HUGGING SEASON

Be Happy in LIFE Inspiration - December 2006

Reach out and touch someone
– Famous AT&T ad campaign

First and foremost, this newsletter is to wish you a very merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, great Boxing Day, super Universal Human Rights Month, peaceful Bodhi Day, lovely Santa Lucia Day, exciting Las Posadas, spiritual Winter Solstice, festive Eid at Adha and, of course, a happy New Year.

May your future be increasingly brighter and lighter, warmer and more fun. May you revel in simple things and see wonder in everything around you. May you love yourself deeply and completely. May you be an inspiration and a source of energy for the people around you.

Alas, although many people enjoy their holidays, there are also those who don't. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, Holiday Blues is "the feeling of being sad or lonely during the holidays, although they are supposed to be a joyful time of good cheer and optimistic hope".

Reasons for Holiday Blues can be increased stress, fatigue, unrealistic expectations, inability to be with family, memories of past holiday celebrations, over commercialization, change in diet and change in daily routines. Simply put, some people find themselves spending days chasing gifts for other people, which they're pretty sure they could do without, knowing they're going to spend much of the holidays eating too much and getting gifts they could do without.

Obviously, the holidays aren't all bad. There's plenty of fun things to do around town, visiting, hosting, singing and just spending quiet time with or without loved ones. However, as we've said before (here and here), some people have their focus on the not-so-good things, so for them the holidays are painted blue.

The esteemed Medical Center site also presents a few things we can do to overcome our blues. Here's a partial list:

Let go of the past and create new or different ways to celebrate
Do something for someone else
Enjoy activities that are free
Spend time with people who care about you
Spend time with new people or a different set of friends or family

Well, it turns out we're going to do all these things! We're going to go out and hug the holiday shoppers in the heart of the city and help them do the same. If you want to be happy (pink?) this holiday season, reach out and hug someone. If you're in the Brisbane area, come and hug with us (see below).

Some people have been saying to us "People don't really want hugs". Well, here is a personal story we received by email this week.

A woman, let's call her Joan, comes from a large family, but over the years had grown apart from her relatives. Unfortunately, one of Joan's young relatives died, so she attended the funeral and was more than a bit upset by the young person's death. She wrote to us that after the ceremony, her aunt came to her with her arms stretched out, apparently offering a hug, and Joan found herself unable to move and accept it. She realised she was hurting the aunt, and longed to be embraced and comforted, but simply couldn't bring herself to get up. She wrote "I just sat there frozen. I know that I 'broadcast' to others 'don't come near me', but this isn't what I really want. I've even stopped hugging my mother".

Joan's advice to us was "Don't give up on people, just because they look like they don't want to be hugged. Hug them anyway". So we will! (see below)

You'll be happy to know we are getting momentum, too. Since we sent out the last newsletter, we've been on radio twice and gotten the attention of the Brisbane Lord Mayor's media people, who think the Lord Mayor Campbell Newman is likely to come and hug with us on January 18.

Listen to our short December 14 interview on Radio 4BC

Listen to our extended December 5 interview on Radio 4BC

To check out our November 18 FREE HUGS video, in case you haven't seen it yet, click here.

To read our account of the first FREE HUGS experience, click here.

LET'S SPREAD THE HUGS!

Make a "FREE HUGS" sign, warm your heart, grab your friends and hug people. They sincerely love it.

Meet us near the new Tourist Information Centre
at the Queen Street Mall
on Friday, 22 December at 10:30am

Please send this on to the people you know and let us know about your hugs.

If you've received this notice from someone else, please subscribe to our newsletter list to receive any updates about the campaign, in case anything changes and when we do the next thing.

If you don't live within driving distance of Brisbane, why don't you start your own campaign in your very own city? Together, let's touch all of humanity!

Count your hugs. You need 12 a day
– Ronit Baras