"What's So Valuable About THAT?"

Mood, Money, and Meaning during Christmas

To me, trampling fellow shoppers to save another $10 on a flat screen TV is not in the true spirit of Christmas. Even if the price tag has a smiley face, and the significantly over-nourished counter attendant is wearing a Santa hat.

This one scene contains the elements that Christmas forces us to ponder: mood, money and meaning. Yes, I just used the word "Christmas" instead of the very PC "Holidays". The day signifies Christ's birth, so the celebrant's name is used for the day. Same reason we call it George Washington's Birthday on - oddly enough - his birthday (although advertisers have used it to mean, "Get a great buy on bed linens!").

Since I'm not adept at rewriting history, "Christmas" it is. So let's change the mood. This time of year calls to our very core to "be of good cheer". The embittered feel that this is fakey or insincere if you don't really "feel" it. That's great if the Grinch is your hero, but most neurologists would disagree.

The scientific community (many of whom are embarrassed to be in this editorial) contend that if you do smile, if you do utter affirmatively, if youdo flood your mind with pleasant thoughts, the "pattern interrupt" redirects endorphins causing at least a tinge of euphoria. If those feelings are supported (by others, music, doing a pleasant chore) then the tinge becomes a mood. Thus giving the only credence you'll ever hear to the phrase 'Fake it til you make it'.

The corollary is also true, since bleakness fed is bleakness strengthened. Reminds me of Arthur Miller's fine comment: "Some people brighten a room when they enter it; others when they leave." So, without a hint of fakery or insincerity, I encourage and wish for you to be of good cheer. Beats the alternative.

Now for the real mood changer: money. Today this comprises 3 groups: the "haves", the "have nots", and the "haven't quite paid for the haves yet". The last two groups ain't all that happy about their money situation. Been there.

However, years ago in my earlier quest to absorb every mental stimuli known as "self help" I remember that Robert Allen and Dr. Joe Vitale both alluded to a startling, very different way to view money that changed my perspective forever.