How to Have a Wonderful Holiday – Part 1

In this article (also published today in my NLP tip), you're going to discover some simple mindsets that can connect you with the source of a deep sense of wellbeing you can bring into your day during the holiday season & beyond.

For the past 12 weeks, I've taken part in a weekly conference call as part of Bill Cumming's “What One Person Can Do” programme (www.oneperson.net). Bill's mission is "The well-being of the planet", & he recognises that it starts with the wellbeing of the individual, with the practice of spiritual self-care. The fundamentals of self-care are as follows:

Acknowledge that this moment is precious – be grateful to be alive

Recognise that everything is interconnected, including you – in awe of the miracle you've stumbled into

Realise there's only one thing you can do anything about, & that's how you'll be as you move through the world. Aim to be as clear, present & loving as you can be.

This week we'll be playing with the first element.

Acknowledge that this moment is precious
According to Wikipedia, the average lifespan for a human being on the planet Earth is 66.12 years. I would normally round that off to 66, but given the subject we're discussing, the .12 amounts to 43 days, just over 6 weeks.

Of course, if you live in a country like USA, the UK or Canada, the average goes up to over 75 years, while living in certain parts of Africa drops the average to 40 or below. Either way, let's look at the average:

66.12 years rounds off to...

793.44 months
3450 weeks
24,150 days

“So what?” you may ask.

Well, consider this. Modern geophysicists consider the earth to be 4.5 Billion years old, & I shouldn't be surprised if it continues to exist for some time to come. DNA evidence suggests that Homo Sapiens (the brand of biped we are today) first arrived on the scene 200,000 years ago, while some sort of humans have been on the planet for up to 2.5 million years. Of course, in the old days (a million years ago), the average lifespan was between 20-30 years.

Stop for a moment, & imagine the vast length of time the Earth has been here, & the amount of time humans have been on it. Our lives take only a small span of that time.

And consider the vastness of the universe. Yet here you & I are, at this moment in time (me writing, you reading), out of all of history, at the points in space we occupy.

Isn't that amazing?

I don't know what happens to my consciousness once I die (or where it came from when I was born). The Buddhists say “fortunate you are to be born a human being”. For the time we are alive, we are part of this amazing experiment, this miracle. Imagine that! Most human beings who have ever existed aren't around any more.

But you & I are! Taking all this into account, we're lucky to be alive. What else?

You're able to read this because you live at a time when 80% of the world's population can read.
As late as the 1840s, over 40% of English people signed their wedding certificate with an X because they couldn't write.
Only half the people on the planet have water piped into their home. Of those who don't, 60% of them get water from some sort of improved water supply like a standpipe or protected well, while the other 40% get it from wherever they can.

Be grateful to be alive
My friend Richard Wilkins says it's a good day if he's not dead. Quickly check. Are you alive? Then it's a good day.

People often challenge him and say that's a very low standard for a good day, but he asks the question “What would you rather have – a million pounds, or not be dead?” He explains that people in hospices, who may not even live to see their children's faces this Christmas would have no difficulty recognising what huge value there is in being alive.

I'll finish with a translation of the word Namaste which I got from Bill:

Namaste: I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides.I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth and of peace. And when you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.