As a child in my family of origin, we’d find a gift under the Christmas tree each year with the curious label, “From Me to Me.” It would turn out to be something my mom bought for herself. After shopping for 5 kids and all the others on her list, as well as doing all the decorating, cooking, hosting of in-laws, and making sure we all had special outfits to wear to church, she felt she’d earned the right to get herself one gift that she really wanted. I picked up the tradition when my kids were young and holiday preparations fell largely on my shoulders. In today’s blog post, I mention what I got myself . . . something I both “needed” and wanted.

This year, the holiday greeting my husband and I sent out was an acrostic, each line beginning with the letters that say, “EACH DAY IS A GIFT.” We reflected on gifts that were a part of our 2014 — some opportunities, fortunate choices, blessings, or gifts that grew out of making the most of challenges. I also reflected on what to me is the greatest gift of all, and the reason for the season we’ve just celebrated: the coming of Emmanuel, God with us . . . a gift God sent out of love, to teach, heal, and set us free!

Freedom is an awesome gift! And it’s one we can all give and receive any time, without even leaving home and hitting the mall! It’s also a great guiding word for 2015.

To embrace Freedom in the New Year, here are 25 ideas of things you might try:

 

1. Doing what you love, being true to yourself and helping others. They will respond and the rewards will follow.

 

2. Taming your gremlins – those annoying negative thoughts and beliefs that don’t serve you any good but keep on talking inside your head. This includes Letting go of seeking approval from others, including your spouse, partner, parents, children, friends, neighbors, and even strangers or the world at large.

 

3. Learning to say No so that you have room and energy for the best kinds of Yeses in your life.

 

4. Getting outside your comfort zone, freed of a limit that’s holding you back from the best version of yourself—perhaps by turning your doubt into a dare . . . or just imagining what you might do without your doubt.

 

5. Elevating quality over quantity—such as the quality of time, conversations, what you’re offering to others, material possessions, and food. You might start with just one thing a day, like upgrading one part of your morning ritual. Or you might limit the quantity of something that consumes too much of your energy.

 

6. Creating spaciousness in your life by carving out more free time, honoring your preference to sometimes go with the flow instead of sticking to a schedule or To Do List, allowing for spontaneity or what we’ve talked about in this blog as “Divine Timing.”

 

7. Moving yourself to the front burner, knowing you can’t continue to serve others if you yourself are neglected, broken, and not nurtured enough to be good for ongoing service to those you’re called to serve. You might start by listing 10 ways to fill your well and marking time on your calendar to practice them as sacred self-care. (This year’s Me-to-Me Christmas present was a mani-pedi and an eyebrow shaping at a spa – and a decision to do that more often, including sitting long enough afterwards to not mar the manicure before it’s completely dry! It’s not about the look but about the message it sends myself and the permission to do nothing but be pampered for a couple of hours here and there!)

 

8. Identifying your individual gifts, talents, life purpose, and sacred calling, which will help you master your time, make good choices, set priorities, and replace unwarranted guilt as you hone in on where you’re headed and why.

 

9. Seeking greater authenticity, clarity, and ease by being open to grace and playing with your creativity, your art, your heart’s desire, or just playing with children and trying to absorb some childlikeness.

 

10. Learning the difference between shame and guilt and between appropriate and inappropriate guilt and then getting rid of shame and inappropriate guilt, with spiritual or psychological help, if needed.

 

11. Learning the language of emotions so that they can be a barometer for what’s in your heart, signals of what needs to be addressed such as a fear, boundary issue, a need for action, grieving, a need to be alert and aware.

 

12. Opening up to your full potential by going where the Love is, to the freedom that comes from releasing all unforgiveness with supernatural help.

 

13. Beginning to identify all the areas where your heart still feels wounded, resentful, or disrespected or angry. This is the first step in the process of inner healing and forgiveness—not to condone or forget wrongs but to set you free of the other person or situation. Forgiveness is the ultimate freedom, both in this world and eternally. Galatians 5:1 says that it is precisely for freedom that Christ set us free!

 

14. Receiving prayer or counseling for inner healing.

 

15. Paying attention to your dreams, keeping a dream journal, joining a dream group, and working to understand their messages.

 

16. Repeating often, “I am a unique and precious human being ever doing my best within my present level of awareness,” and remembering that this applies to everyone else as well.

 

17. Persevering and remembering that what is impossible for human beings is totally possible for God, and asking for God’s help in accordance with God’s perfect plan.

 

18. Closing doors through which drama habitually enters your life.

 

19. Thinking failure is okay. Give yourself the freedom of imperfection – which, after all, is also reality —appreciating that making mistakes helps you learn and grow and may even make others around you feel better about themselves.

 

20. Accepting that God has a freedom story waiting for each of us to tell (Psalm 107), whether that might come in areas of physical health, attitudes, relationships, or the ending of addiction or bad habits. To receive this gift, you could commit or recommit to Christ­—because the greatest freedom is in knowing the One who defeated sin and died so that we might have complete forgiveness for all the ways we fall short.

 

21. Turning to a creative craft or art in times of pressing problems and focusing for a time on the repetitive tasks like cutting, stitching, mixing colors, preparing your mis-en-place, or knitting, for example, while leaving the problem out of focus for a while; surprisingly, the solution will often come to you during or after an activity like this.

 

22. De-cluttering for freedom’s sake – which might apply to possessions, commitments, email inboxes, or any number of things!

 

23. Nurturing or forming an intimate and confidential circle of kindred souls intended to provide support and encouragement on a regular basis.

 

24. Noticing something beautiful every day!

 

25. Finding your guiding word for 2015, which has a way of freeing you to achieve it!

 

These are some of the topics this blog and Heart-to-Heart client coaching and ministry will address this year. Please stay tuned for more and/or submit a comment or email to share suggestions, thoughts, questions, and preferences as to which topics interest you most.

By the way, we’re thrilled to share the honor of the Heart-to-Heart blog being named as one of 75 blogs that matter most for creative people!

 

Here’s to greater and greater Freedom to be our true creative selves in 2015! Wishing you a joyful, healthy, and sparkly fun New Year!