Turning January Blahs into Joys.

So, how is your family recovering from the holidays?

There is something I’ve always loved about January... the openness, the newness, the space to launch into anything...

And then I had kids and I was introduced to January blahs.

Have you ever noticed how in October everyone is excited about Halloween and then it turns to November and Christmas whisperings start.. it builds and builds... feeling like a cross between excitement and absolutely overwhelm. Finally, it ends with hysteria. I’ve always done my best to keep it calm and cool, but now that everyone is older they are on their own path. Christmas morning comes, I focus on keeping it chill, but everyone has their own processes, their own anticipation and then suddenly after all the build up... it’s done.

I watched my children eek out the holiday spirit through until New Years. We played, they goofed about and we had some amazing family time. Ours is a “downtime” themed holiday... soaking up the music, food and card game vibe.

But life proceeds... and now it’s back into our happy day to day life. No matter how long you keep the tree up, the energy shifts and suddenly, it just... well, I guess it just feels like January. I start pulling out my agenda, and my Leonie Dawson workbooks, I start feeling my way to the new path of 2017.

But everyone under 14 has a bit of a gap. With nothing “to look forward to.” There's some mood swings, some upset over little issues... really a sense of overwhelmed.

Ugh, my husband and I sigh with the whole thing. Culturally children have been told for three months of the year that there is happiness around the corner. 

But really, we all know that happiness is in the day.

Don’t get me wrong, my kids know this too. In fact, one of the things they all noticed during holidays was how the happiness was in the lightness and moment to moment play of each day. The prep had been empty promises, as the gifts and celebration had been hoopla for 15 minutes, it was the after play that really rung out in joy.

But January whispers to them otherwise. Although my boy loved his blocks and toys, and played with them during the week, now they sit on the shelf as he approaches each day with an energy of “now what?”

Outside is cold and stormy, there’s a restlessness progressing and each day he goes to sleep asking “what’s happening tomorrow?”

When a child is 2-3 they know the happiness of the moment, and anything outside of that is overwhelming. They welcome the end to celebrations and big deals. 

But, like our older children, we can also fall for the premise of happiness having to be found and built upon, can’t we? When do we learn to drop in the joy of the day like our babies? Do we pass the restlessness on to them? Do they learn it from us? Is our children’s restlessness a mirror of our own?

It is time to refocus. It is January after all, right? It is time to breathe in the moment and release the anticipation for a greater tomorrow. Let’s embrace a fantastic today.

This is why I extended my New Year sale on the Spiritual Kids course. (this is the last sale I'll be having in a while, everyone I work with keeps having a fit how cheap I offer it.) I think shifting the focus to creating spiritual foundation in our homes is the perfect solution to January blahs. It shifts it from “what is happening tomorrow?” to “What are we being today?” It turns our child’s focus from “What are others doing for me?” to “What can I create for myself?”

When we offer our children tools to find out what makes themselves jive, when we draw their attention to their emotions and their focus through activities and crafts, we help them feel their way to their inner truths, with fun and lightness. And in that vibration, we attune ourselves. They get to show up as themselves, their own individual essences, rather than the “child” who is waiting for the next holiday. Rather than a role, they can shine as themselves.

Roles follow us all and it’s time to break free of them.

Passing on spirituality has made me have to set aside my own sense of roles. I’ve had to show up as myself so I can encourage my kids to do the same.

It’s a wonderful circle pathway to embark on.

Life is fun; each day a seed to grow into a joyful experience. Each moment, we can choose our focus and we don’t need holidays, or events or even outings to create happiness in our lives.

Living in the present is the greatest gift we can give ourselves.

There was a great quote from Abraham Hicks the other day... it talked about cutting out the word "achieve" and "earn"... and replace with "allow".

We need to stop working towards happiness and allow it to be in the moment instead.

And now, I have to slip downstairs to help my son ice a cake we just made together.

Cake is always an extra bonus to a happy day.