I love the act of selecting a mantra and enjoying the practice of applying it to a period of time, an experience or my approach to a specific event. You know what I’m talking about – and it’s coming up again soon – it’s the season when people starting looking ahead and picking and posting about their word for the year, a practice almost similar to resolution. The word will set the tone for the new year ahead and all that they hope to accomplish throughout it.
The first time I ever chose a word for the year, my word was NOURISH. I still feel a strong emotional attachment to that word whenever I come across it. Same year, my friend chose the word SHINE and I think of her every time I see that and, in fact, I’ve bought a number of things emblazoned with her word over what must be seven years since then.
At the point when I initially wrote this, I became obsessed with digging out and republishing the post I wrote about my one little word for 2012. Doing do led to more digging and more republishing and linking and digging and republishing and linking.
It took on a life of its own and now my blog isn’t about six posts richer.
I was thinking about this today because on this week’s episode of the Happier podcast, Gretchen and Liz talked about choosing a holiday motto. The idea came from a listener who decided that she would focus on the theme of “comfort and joy” and how she can build her holiday activities and gift giving around it.
My hope is that this will add more personal meaning for me and also allow me to weed out/not spend precious time or attention on anything that doesn’t fit this theme.
Genius!
A few of the ideas that they tossed around:
- Let it snow! (as in que sera sera)
- Festival of lights
- ‘Tis the season to be jolly (this is Gretchen‘s)
- All is calm, all if bright (Liz‘s)
I liked the use of traditional Christmas phrases to identify a theme and I contemplated more all day. A few of my ideas were:
- Jingle all the way
- Let your heart be light
- Making spirits bright
- Joy to the world!
I haven’t chosen one of my own yet. There are a few I really like, including the listener’s suggestion of “comfort and joy”.
Would you pick a holiday motto? If so, which one?
