INsight/ The Festive Season
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Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash.
Manila, 25 December 2023 — Surprisingly, a difficult story to write.
Story
It’s happening this week. Surprisingly, writing this story has been difficult for me. I started and restarted several times. Why? I would love to share a positive story, yet there is so much going on around us that is not positive. The horrific human tragedies of the wars in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Africa that show no sign of stopping (yet). The slow pace of climate action, where we are still wasting precious time to act. The mountains of non-degradable waste added by the commerce of Christmas.
When you hear the word Christmas, what emotion do you feel? I discovered that different people experience different feelings. I’ve been having mixed feelings about it since I was a teenager. And from conversations I had this week, it’s clear that I’m not the only one. Commercially and socially, this season can trigger social pressures like unwanted spending and unintended loneliness. And what to make of people who put up a good show for the occasion, only to return to their usual not-so-friendly behaviors soon after? Should we not be committed to bringing out our best the year around?
As we know from neuroscience, we humans tend to notice negative emotions more easily than positive emotions, which tend to be more fleeting. The start of my story fits in that pattern. So where are the positives? The end-of-year celebrations we know today, including Christmas, were grafted on ancient festivities around the winter solstice such as Saturnalia, Yule, Dong Zhi, Shab-e-Yalba, Inti Raymi, and others that marked merry-making and gift-giving after the harvest as well as the victory of light (the sun) over darkness. Spiritually, it's about celebrating a new beginning in our lives. What does that mean today?
Challenge
In today's world, how can we give a positive meaning to the festive season in ways that go beyond the social and commercial dimensions, including the travel, relaxation, and eating that are so widely appreciated? Is there still a space for a spiritual and communal dimension? And how do we reconcile such a dimension with the ongoing tragedies of war and other crises, such as the personal challenges to well-being that are experienced by so many around us?
To help me answer this, I listened to several talks. One was given to a community of Reiki practitioners of which I am a member. After a lively deliberation, the consensus among the participants was that this is a time when many people around the world are experiencing mental, social, and physical hardships and that we can make a difference by embracing people in need and supporting them as best as we can. The focus was on shining our light of positivity. That resonated with me.
The second talk I listened to was given by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who saw the need for each of us to personally invest in peacebuilding in society. He underlined the imperative to work harder at bridging divides, of which we have many. Peace, he said, wasn't placid hibernation, but rather a coming out to do more work. To listen more to others and to learn from them and see where and how we might collaborate to solve society's problems together.
Question
As we touched on earlier, people will experience the festive end-of-year season in different ways. My question to you this week is about how you are experiencing it. What do you feel during this end-of-year week? From a leadership perspective, I believe that the festive season offers us a precious opportunity to reflect positively on how we can best let our light shine into the world around us, starting with ourselves. How will you do that?
Beyond the talks I listened to, I was also inspired by reading verse 54 of the Dao De Jing, the Chinese classic written more than two millennia ago about the way and virtue of life, in other words, about our mindset: “Contemplate oneness through yourself. Contemplate the great family through your own family. Contemplate the great village of humanity through your own village. Contemplate the one nation through your own nation. Contemplate all under Heaven to understand the whole world.”
My leadership motto is to always transform myself first in any situation, including during the festive season. The passage from the Dao De Jing inspires me to embrace a wide perspective with a broad and positive mindset. I can practice being open-minded and inclusive in the middle of our world’s challenges, like a river, able to embrace and benefit all without striving against people. When I embrace positivity and let my light shine, it can encourage harmony, flexibility, and the ability to adapt to different situations, reflecting the Daoist principle of flowing with the natural course of events rather than against it. That’s how I will celebrate this week and onward to the new year.
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