Merry Christmas!

Wait…what I’m about to share with you is NOT about preaching Christianity, it actually relates to your health so please bear with me!

Are these words of celebration or disrespect?

One thing I’m known for is my courage to speak what’s in my heart, which is why I’m not afraid to say Merry Christmas!!! Not because I’m particularly religious, in fact I’m not religious at all…but please, make no mistake about it, I am very spiritual.

I do believe in a higher power, which I happen to call God, but it took me a long time to choose that particular word in order to express my belief in a Divine Presence. I spent most of my late teens and early twenties a non-believer, but that’s another story for another day.

I preface this posting with the above glimpse into who I am and what I believe in in the hope that you’ll understand I’m neither a Heathen nor a Christian, I simply do my best to be a good person…well perhaps more accurately, a good person who tends to see the irony in things.

Thou shalt not offend

It seems we’ve become obsessed with bending ourselves over backwards in order to accommodate, or, at the very least, not offend anyone. We nearly trip all over ourselves to apologize if we inadvertently say “Merry Christmas” rather than “Seasons Greetings” to someone. “Good grief, but what if they don’t celebrate Christmas, did we just insult their faith or what they believe in when all we wanted to do was share a wish for their happiness?”

Is all this tiptoeing around costing us our health?

So how does all of this relate to health you ask? Well, I see it time and again, people are so afraid to stand up for what they know, trust and believe in their heart is right for them. Most of us are made to feel guilty if we dare to question authority and go with what’s in our heart, with what we believe is right for us.

This seems especially true when it comes to our health choices, I see or hear about people everyday who cave-in under the pressure of friends, family, society or their doctor only to end up, out of absolute fear, lopping off their breasts, plucking out organs or subjecting themselves to the devastation of chemotherapy or radiation – simply because they don’t want to “offend”, or face the wrath of, anyone.

Now I’m not suggesting you not make the afore mentioned decisions (well actually I am but, oops, there I go bending myself around the truth of the matter just so I won’t offend anyone by openly saying “Don’t do it! At least not until you have taken the time to explore other options”….yup, I’m busted and guilty as charged…see how easily not wanting to offend anyone can sneak up on you!).

Let your soul sing

It’s just that I go a little crazy(ier) each time I witness someone whither under the pressure of not admitting to their beliefs, to what’s right for them, watching as a piece of their soul desperately gasps a last breath of life in order to accommodate another person’s opinions/beliefs. But, oh my, when you stand up for what you believe in, express what’s in your heart, you can feel your soul sing and begin to soar to life.

If you believe in your heart, even if just a whisper right now, that your body has the ability to heal itself if only you could just get the monkey off your back (that monkey being the toxic burden that allows disease to find a home in your body in the first place) then do your homework, find out what, where and who can help you provide that healing environment.

Then again, If, after doing your due diligence, you believe that surgery, chemotherapy or radiation is what will serve you best then follow that route with your head held high, not hanging low out of fear or from having been brow-beaten into your decision. Stand up for what you believe in for heaven’s sake!

If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.

It seems we’ve fallen into an abyss of fear, we fear we’ll offend others by believing in a power greater than us, or believing in our own personal power for that matter.   What if, by taking responsibility for our own health and healing we actually proved to be more powerful than we ever imagined?

Back to the Merry Christmas business.

Recently a friend of mine sent me an amazing YouTube video, along with the story of how it all came about (you’ll find both below). Watching it took me back to a time when we would say the Lord’s Prayer and sing “God Save the Queen” or, once Canada became independent of England and we weren’t nearly as concerned about saving the queen of England, we sang “Oh Canada” in schools.

Were we teaching Christianity or simply Humanity?

Now, I completely get that not everyone in public school is a Christian but do you, like I do, ever question how much damage removing the daily practices of prayer, unity and pride in our country has caused, especially after watching our society unravel since they were banished from our school system. It seems we’ve stood nervously by, wringing our hands in concern over whether these practices offended anyone and in the process we threw out the baby (a.k.a. humanity) with the bath water.

I for one really miss going to our grandchildren’s Christmas plays and grinning from ear to ear as they would sing the carols and play their pagaent roles with such pride. Who was it hurting after all, who was so afraid that allowing someone their beliefs might actually put a dent in theirs?

Teaching tolerance and honouring others

Oh how I long for our children and grandchildren to have some sort of prayer, meditation or spiritual guidance in the school system again.  How much more tolerant of others would we be if each month of the school year we studied another’s beliefs and honoured their daily prayer.

What wonderful training ground that would be, for us to learn what else is out there so we can use our own judgement about what resonates with us as individuals. Wouldn’t this practice ultimately train us not to react out of fear when presented with a challenging belief but instead we would learn to respond out of intelligence and educated choices (psst, I’m thinking health again, just in case you missed the hint, or the 2×4 that I was smacking you over the head with…subtlety usually isn’t one of my strongest traits)?

The shift is about to hit the fan in 2012

Did you know that there’s scientific evidence showing that mass love and compassion is likely going to be what pulls us through the shifts that are expected to take place on this planet in 2012 (again, that’s another story for another day)? Well what a perfect time of year Christmas is to exercise your “Love and Compassion Muscles” by simply wishing a “Merry Christmas” to those who believe in Christmas, or “Happy Hanukkah” to those who practice Judaism…to simply honour and celebrate another’s beliefs.

I’m confident you’ll find that once you begin to build your “Stand up for what is in your heart” muscles you’ll stand a little taller, a little prouder of the love, compassion and understanding you’re able to demonstrate in life. As Gandhi said “Be the change you wish to see in the world”.

Below is the link and the story my friend sent me that inspired this ezine. Please enjoy this time of the year, it’s such a perfect time to show others how much love and gratitude you feel for all you have in your life.

Story behind the Song…Where’s the Line to See Jesus?

While at the mall a couple of years ago, my then four year old nephew, Spencer, saw kids lined up to see Santa Claus. Having been taught as a toddler that Christmas is the holiday that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, he asked his mom: “Where’s the line to see Jesus”?

My sister mentioned this to my dad, who immediately became inspired and jotted words down to a song in just a few minutes. After putting music to the words, and doing a quick recording at home, he received a great response from friends. He sent the song off to Nashville without much response, except for a Christian song writer who suggested adding a bridge at the end of the first chorus.

My dad then asked if I wanted to record the song to see what we could do with it. I listened to the song, made a few changes to the words to make it flow better, and we headed to Shock City Studios. It was at the studio where Chris, owner and producer, rewrote the 2nd verse and part of the chorus… with goose bumps and emotions high, we were all hopeful and felt like we had something special. The demo was recorded in just under 2 hours and sent off again to Nashville … still no response.

Then 2 weeks before Christmas last year, my cousins Greg and Robbie decided to do a video to see what we could accomplish on YouTube.

The first day we had 3000 hits and it soared from there. We received e-mails, phone calls, Facebook messages from people all over asking for the music, CD’s, iTunes, anything… we had nothing. After a couple of meetings with Chris following the amazing response, we got serious. We headed back into the studio this past spring… this time with guitars, drums, bass, pianos, choirs… the real deal…. and here we are today.

Getting iTunes set up, a website put together, and loving that thousands upon thousands of Christians have come together… remembering the true meaning of Christmas.

Click here to watch the Where’s the line to see Jesus YouTube video

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,
Nattacia
Founder of “Courage to be Healthy”
and “The Goddess of a Great Night’s Sleep”