With Thanksgiving behind us and the holiday season before us, we are in a period of preparation.

Everyone loves a good party and this is a season to be celebrated. However, as every host and hostess knows, preparing for a grand event can be an exhausting experience both physically and emotionally. Seemingly endless hours of shopping, choosing inspiring decorations to create the right mood, deciding who to invite; the list goes on and on.  It is so easy to get caught up in the details of creating the perfect get together that the host or hostess can lose sight of why they are throwing the party to begin with. For many of us this is exactly what happens to us as we try to prepare for this season. Our desire to give from our hearts and cultivate love and peace in our lives gets lost in the frenzy of card writing and cookie baking.

What if instead of focusing on preparing outwardly for the holidays with cards and decorations to try to create the feelings of love and peace we desire during this season, we prepare inwardly  for the season with self reflection  and let what develops inside us guide our actions of preparation?   Whether you are a practitioner of an organized religion that encourages self refection during this time of year or not, choosing intents of transformation in alignment with the season is a very powerful practice.

Here is a list of possible intents to think about over the coming weeks:

• What do I bring into my life that nourishes my mind, body and spirit?
• Are there things in my life that I need to let go or get rid of?
• Have I learned to forgive those who have offended or hurt me?
• Have I learned to forgive myself?
• How do I learn to use my sufferings, past or present, to ease the sufferings in others?
• How can I best cultivate love in myself, in others, in the world?
• What changes do I need to make to my life, thoughts, and behaviors to be the change I want to see in the world?

I hope this list gives you some ideas to think about as you hang your lights, wrap your presents, or whatever you do in preparation for the celebrations of the season.

I wish all of you lots of love, laughter, and joy as we get ready for the holidays.

Laura