"I realized that tea does not even have taste
but rather just an effect like the wind"
James Norwood Pratt

'Tis the Season
Article by Carolyn Jayne

Carolyn Jayne, MA is a Holistic counselor/Teacher and Reiki practitioner specializing in Expressive Arts Therapy.  Carolyn shares her healing journey with many diverse audiences to inspire others towards more soulful living.

I am already feeling the pressure of the "season" upon me as Teatimeworldwide.com requests my holiday entrÃ^e 3 weeks early. I mumble "O.K.", under my breath, and then the world steps in.  My son gets sick, I get sick and the crazy election of 2000 hypnotizes me into a MSBC delicious daze. Holidays?
Forget it! I'm staying in the present moment for the time being and maybe that's not such a bad thing.

As a Holistic counselor, I teach others about the gift of the present moment. The past is gone, the future is yet to happen and the only time contentment and peace of mind can be found in is the present.  Certainly sounds trite, I know, but how many of us really EMBRACE the present? How many of us trust the energy of the moment to guide our day? How many of us forgo preconceived notions of our past judgments to step fully into the now? I know I have difficulty doing that especially during the holidays when every action (or non action) seems to require everything but surrender.

Every aspect of our culture - especially during this time of year - screams of preplanning, planning, anticipating, expecting, and regretting, and rarely do we invite ourselves to let go and trust the moment. Our consumer demands dictate our day. And so you may be expecting this article to offer tips on de-stressing your holidays.  I'm not going to do that. Maybe by entering into the stress itself, you will be (ironically) de-stressed or even soothed.

Did you know that there is literally an energy envelope of Divine love and grace that descends upon earth during Christmas? It doesn't matter what you believe or even if you believe. It's not political or religious or economic. It just is. I cannot prove it to you, but if you allow yourself the TIME AND OPENESS to feel this palpable energy of unconditional love you will know its reality. In this window of time and space, your are cordially invited to feel the reality of angels. You are invited to open your heart to give to yourself and to others. Your are invited to embrace the meaning of the season (subtlety and not so subtlety depicted in every holiday movie show since forever) but you must be in the present moment. You can feel it while you shop, and wrap, and spend and fret over spending, and bake and obsess over the holiday family get-together. The beauty is, the more you tune into your activities, (joyful and not so joyful,) the more you feel this divine glow of love. Not sentimental love but the love of spirit, and your only requirement is attention to the moment. So, you may ask why doesn't everyone attend to his or her moments? Because it's difficult at times to allow room for our stress, for our pain, for all the hurts that come from living. We want to push the "bad" away. This year, just for a change, don't push anything away.
Be in the moment and just see what happens.
Good tiding to you all.

Please send any comments or feedback to Carolyn at info@teatimeworldwide.com