November 19, 2018

Surviving & Thriving during the Holidays

What would it take for the Holidays to bring out the best in YOU?
Hard as it might be to believe, another holiday season is upon us. And while many people enjoy this time of year, it can also be pretty stressful. Small talk at holiday parties and at the family table. Expectations met and dashed.

Our holiday gift this year is therefore a curated list of this year’s eJournals to help make your holidays less frantic and more joyful.

We hope these exercises and practices fill your next few weeks with comfort and joy, bringing out the best in you and everyone you encounter.

Gratitude in place of ARGH!
Some studies show that even a moment of gratitude can help us flip the switch from ARGH to calm. This particular eJournal focused on creating a chain reaction of gratitude. Blending brain science with causality, we’re confident this exercise will bring calm when you most need it. Read more…

Listening vs. Talking
So many of our eJournals this year focused on listening. Here are two of our favorites.

WAIT: Why Am I Talking? provided an exercise for reminding ourselves to slow down, quiet down, and just listen. Read more here…

Learning to Listen for Values helped uncover the values that are at play when people are arguing or there is conflict – something that will come in handy at any holiday table! Read more here…

Listening for What's Possible Mixed in with complaining about what is not working in their lives, people are also telling us what is powerful and strong and important to them. Read more here...

Getting Past Small Talk (or even angry talk)
If you are someone who dislikes small talk (or if you find yourself meeting people at a holiday party and have no clue what to say), this edition of our eJournal is for you. Skip past the intro about “building teams,” and get to the meat. We look forward to hearing how those new conversations go! (And brownie points if you use this to diffuse someone’s ugly rant at the family table!) Read more here…

For your browsing pleasure…
If you just want to browse through the past year of eJournals, you will find those archives here. Many thanks to Dimitri Petropolis for the graphics that make that page such a joy to scroll through.

We wish you the very best this season has to offer – connection with our fellow humans in a way that brings out the best in all of us.

Want to learn alongside other people who are also trying out Catalytic Thinking practices? Join us at the Catalytic Thinking in Action community on Facebook - a welcoming place where you can ask questions and learn from people like you who are experimenting with these practices. We look forward to seeing you there!

eJournal Archives:
If you’re new to our eJournal, or just want to remind yourself of past practice exercises we’ve shared, check out our eJournal archives here.

Come experiment with us!

Keeping Our Programs Freely Available

Most of the programs at Creating the Future are free or low cost, with liberal tuition assistance when they aren’t.

If you find our programs of benefit, we hope you will consider contributing, to help keep these programs available to as many people as possible. Donate here ...

Creating

the Future

is a collection of people around the world, supporting each other in a grand experiment.

The experiment:

To determine how much better the world could be if the questions we ask in our day to day lives are bringing out the best in each other.

If everyone, everywhere, is bringing out the best in every person they encounter – and if the systems that guide our behaviors are built to bring out the best in all of us - how much closer will we all be to a healthy, humane world that works for all of us?

to get this e-Journal

Creating the Future is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization in the U.S.A