Tis the season for cranky, exhausted, sugared-out, over caffeinated elves trying to put on some holiday cheer during the darkest time of the year.

It’s any wonder that anyone can be jolly, let alone nice.

So the next time someone—the whiny shopper or the tiny toddler melting into an act of civil disobedience—gets on your nerves, don’t take it personally.

Find the compassion within yourself for another’s uncomfortableness, knowing that you might just be on the other side of this perspective someday soon.

Why not stir in a little bit of sugar (or sweetness) into another’s heart?

Let’s respond from a space of compassionate action, and crack a joke or simply hold the space (while trying not to pass judgment).

“The basic ground of compassionate action is the importance of working with rather than struggling against, and what I mean by that is working working with your own unwanted, unacceptable stuff, so that when the unacceptable and unwanted appears out there, you relate to it based on having worked with loving-kindness for yourself.” ~ Pema Chodron

Compassionate action comes from a place of loving-kindness, and that’s a hard space to enter because we may carry a lot of unopened packages from our lives while trying to cover them with shiny silver ribbons and wrapping paper.

Packages that we don’t really want to unwrap, and especially not on these long dark nights (of the soul), yet let’s remember the hard soul work that you’ve already done this year (yes, come on, I see you are blushing).

Don’t struggle against the stuff that comes up for you (there’s always going to be something to unwrap), but go with the memory of those moments in which you’ve been able to be a more loving person.

Embrace the lightness of love the next time you run into one of those exhausted, sugared-out, over caffeinated elves trying to put on some holiday cheer during the darkest time of the year.

And if that doesn’t do the trick, then hum this song:

Love elephant and want to go steady?

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Author: Jes Wright

Editor: Emily Bartran

Photo by Japanexperterna