I what want to fight against the societal expectations that come with this time of year.

Well, not ?fight? exactly. I want to subvert them with peaceful creativity, delight and magic.

As a Highly Sensitive Person, the holidays have always been a little fraught for me. There’s a lot of good stuff in there, but some harder stuff, too. There’s stress and overwhelm and the heavy weight of expectations hanging in the air.

It’s just too easy to get caught up in the madness of it all and wind up feeling totally depleted.

As I’ve become more creative, awake and powerful in my life, I’ve started to see what happens at the end of the year through a new lens, and I’m not happy with what I see.

First off, we are literally encouraged by the world around us to ditch our dreams and our inner work and run around like crazed maniacs – shopping, baking and partying.

This path leads to the opposite of fulfillment.

This path leads to exhaustion and depletion – physically, energetically, emotionally, financially.

Which means you get to The New Year – the fresh and shiny new year full of new possibilities and fresh starts – all worn out and in no shape to explore the gifts of it. You enter the new year depleted.

Dreams are the first victim of depletion.

You hunker down, do only what is necessary to get through it, and leave your dreams for sometime when you have more time, more energy, more money. Some imaginary future when things are brighter.

Except dreams and the inner work that your dreams demand of you can actually help cure depletion.

So – you’ve been pushed into a state of depletion and then you abandon the very things that could help you get filled up again. This is how most of us greet the new year. Is it any wonder it’s so hard to keep your New Year’s Resolutions?

There is no space for possibility in this pattern.

So, let’s change the pattern.

This year I am committing to ending the year filled up, fueled up and ready for a fresh and fabulous 2015.

This year, I want to feel calm and sparkly and present to enjoy the gifts of the season.

This year I want to have solid, clear boundaries for staying out of overwhelm, over-doing-it-ness and depletion.

I’m pulling out some of my best stuff to make this happen, and I’ll be sharing it in The Peaceful Happy Holiday Season class, inside the Creative Dream Circle.