The Healing Power of Connecting with Others

As you gather with your families and friends this week some of you will look forward to a beautiful treat while others will see it as an event that adds more stress to an already stressful life. We could love the idea of meeting our loved ones, while the reality of it could mean we are annoyed at seeing some of the same old issues crop up that we wish would just go away.

For all of us, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in during this holiday week, we can use the experiences for gaining wisdom. I realize that wisdom is not everyone's goal. But if you're like me, it trumps just about everything else. I like to use life circumstances as opportunities to expand my own well of wisdom. Gatherings of many people are good sources of these "circumstances."

Let's talk about an approach to maintain a calm, neutral disposition so you can experience these holidays with less stress and more fun.

Real human contact, face to face relationships, have the ability to keep us in balance. We need to be with others and feel a sense of belonging. Knowing this, you can use your time with the people you'll be with this week to help you feel good.

Stress levels in our society have increased partly because people are isolated from one another. Families and friends live at a distance while electronic devices, computers, and cell phones offer the illusion of connecting us with humanity.

With this in mind, invite others to be with you and accept invitations of others. Allow yourself to come together with real, warm human beings. Even if you head into a situation that triggers annoyances and other uncomfortable emotions, you can use this time with others to heal on many levels.

Your energetic body gets balanced by the shared energy of a group. Where you have deficiencies or excesses in your energy field, the group energy helps bring them into balance. I believe this is one reason the "tribe" was and still is important. It gives a sense of security in part because it helps balance one's energy.

You can use your gatherings with others to benefit you in many ways. Of course, though most of us won't want to admit it, when we have emotional upsets around family and friends it's all about our own inner world, and has nothing to do with that pesky sister-in-law.

This provides each of us with a golden opportunity to grow in wisdom. Did you ever see the wise old sage getting upset because Aunt Jane said or did something out of line? No, because the sage would remain aware of his or her own energy and be non-reactive. The wise old sage has the courage to allow Aunt Jane to be who she is without putting judgment on it.