When I spoke of holiday traditions three blog posts ago I emphasized participating in traditions that fill your cup. Rather than doing it because you have always done it, ask yourself if you are present and engaged to the activity at hand. (see older post about how to hold a full cup over the holidays,  https://www.mamaneedsarefill.com/2015/12/fridays-free-refill-traditional-cup/)

Ten years ago I hated Christmas. I stopped believing in the magic of it all when I was four years old and my eleven year old sister told me on Christmas Eve that Santa wasn’t real. I fell asleep that night listening for Santa’s sleigh bells. When I didn’t hear them, I stopped believing. I didn’t regain that childlike wonder in the magic of Christmas until I was in my late thirties. (see older link about losing faith in Christmas as a kid and regaining that faith as an adult, https://heartwriter.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/faith-in-santa-tradition-part-i-by-j-g-mcglothern/)

In the popular Christmas book The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, the young boy protagonist grows up and can still hear the tinkle of the sleigh bell he was gifted by Santa. His sister, parents and other grown ups only hear a silence when they ring the bell. The bell is only heard by those who believe.

That’s what happens to us in other areas of our lives. We believe what we are told.  If someone says we are too sensitive, too strong, not good enough, too this and too that we may take their opinion to be our truth. It makes my heart so sad, just as sad as when my sister told me there was no Santa, when people fall into a belief system that is so far from their truth and based on someone else’s opinion.

You get to say what you believe. You get to write your truth. And it begins with how you look at yourself. Will you look at yourself with a belief that deflates your soul and leaves you feeling empty or will you look at yourself with a belief that nurtues your soul and fills you up? Our beliefs are powerful. Our beliefs change lives. Our beliefs can leave you hearing nothing or the magic inside if you dare to listen deep enough.

 

Hi, I’m Jenny Gwinn McGlothern, Certified Transformational Master Life Coach who has been leading retreats for women and coaching them since 2009. On the path of discovery, always seeking, it is clear that one of my favorite ways to fill my own cup is by writing. May my weekly blog give you a sip to reflect, a nugget to chew, a thought to refill. If it is an accountability partner you seek, I offer life and spiritual coaching in person in Seattle and by phone. info@mamaneedsarefill.com or www.mamaneedsarefill.com or 206 255 0463.