A collective sigh of relief

The ending of the holiday season brings a collective sigh of relief to many people. After spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families, many people are thrilled that the arrival of the new year signifies time spent away from family. Why do we fret, worry and stress about the right gifts and the time spent with family and then gladly welcome the opportunity to get away and return to our own lives? For many people, the holidays and the closeness to family triggers issues. What kind of issues:  old patterns that don't serve us anymore, old dynamics that we easily fall back into and the realization that our family expects us to act in a certain way in their presence. Essentially, this is a struggle for many of us. Our family 'expects' us to be who they want us to be - the role we play that they are most comfortable with. We, on the other hand, aren't the person/role they are most comfortable with because we've changed. When engaging with family, we have two choices -- be the person that makes them happy or be who we are. The correct choice is to be who we are. Sadly most of us don't like to rock the boat so we opt to be who we aren't. In the end, family wins and we lose. The biggest consequence when we aren't true to ourselves is that we sacrifice the person we've become to make others happy. We put our happiness second. With family, the only way to find joy is to be comfortable with who we are and to show that part of ourselves all the time.