Best Christmas gift to self

How about you gift yourself this Christmas? You’ve always had this particular gift but maybe you have never utilised it fully — the gift that is YOU.

This may sound absurd but bear with me for a moment. When is the last time you experienced yourself? When you even understood what you want.

We take such pride in being busy and even during this holiday season, we are just as busy with social occasions, family among others…But hey, you should take this time to completely quiet down and investigate yourself.

WITHOUT THE LABELS

Spend time alone to discover yourself. Have moments without people, television, social media and slow down your own thoughts that keep telling you what else you should be doing. Just sit with you and God.

In this quietness, you will start to know yourself without the labels that society attaches to you. You are much more than a daughter, son, mother, spouse, father, CEO, banker, student lawyer, rich, poor ...

You will literally see yourself in a different light. The world’s version of you is not always correct or complete. When you can describe yourself more and more without titles and roles, the clearer you are seeing yourself. You may even see strengths, talents and passions that you have not used in your life.

The hardest question people grapple with is what they truly want – to do, achieve, have or experience in life. Many people think they are successful because they have met society’s expectations. For example, many people are getting into debts to buy cars they can’t afford so they can impress others.

Some people have found themselves stuck in careers because of family expectations that have nothing to do with them. What society wants for you and what you truly want are two different things. It’s only in this silent space that you can see the difference and start charting your new path.

Imagine you were the only human being left on Earth. God zapped everyone else into heaven and will come for you later. Now you have abundant time to experience yourself. No one can emotionally react to the items you own. What would you still choose to do, have, experience or achieve?

LOSE SIGHT OF THE PRESENT

Some may now realise that things like cars are not important, and they would rather travel. Others may realise they still need a car. At least they would now know they truly want it. If people were going to be brought back in about a year, what would you like them to find? Would the world be a better place?

Maybe some of the things that we have been chasing after are not that important. Write down the answers to these questions. As we go into a New Year, it may affect the way you handle relationships, money, business and most of all time. Recently, I learnt through the passing of a very dear friend that we do not own time.

Not even tomorrow is promised. But during her funeral, I got to see the beauty of how she lived and quietly impacted so many people. The other gift you can give yourself is the time called NOW. We waste way too much time condemning the past and dreading the future. We think happiness, fulfilment, success among others happen in future when the list of items has been checked.

We lose sight of how precious the present is and we can never get it back. For example, go into any restaurant and observe people. They are supposedly having a meal together but instead they are all on their phones. How can some virtual conversation or social media post be consistently more important than a live human being?

We do the same thing even with those nearest and dearest to us. Even future aspirations will be realised in a day called ‘Today’ and a moment called ‘Now’. Your future is influenced only by how you handle the present and not by some unspecified event or windfall happening later.

You impact people (or lose the chance to do so) at every moment. Be fully alive now. Your own life, family, society, work and even the world just needs ‘You’ to show up. Have a Merry Christmas.

This article is dedicated to a cherished friend of many -Violet Kibera Kimotho who fought the good fight, kept the faith and finished the race. Facebook/WacekeNduati| Twitter@cekenduati| [email protected]