When the office Christmas party arrived last week, it came upon us so quickly there wasn’t time to get too worked up about it, and it’s been that way for the bulk of this holiday season. Somehow I’ve largely avoided getting stressed out, and it must be partially attributed to the fact that any expectations have been lower than low – practically non-existent, which makes for far fewer disappointments. There’s a sad commentary hidden in all that’s unsaid here, but overall this has been a happier holiday spell, and I’m trying to figure out exactly why so that I might replicate this ease for future Christmas runs.
The biggest shift may simply be in intention. There is great power in deciding what sort of season you’re going to have. You always have a choice in how you’re going to react to whatever happens on any given day – we tend to forget that, thinking that we are what befalls us, rather than what we make of it.
Such a profound and dynamic change in perception comes at the tail of a year of similar seismic shifts. The universe will often wait until we are ready before delivering the lessons we most need to learn. It bodes well for a brighter start to 2026. Low expectations, high intentions, and malleable perceptions. So much of human terror arises simply from feeling out of control. We may be in command of more than we realize – and when we’re not there is opportunity to get more comfortable in the messy space of all that we can’t control.
