Time to shine, time to reflect, time to be better you

On By Inese, visual artist, writer and life sciences bloggerIn Christmas, green living, happiness, hope, lifestyle

Delightful and healing experience

I hope you are also enjoying the peaceful, relaxing and uplifting holiday time. If you are keeping things simple around Christmas as I am, you might also find this time very healing and very delightful. Keep it that way! I think it is damaging to get all stressed out about gifts and food because this time is about having a new outlook on life, new hope and belief. The focus should be on the tree and its symbolism, not on what we eat, what we wear and what gifts we receive. The most important gift was there for everybody, and being obsessed with buying more and more “stuff”, it is possible to miss the true meaning of this time.

Over-consumption and consumerism

Consumerism is not only a bad approach to living life, but also the main cause of overproduction and over-consumption of pointless and useless things. This causes in turn huge pollution of water, soil and air; we call it also climate change. When people say they are buying a plastic tree to save the real tree, they are not actually saving anything. The natural tree is biodegradable and does not cause toxic leftovers while plastic garbage is probably one of the most serious side effects of over-consumption.

Plastic waste

Scientists are actively testing ways of up-cycling plastic and turning it into fuel and similar things; certain types of plastic degrade under sunlight. There have been even discovered microorganisms which can degrade plastic. The problem is, however, that most of plastic waste is hidden in landfills where it might never biodegrade. Big part of plastic waste floats in oceans and other waters and degrades to extent: big plastic objects break down into tiny plastic waste and it is destroying life in water. Some particles are described as very toxic to humans and animals.

Biggest pollutants

Fast fashion and accessories are also among huge pollutants. The same goes about plastic toys. If synthetic materials were degrading at a fast pace, there would be no need to burn them. There are so many once or hardly used items, that nobody can ever recycle, down- or upcycle all of them. Burning these materials causes very toxic smoke and causes harm to everything, including huge damage to soil, air and waterways. That is not to mention all efforts which take manufacturing and transporting such non-essential items. These processes cause more pollution and damage to climate.

Food waste

People, who do not cook from scratch and have no experience in re-using leftover food after parties and festive meals, throw out millions of tonnes of food leftovers. That is a waste which is not even fed to animals or used as a fertilizer for soil. Just imagine the amount of resources which were used to grow, harvest, process, pack and transport this food.

“Stuff”

It is amazing how many useless things we buy, and especially for Christmas and New Year. Could we limit the number of gifts? We sure could. Could we rather turn this holiday time into a time of great experience? We sure could. How about shining with one’s talents at parties?

Gift cannot buy love or respect. We can certainly please somebody, but material things are just material things. We cannot live without them, but we shouldn’t make the gift shopping and gift giving the most important experience of Christmas, because it is not and it never was.

Celebrate in style

We definitely want festive settings, great mood and delicious meals during holidays. It doesn’t take much. However, it could take work, efforts, a lot of imagination and many ideas.

Be gentle to yourself! Be aware that you can wear only one outfit at a time and the amount of food one person can consume is also limited. Not going overboard decreases stresses, and your bank account will love it, too. You don’t have to be the grandmother, who bought 240 gifts for her grandchildren. If they love you, they will love you regardless of number of gifts, and if they don’t, splurging on gifts is not going to help either.

Resist pressure

Social media really facilitate the need to grab, rush, fight and bargain. Every single place wants you to buy something and internet ads create feeling that you are already late, missed the best deals and will never find the hottest items again. Influencers, who are paid for endorsing or advertising one or another item or brand, play big part in over-consumption, especially among younger people. That is such an important aspect of belonging, or rather we have convinced ourselves that we need some particular item because “everybody has it”!

My favorite Christmas things

I hope you are not everybody, but unique you with your unique style and taste which are not affected by the massive pressure of consumer society.

My favorite thing is my tree decorating process. I have always a real tree or at least a real branch of real tree. I do decorating for approximately 3 days, slowly, thoughtfully, listening to sings, watching movies and so on. It is a process. The other thing is getting in touch and connecting with people, who I love.

Happy holidays

Be happy and yourself

I wish you to find yourself in rewarding experiences and pleasurable pastimes! That relaxes, makes fears and anxiety go away and you never feel alone. Such creative experience is a treasure, a true treasure.

Merry Christmas! Happy holiday season and all the best with any other celebration!

18 thoughts on “Time to shine, time to reflect, time to be better you”

  1. A very thoughtful post, Inese. The over-consumption and waste on all fronts around the holidays is disturbing. The real spirit of the season becomes lost in the consumerism.

    We don’t put up a tree of any kind in here with all the cats, but when I was young, my mother would buy a live tree every year, and it would get planted in the yard. We soon had a nice border screen, and lots of cover for birds, especially in winter.

    Have a wonderful Christmas season and a Happy New Year.

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    1. Live tree is such a fantastic idea! I haven’t seen them around here. Well, I cannot resist, I get a real tree. Probably not every year, but whenever I can. I could this year and I cannot stop enjoying. We had a very silent Christmas and we visited a dear friend yesterday. Thankfully, I do not have to cook or eat too much because I find that hard.
      I was reading a few stories how people told they are at their limit and almost fainting from tiredness, all this because they were chasing gifts and foods and wrapping and so on. It is supposed to be a relaxing moment when everybody is happy and enjoys their friends and family, nice talk, songs.
      Have a great and rich New Year and enjoy the Christmas season!

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  2. Merry Christmas Inese and good to read, that you enjoy it relaxed.
    I haven’t been celebrating Christmas since I lived in Denmark many years ago. While I’m not together with my family here, I don’t see any reason to celebrate it.
    I bought myself some beautiful flowers in soil and do still enjoy some of them and turn on some candle lights in the evening, which for me are important.
    Wish you a beautiful New Year.

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    1. Well, my family is not here either, but across the ocean. It’s just me and husband. I have had a tree always, in good times and bad, and that is mainly my Christmas. I sit for hours looking at it and scroll through memory files.
      I find it also pointless to cook crazy meals for just two of us, but it is so nice to have everything as I wished. So neat, so nice, so lovely and peaceful. Happy New Year to you, as well!

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  4. Great post and very true.
    Thanks for becoming a follower of my blog as well. It makes it easier for me to follow yours as well. And what a great blog you have ! I found many similar interests, looking at your posts… All the best to you for the new year from Liv from Denmark.

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    1. Thank you! I will have a look at your blog once more, I probably followed because it said something about Denmark and I most likely could relate to content..
      I am originally from Europe, 16 years in Canada. I believe I am able to create somewhat different content from mainstream lifestyle and health care blogs. I am past 60, so, that allows share my experience and observations. It’s just so that my art show is coming up and that leaves very little time dealing with lifeschool blog. Thanks for comment and let’s stay in touch!

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      3. Your paintings are lovely.
        They remind me of the art of an old lady from the island of Funen who used to exhibit in our gallery – only that one can clearly we the difference of where you both come from, which is quite fascinating.
        I had not seen that website before – or did I?
        At least I can not remember the post which is the first one on that site about the stolen art images. But I have now left a like – can it be seen?
        I am asking because I do have some IT-problems. I’m not very good at it and I often have problems commenting or putting my likes somewhere. But maybe the likes do come through and it’s just that I can’t see them?
        Anyway, about the art:
        Your art is beautiful; I like it very much, because it’s peaceful and gives you pleasant associations.
        But it’s also well done.
        As for stealing images, as an author I can tell you, it’s also really nasty, people steal our books as well, publish parts of them or the entire book and then they give the original book a bad review, so they can sell their copy and you no longer can sell yours. It’s a really nasty way for those criminals to earn their money and therefore it’s no surprise that they steal your images as well. It really is a shame that they do it, because there are plenty of free stock pictures they could use otherwise or they could buy those for very little money. It’s good that you have put a watermark on them. Perhaps it would also be an idea for you to sell them to places that sell stock pictures? Then you would at least get some money for them and people could get them by paying for them?

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Thanks for the very thoughtful comment!
        Yes, you had left quite a few likes before.
        I post more frequently on art website, and especially now when I am busy with putting together the show. It goes up next week, therefore, I have to work still.
        I’ve been doing everything for a long time: painting, sewing, gardening, medical research, brain function explorations and so on.
        I dare to think I have always my own point and that’s why I am blogging.
        Stealing from internet sites is an ongoing process. I find my images here and there, almost every month. I will take photos of drawings and watercolors differently because I am creating my own sales materials.
        Thanks again!

        Like

  5. I love the way you slowly and thoughtfully decorate your tree. Wishing you a wonderful new decade filled with meaningful connections and creativity. Your courage as an artist continues to inspire and I want to thank you for all your wise words.

    Liked by 1 person

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