Study upon study has shown it: one of the keys to happiness is the fulfillment that comes from giving to others. With this in mind, the holiday season should be one of great satisfaction for many of us. Yet how many times have you heard a friend or a passerby lament the coming of what has become better known as 'the silly season'? It seems to have everyone running in a vicious circle of stress in which time and money are sucked up by gifts that quickly end up in the recipients' already over-stuffed storage room.
The team at nordicwellbeing.com thought about this situation and realized that we had a mission this holiday season. That is, to explore with you, our readers, how to make this giving time of year a source of happiness and satisfaction. We reviewed the key criteria for gifts that we call Creative Giving and came up with twenty-five suggestions. These are merely intended as the catalyst for your own creative process around giving, what it is and what it should be this holiday season.
Image of Julie Lindahl courtesy Anna-Karin Lukash
In order to prepare our criteria and Creative Giving suggestions, we consulted old and contemporary sources. Sweden's Allers Family Journal from 1895, which is a collection of suggestions from people all over Sweden, offered us some interesting perspectives on giving in another time We flicked through the magazines, listened to people on the streets and looked into our own lives. Here is what we came up with.
Creative Giving is finding ways to...
...give your loved ones time for themselves
...give them time together with those they miss
...give them time together with you
...help your loved ones to experience peace in their surroundings
...focus your purchases on things that are needed, products that have been created with care and respect, and that will be used everyday
...focus your purchases on simple experiences of beauty rather than cost
...give something that is the product of your skill and imagination
...give your time to people who are less privileged than yourself
...give time to yourself since you cannot possibly give to others creatively unless you do so.
Without further ado or explanation of the wealth of new material in each of our sections, all of us at nordicwellbeing.com wish you a splendid holiday season full of the sort of giving that makes you and those around you feel peace and satisfaction.
