Special Holiday Season 2009....Are you afraid?

It's the beginning of that wonderful time of the year filled with presents, parties, and a financial hang-over lasting till around January 15, 2023 Intrinsically there is nothing wrong with the hectic pace of the Holiday Season. However, in these uncertain times with all the “news pundits" talking about the very hard days ahead, there is a good dose of guilt and shame that is attached to the holiday pace. Everyone wants to forget about the politico-economic times and return to the familiar ways of the archetypal season that has always been our escape “from and to.” This Season this year 2022 has some special qualities. People are suffering from wars that touch us all, a political system that appears to be biting the hand that feeds it, murders running rampant and a President that keeps driving home the message that things are really great even when a loaf of bread costs $7.00.  It is no wonder we are afraid, worried, and  hoping the holidays will give us some relief from the black cloud that seems to follow each of us, all of the time. As an evidence based psychotherapist, I will always recommend meditation and prayer; but all too often I’m hearing that people can’t turn off the fright machine in their brains long enough for prayer and meditation. Taking back control of our very self by actively striving for a constant continual contact with our own personal God will begin the process of truly going home. Then daily praying and meditation for as long as you can on a regular schedule (even in the darkness of a blank mind) strengthens our return home. I will be talking more in the very near future of taking back the Self. James E. de Jarnette, Ph.D., M.A., Ph.D.