack" that makes me smell
divine and feel nummy - this gift is not meant to be a need...it
is meant to be a bonus item! I have had this tradition for
years and really have fun with it. I don't wait to receive
"the right gift" I actively play a game and seek
it out. No, this doesn't mean expensive...it means "right"
for me.
What I treasure the most - is
the one special present that I put under my tree each year.
It is a gift that I have learned to cherish almost more than
any other single gift a person can receive. I will wrap a
box and garnish it with ribbons and bows and on Christmas
morning I will graciously accept my gift and wrap its' warmth
around me.
The gift that I give to myself,
each year, in a nicely wrapped package - is the gift of "a
moment-in-time". Written on a beautiful Christmas card
is a note to myself...."take this moment to be grateful".
I will open that moment-in-time
and explore it's depths. I will stop and breathe and be thankful
for "this moment" knowing that I am at peace. I
stop for this "moment" and give value to the only
things that really bring joy to me - my gratitude and my faith.
I will stop thinking of my need and my want and my having
to adorn my world with the latest gadgets and gismos and I
will simple "be" - at peace.
While I was writing this newsletter
I thought of the many people that have, and will, habitually
every year, load up the credit card with items that came on
sale just in time to save $5.00 - while paying a whopping
18% in interest. That makes that $50.00 gift, with accumulated
interest over many years worth maybe more than $100.00. Still
we beam brightly, justifying the expense with the fact that
the sale was limited for only a few days and we managed to
"scoop it up".
Wave Riders are prone to overwork and can become sensitive
to "pressure". If we habitually overspend every
Christmas we may spend the rest of the year pushing ourselves
too hard to make up for it. We know that this overwork and
pressure to pay bills sends us into depression and anger -
yet each year we do it again!
It is not just Wave Riders that
overspend at Christmas, but as Wave riders we need to be aware
that this push to spend more at Christmas can make us pay
for overspending by ruining our finances, relationships, and
our health. It will be hard to remember next September why
you are so upset over paying bills for things you purchased
almost a year ago. You might snap at your kids, yell at your
spouse and feel that life is not worth living. Exhaustion
breeds depression and if you have to work harder to pay for
these gifts - they just may not be worth the REAL PRICE! Shiny
gifts will only look like large numerical digits on a credit
card bill when Christmas is over.
Look at the checklist for people
who "ride the waves" ...
"Prone to Addictive
Behavior": Overspending, Overeating, Overplaying, Gambling,
Drugs, Alcohol....
An untrained Wave Rider may use whatever it takes to keep
on top of the "adrenaline high" and shopping can
feed that need!
When we overspend it sets off
a chain reaction. Soon after Christmas we feel the pressure
of the bills and we might take on more or we might just give
up and give into depression.
It is an extreme price to pay
for Christmas!
Not one of your loved ones or
your friends want you to give your "life essence"
to them for Christmas. Not one of these people want to see
you burn out just to put something under the tree.
We forget that our loved ones
really only want and need - US and they need US - FULLY ALIVE!
Let them whine and fuss that they did not get what everyone
else received...at least they will have you!
Our loved ones want to see us
happy and involved in their lives...not pressured, angry and
hiding from social opportunities. We so often fall into the
trap of buying extravagant gifts thinking that will make us
good parents or good friends. Then our family and friends
LOSE US to the pressure of the bills. We snap at a simple
question or jump when the phone rings and lean our head to
our hands and cry on bill paying day.
Maybe we can learn to be happy giving what we can afford to
give at Christmas.
We might even be caught up in
the moment of Christmas and trigger a "self-injection"
of adrenaline that sends us on a high, rescuing the poor and
filling our wardrobes with fancy clothes that might hang in
our closets for years with the tags still on.
Yes, I think it is great that we all help each other and I
am all for nice things, but a Wave Rider can be prone to going
TOO FAR and forgetting about their own current financial obligations.
We may overspend on clothes for Christmas parties and all
sorts of things that we think will bring us greater joy in
the New Year. We love to give and sometimes we forget to live
within our budget...because "that is just not fun".
Our spouces are fully aware
of the debts that we incur, and that "pain of debt"
can take the value from any gift.
Nice things don't mean happiness.
Even weathly people without debt can fall prey to the hook
that they must stay doing what they do because they fear not
"having". Depression hits all levels of income and
no "thing" can really give anyone security or peace
if they do not have the capacity for it already.
Please don't let Hallmark and adrenaline take over your Christmas!
I hope that you will give your
friends and family - the gift of "you in good mental
health" and I hope that you will give yourself the same
gift that I give to myself each year - "a moment in time"
(on sale now :-)
Around the heart, past the mind
and into the soul.
Enjoy the journey
Merry Christmas
Indigo
Indigo Irwin Kennedy
Author: The Wave Riders
http://www.thewaveriders.com
Respond to this article by emailing
Indigo E-mail info@thewaveriders.com
Click
here to order The Wave Riders Book
(http://www.thewaveriders.com/order.html)
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