Heart Cave Healing: 2nd Christmas Without Dad
The holidays have always been a difficult time for me. The aggressive gift-giving consumer culture associated with Christmastide overwhelms me. The agony spent stressing about finding the perfect gifts for loved ones, the anxiety and stress in the overcrowded stores... As an empath, I'm very sensitive to other people's emotions and during the holidays, the air is thick with fear of scarcity. Families over-extending themselves financially and emotionally, because they are afraid their children won't have enough presents to open on Christmas morning or afraid there won't be enough food to serve to their family members at dinner.
The winter solstice is supposed to be a time of rest, recuperation and solitude. It's a time we should spend in quiet contemplation and reflection. As the days get shorter, many feel weakened by the lack of light. The loss of light has a profound effect on our souls. This is why self care is so important this time of year. Our spirits are weary. We suffer even more because society has sabotaged this sacred season by making us think it's all about expensive gifts, fancy holiday parties, cocktails and lavish desserts. The puppet-masters capitalize on this collective fear of scarcity by driving us towards consumer goods and external sources for that holiday magic. If we have the brightest lights, the prettiest presents, the yummiest cookies, then it will fill that hole in my heart, the hole that is craving warmth and comfort.
You may already know where I'm going with this, but the only thing that will warm your sad, cold, lonely heart this winter is pure, unadulterated love. Deep unconditional love from the divine. I'm finding it difficult to express in words how powerful this love is, because I am so limited in my speech, I couldn't possibly even begin to accurately describe how powerful and awesome unconditional love is. Love is everything. The grief and excruciating pain I feel for losing my father, that's love. His absence from this realm forces me to realize how much I love and miss him.
Grief is love. I've heard grief described as all the love you have with no place to go. Well my advice is to give that grief some place to go. So many great works of art and music are inspired by the artist's pain, which they channeled into a work of art. The heart chakra is linked to the sacral chakra, which is the center of emotions and creative expression. When the heart chakra is blocked by grief or trauma, the 2nd/sacral chakra can also shut down. In order to remove the blockage in the heart, engage the 2nd chakra through creative pursuits. Moving energy in the sacral chakra can break up the heart chakra blockage and allow the heart to express its pain and be free from what burdens it. Paint, draw, write, compose, create what your soul needs to speak. Sure, it can be scary and unpleasant, but I don't care if you paint a hundred canvases of blackness, because perhaps your heart needed you to understand the void it was feeling. You might draw scary pictures of demons, but maybe that's necessary for you to defeat them. You might sob and ugly cry all over your canvas, but you gave your heart the freedom it needed to express its sorrow. Let it out because the consequences of not expressing what's inside your heart is slow self-destruction.
If you find the courage to tap into your heart, beautiful things will flow from it.