High Emotional Content

Christmas is just days away. This is a very difficult time for a lot of people. Several people in our community have passed away. Many families, friends and business people are grieving over the loss of these loved ones from accidents and sudden unexpected natural death.

Do you think they see the holidays the same as the harried mom rushing to buy presents? Do you think those harried moms feel the same as an executive worrying over the health of his business in this economy?

Grief is so difficult at this time when people expect to have super happy times. Our expectations get a little whacked out. That's really it, isn't it? Our expectations rule above logic.

Sometimes when this happens, our impatience and emotions get a little extreme as well. I'd like to offer a little tip in dealing with the high emotions of the holidays.

Think about the owl  and the monkey in a tree. Owl sits there watching with big round eyes. Monkey starts screeching at the invasion and jumps into the melee'. Suddenly the other monkeys do the same thing. They're all drawn into the commotion.

But Owl, he just sits and waits and watches all the monkeys act crazy. Nothing solved, lots of bruising and distrust. He waits it out. He is not the cause of the problem nor does he own the problem. Owl remains quiet and at ease.

During this time, when emotions get the best of someone in your path, instead of reacting like a monkey that jumps off the branch and into the fiasco, be like the owl and watch.

Watching does a couple of things for us. It makes us think about what we see happening and it keeps us quiet so we don't make assumptions. (Oh, yes, you know what that means...)

Watching the situation, without jumping into a highly emotionally packed issue, maintains peace. It's in that sense of peace, where confusion does not reign, that good things happen.

 

Be an owl. Maybe you can offer a suggestion and maybe all you need to do is gently listen. 

Angie