Thanksgiving marks the official start of the holiday season in the United States, where I live. For many of you, the holiday season has already begun.
It’s a time of year that can be challenging for many, and bring up lots of mixed feelings around the areas of food, sugar, family, togetherness, and connection.
The holidays, family, and food all point to a common yearning: our longing for relationship and connection. It’s this yearning – our relational hunger – that gets triggered by the holidays. And it’s this yearning that can seek expression in sugar, food and overeating.
To help nourish your holiday season, I created a video for you.
In the video, I talk about how you can befriend and care for your relational hunger – something that can help you feel more at ease with the holidays, and holiday food.
Thank you for sharing. I love that it was a long video. It really made sense to me when you said that we fill up with connection and then get hungry for it just like we do with food. We should reach for connection at regular intervals everyday instead of just when cravings arise. Thank you!
hello Karly – thank you for this gift today. It was a revelation to think of paying attention to connecting often, in the way we physically need to connect with food regularly. And i love the way you put it, ‘that it’s love calling’ that is a brilliant way to think of it and in a way to honour our love by going behind the difficult thought or craving and see it as a call to connect with our longings and our love. A heart-felt thank you.
Joanna
Hi Joanna,
You are very welcome. I’m so glad this spoke to you, and to go behind, behind, behind – yes, it is love calling! Love, Karly
Hi Ashley,
I’m glad the video was helpful to you! Yes, I found that idea normalizing, too – that relational hunger ebbs and flows just like physical hunger.
Warmly,
Karly
I really appreciate your words Connect, connect, connect. Thank you for making this video. I alternate between feeling full, connected and empty disconnected. I’ve been eating on the go a lot lately because I’ve been so busy with a project that makes me feel connected but yet i’m negating my daily routine. I find it such a struggle to do life and maintain a routine. I rarely feel centered and grounded and snacking is another thing I do that is unsettling. I will work on connecting to myself and listen to the video again.
Hi Cheryl,
Yes, that cycle of fullness, connection and empty happens to all. And feeling centered and grounded can be challenging in modern culture because it’s so full and busy. You might like the work of my dear friend, Abby Seixas, who fosters beautiful work for women on slowing down and connecting, Finding the Deep River Within. http://deepriverwithin.com/ Love, Karly