Christmas can be a tough time of year, in part because we’re often forced into social situations with people who aren’t really ‘our people’; those with whom we have little in common, perhaps in terms of small things (i.e. which TV shows we watch) or really big things (i.e. core values like acceptance and non-judgement).
Depending on your personality type, this might be relatively easy. But it also could be heavy and torturous.
One thing that definitely makes it easier is taking a good bit of time and spending it with ‘your people.’
I’m talking about those people who ‘get’ you. Even if they’re not much like you, they love and appreciate you… including your differences. They’re there for you, without judgement. And more than anything, as Jim Morrison said,
“A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.”
And to my mind, that’s how it feels to spend time with your really close friends – liberating. Free.
It doesn’t change the social awkwardness that happens when you mix outside of your gang… but when you’re feeling a sense that you don’t fit in, or feel that you’re being judged unfairly, you can at least remind yourself that these folks aren’t your audience.
So what they say or think really doesn’t concern you.
Anxious-Ambition.com 