Your Happy Hour - Episode 3: Attracting Joy and Peace in the festive season

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

Happy Friday everyone! Tune in to episode 3 - We’re celebrating Christmas!We’re taking a little break to share in the festive feels this week and celebrate the holiday joy.The jingle bells are ringing in our hearts, so take a trip with us through the fairy lights as we discover cool Christmas moments and talk about how to navigate embracing this time of the year.In this episode we unpack topics such as: The importance of attracting Joy & Peace during the festive time, some of our favorite holiday gifts and traditions, and a gift list of some cool things you can try out this Christmas - as a gift to yourself.We’ll be here - every Friday - celebrating with you!Connect with us @ friday-feels.coChapters00:02:45 - New York City Christmas00:03:45 - A French Christmas Adventure00:04:38 - What is Your Favorite Holiday Drink?00:09:20 - Feeling the Christmas Feels00:10:30 - Finding Gratitude in the Count-Down to Christmas00:15:47 - Unpacking Our Favorite Christmas Gifts & Traditions00:28:00 - ‘Tis the Season Full of Gems: What’s Filling Our Cup this Week00:34:58 - 4 Gifts You Can Gift Yourself this Holiday Season 00:40:34 - What’s Up Next Week: Actioning Your Attraction with Nicky Thompson

Happy Friday beautiful people and hello to you all out there tuning in for your first sip of the weekend. You tune into your happy hour with Friday Feels. We're celebrating all you working professionals out there, doing your crazy craft, embracing the beauty of being human and connecting authentically. And we're your hosts, Saj and Nicole, and we're living and working around the world, holding space for you and keeping it raw and real as we share fresh content with you every week. Follow us on LinkedIn at Friday Feels and Instagram at These Friday Feels for updates throughout the week. It's almost Christmas and we're now in the full swing of the Jingle Bell Rock.

So Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell all the way. It's your Friday feels Jingle Bell swing and your happy hour, it's your happy hour all the way. We're celebrating this festive feels this Friday and you're all welcome. So grab your hot chocolate with marshmallows on the top, your glue vine or your cup of tea and let's give it a little bit of love today. Saj, you're looking super festive there and I'm absolutely loving the Christmas outfit. Where are you and how's your holiday break been there in new york city yeah thank you so it's been great i am in new york on long island and today i am drinking this super caribbean drink which is called fruta that my cousin candace gave me. I love fruta and I drink as much of it as I

can when I'm in Trinidad. This one is their fruit punch. It's flavor, it's really sweet. It's almost like Kool-Aid. So it's not tangy fruit punch that you get here in the States. I also really like their guava flavor and I'll eat and drink anything with guava in it. So it's an unexpected surprise for me as she brought it today and I was like, yes, I do want that. So I'm super excited to be drinking it. It's full of sugar and I don't really know how many fruits are in it, but it tastes great. In terms of what I've been up to, I've been super busy planning out next year for the different businesses and squeezing in some holiday time where I can. It's just really nice to hang out with friends and family throughout the season.

Some years I find it overwhelming, and this season it's also been fun. I met up with some girlfriends in the city last week for holiday drinks, and then I went with my cousin about two weeks ago to see the Rockefeller tree. So I love New York City Christmas. There's always something cute and whimsical to do, and if there is a Christmas market, I'm there. So what about you? What are you sipping on? And how has the holiday season been treating you? And where are you? Well, first, I did not get a chance to buy some decorations for myself and for Gracie. I was navigating four different trains and a bus to get to my latest destination here

today which is this little town of Ville-sur-Azon. It's just outside of Avignon and there aren't many things in this house that I can actually use that I found. I did contemplate as I was walking through the little town quickly when I arrived tonight to borrow some of the fairy lights on one of the trees in the town but I wasn't quite sure how I was going to borrow some of the fairy lights on one of the trees in the town, but I wasn't quite sure how I was going to get it back onto the tree sneakily. So I'll leave that idea for another day. But I am delighted that I found a musha, which is a naughty Afrikaans way of saying really big. It's a musha cup, Christmas decorated mug in the cupboard here. So it has Christmas trees on it. And I am now sipping on some cocoa and just super grateful

to be in this new spot and have made it here and made all my trains and bus. So that's me. As we're on the topic of drinks, what is your favorite holiday drink? We asked our audience earlier today, what is your favorite? And the overwhelming majority said anything spiked with 44% of people. And then after a quick runner up was hot cocoa, where 33% of you said hot cocoa is your favorite holiday drink, followed by mulled wine and eggnog that were tied for last place. So what is your favorite holiday drink, Nicole? Can I choose a spiked hot cocoa? I know.

I think if you kind of mix in some of those, you get something really good. I've actually had hot cocoa with amaretto and it was divine so I would I would add that to the list I love some amaretto and I'm actually remembering now when I went skiing one holiday that I had some straw rum in hot chocolate I can't remember exactly what they call oh it was something it was something like chocolade mit room. And it really makes you go down the black slopes a lot easier than without it. So there's a tip there for you guys. But love that.

Thanks, guys, for sharing. It's awesome. Anything spiked is the winner out there. I know that I really love eggnog too so and I actually haven't tried making it myself and so I'll have to add it to the feature of the menu this year and I do wish though that I could actually drink it in my Cape Town home where I have this Christmas tree that I put up there and I actually left it there when I left for New York City in the end of last year. And my dream was that it would be Christmas all year round in my home, you know, for everyone

that was there, the home exchange guests, anyone else that was staying in my home to have the Christmas feels all year round and have that joy of the fairy lights. But somewhere along the line, I think it was a family with kids they took it down and I was quite sad about it but I did understand because you know it must be quite confusing for the kids if it's not Christmas time and it's like Christmas in July so anyway the Christmas tree is back up again now and I am very excited to go and see it again when I when I do go back home to Cape Town that's awesome I love Christmas around the year things. And I think Hallmark actually does a Christmas in July special

where they pre-turf with all their Christmas movies. So it could have worked. It's possible. So I noticed you mentioned glue wine. Is that how you say it? Yeah, glue wine. So that's mulled wine right it must be is that the same thing it's like wine with sometimes they put brandy in it and a bunch of spices like clove

and cinnamon and it's hot that's exactly it it's one of my favorite drinks oh my gosh me too so that is my favorite holiday drink. I had it for the first time in Prague like 10 years ago. And I thought it was such a novel concept to have hot wine. So I order it any chance that I get. And I'm super happy it finally came over to the American market. When I came back, I was always looking for it. Like I love the kind of Christmas markets and all that stuff. So they're starting to do more of them here and now this is do do carry mulled wine or they'll

call it that on the menu so that's really exciting for me this time of year I also make punch a cream sometimes which I think the actual way to say it is punch de creme. So I believe it's French influence, maybe like cream punch, which is like an eggnog, but with very, very high proof Trinidadian rum. So funny story, one year I was trying to perfect the recipe with my cousin Sean, and I kept tasting different versions and I got really drunk. I didn't even know I was drunk until he said he was making this casserole thing for his holiday party and it was like a casserole wreath that you put burger meat in and then you fold the croissants over and he was like, yeah, I'm just gonna call it Christmas burgers. I don't remember what he said. And I just couldn't stop laughing.

And then I realized I was really drunk because I was just laughing uncontrollably from tasting so many different versions of it, trying to get the recipe right. So the punch of cream was really strong that year. As we know, not all holidays are always full of great, fun, loving memories and full of merriment. And we thought for this episode, let's dive into some of the stats around the holiday season and kind of unpack what it means for different people. And some of them are actually pretty surprising. So Sleepopolis did a study where eight in 10 Americans are stressed about the holidays. Another holiday study conducted by the American Psychological Association found that some of the leading holiday stressors for Americans are lack of time, lack of money, commercialism or hype,

the pressure of giving or getting gifts, and staying on a diet. And some of the most commonly felt negative emotions during the holidays include fatigue, stress, irritability, and sadness. I found some of those stats actually quite interesting. And also a little bit of solace knowing that, you know, everybody feels this way around the holidays. You know, during this busy time, what are some ways to attract joy and peace in this season? One of the ways that I've personally found is to stay grateful. And, you know, for me, gratitude around Christmas time is a big thing. So, you know, each day it's like, it's a countdown to Christmas. Right now we're six days away and it's like, did I order these gifts? Are they going to ship on time? There's always competing family

priorities. You can't figure out what gifts to buy for who. And I read somewhere that a good technique is telling yourself, it's not that I have to, it's that I get to. And so kind of reframing it in your mind. So whenever I'm really flustered, I try to remind myself, you know, I'm lucky that my parents are still alive to listen to them arguing over something. I'm lucky that my friends and siblings still want to talk to me about their problems. I get to listen to them rather than I have to listen to them. And so that's definitely one thing that's helped me a lot. And then the other part is just, as mentioned before, you know, trying to stay grateful.

I feel like my mind is kind of pre-programmed to make things better, to optimize. And sometimes that means finding the fault, trying to fix things. And so I actively have to make an effort to count the things I'm grateful for and get to do. So reflecting on this past year, I think we're both really lucky to have supportive people around us. My boyfriend actually suggested I take the time earlier this year to pursue what interests me. We figured out together how to weather ourselves financially rather than jumping into another job. So I'm really grateful to have people around me who support what I want to do. And I think you and I both have personalities

where we will go where we want to go regardless. But it makes it easier when the people you're closest to kind of help you. And so that's one thing that's helped me throughout, you know, the stressful kind of holiday season and all the emotions that kind of come up with it. How about you? Yes, I completely agree. And I think gratitude is absolutely the way to navigate this time of the year and really attract joy and peace into our lives. And, you know, just circling back to something you were saying earlier about, I think everyone is, it is quite hard in this time of the year to especially stay with a diet because I always feel like I roll out of Christmas into a new year and then you kind of like well hey I now have to look good for for 2024 and what does that look like

but gratitude just keeps you on track and I honestly have so much to be grateful for this Christmas and when I was taking the time to look back at this year and the incredible love support and emotionally and financially I have received from friends and family and my co-founders thank you my heart is truly overflowing and I and I want to take this moment to say thank you. Thank you to each and every person who has touched my life this year. You know, every home exchange interaction, every producer I've worked with and has had grace with me in terms of taking my time to pay and every new friend I've made in a coffee shop in a random town on my travels and to Gracie, my best friend and companion,

who is always just being the best dog that she can, even though we're running up and down escalators. And this year just couldn't have been any of that without you guys. So thank you. I really, really appreciate it. So I don't want to reinvent the wheel. So I'm just going to say what Nicole said. But for me, I think no, it's definitely been a great year. And I think some years, you know, it means more to you than

others, because you're not as sure maybe of yourself, you're not doing the same things that you've been doing for years. So this year was definitely a big year of change for both of us. This year was definitely a big year of change for both of us. And, you know, I'm really thankful for all the people, you as well, for coming into my life and kind of sharing how you navigated this interesting time, I would say, in both of our lives. So you're completely right. If we're going to do thank yous for the year, I would like to say thank you to all my friends and family as well. And, you know, you as a co-founder, Ruki as a co-founder, it's been really amazing to see how you guys navigate the world and kind of echoing in those footsteps. And it just happens to be for us that Christmas time or this month has been our launch month, has been so crazy with the traveling and the holidays and

people visiting both of us us coming back home or visiting having friends and family visit us so there's been so much going on and it's definitely made it exciting but also bearable I would say I feel like we can really share this appreciation with everyone out there and we all have something that we can be grateful for and so let's chat about some of the favorite gifts and Christmas traditions that we have do you have any that you can share with us yeah for sure so in Trinidad it's not so much so I was born here I wasn't born in Trinidad and I find myself constantly on this podcast referencing Trinidad as if I grew up there. But a lot of the culture and, you know, my family has done a good job of taking us back there often. At one point we used to go every year and then we started going every few years.

And so there's a lot of those traditions you kind of just grow up with. You don't really know where they came from. You don't really know why you do them sometimes, but this is just your way of life. So I think we both have really interesting backgrounds. And so, you know, something I've learned from, I spent one Christmas in Trinidad and the rest, I think I spent in New York or in the US. And so, you know, in Trinidad, I learned it's not so much about gifts, but more of, you know, you go by friends and family's houses, you eat, drink and be merry. So I've come to appreciate not only the gift side of it, but also the going to people's houses,

you know, sharing funny stories, just having fun and being relaxed about it rather than stressing about the gifts or the financial part of it. And that's a big thing there. You don't even need to carry anything with you. It's not like, oh, well, you're going to make the potato salad and I'm going to make this. It's just about, hey, come over to our house and have a good time. And you can even stop in at neighbors. It's just very welcoming. And so when my father married into the family, he wasn't big on gifts. And same with my boyfriend, who are both Trini. But slowly, we pulled them into our ways. And, some other Christmas traditions I like is to go with my boyfriend and his family to cut a live tree the day after Thanksgiving from Matt's Farm in Manorville, New York. And they last really long. There's not a lot of people that day. And they're really

beautiful trees. And they make it really easy. You kind of just go out to the Christmas tree farm sometimes Santa's there and you can walk and pick your tree and they have these poles that measure it so that you know when you're looking in a huge farm you can't really tell how big it is compared to you so they have these PVC poles and you can measure them and you'll see if they're like seven feet or eight feet and you kind of walk around and they give you a little saw and then you can pay the guys if you don't want to saw it because they're prickly so that's one tradition that we've got going and then also we also decorate the tree differently with a different theme each year so my mom started doing that. And now I also do it now that I have my own tree. And so this year, you know, we have a gnome tree. Last year, it was Candyland themed. We've

also had an under the sea theme, and a Grinch themed tree. So it's always fun kind of changing it up for Christmas. And we tend to be more of like gifts for the little kids that are in the families because you know a lot of kids get excited around this time of year so those are some of the traditions that I have uh what about you Nicole well firstly I just love that I have never heard of a gnomed tree and grinch oh I gotta send you a picture yeah I love that that's amazing and I'm such a tree decorator as well so please do I'm gonna take inspiration from you on that so I I really and also I need to comment on the potato salad there is always potato salad no matter where in the world the potato salad is part of Christmas lunch

and one thing we do in South Africa which I know is quite different and not everyone likes this but our potato salad has and this is more Afrikaans thing it has condensed milk in it which is not always the healthiest thing as I say we're rolling out of Christmas, but it's absolutely delicious. So it always has to have the condensed milk and then the egg. But yeah, it's a delicious potato salad. And I now am missing home when I'm talking about it. Yeah, you know, my family and I haven't really been doing gifts and Christmas gifts for quite a few years now. We used to when I was kind of growing up.

But so I wouldn't say I've had like many recent ones that I can think of that are traditions but we really just get into the feels of being together and one thing I really used to enjoy and I need to get back into it as well now is creating crafts and creating actual personalized gifts for Christmas I used to to make cards and do lots of like crafty things. And it was always last minute, always super stressful, but very special to do. And I think the best one that I did was these painted wine glasses and I filled them with gel and a wick and they were these candle holders and everyone just really loved them. And it was really a beautiful

treasured moment for me to watch people open them and know that I made it with love and yeah it just brought a lot of joy to share in that so the most important thing really for me is just being together with family being together with friends whoever you're with you know it's not always that you get to be together this year I'm not with my family, but I have a beautiful friend, Diane, coming to visit me here in this little town. And she's arriving tomorrow. So I'm really excited to share the Christmas spirit with her. And I think the most important thing is just to also make sure that the pudding doesn't burn. That to me is like the most, most important thing of it all.

What do you mean the pudding? What kind of pudding? Well, we make something called Malva pudding. It's also very South African. It's, I guess, something like a brandy pudding without the brandy. It's a lot of sugar again and a lot of syrup. So it's a bit like a cake with a lot of syrup. I'm sure there's something similar in the US,

but that's a very traditional South African pudding and dessert that we make for Christmas. And you eat it with vanilla ice cream and maybe with custard on top of that as well. So it's a lot. Oh my goodness. I'm in the wrong country. I want to go.

It sounds like me. We're going to make a plan. Oh my goodness. I'm in the wrong country. I want to go. It sounds like me. We're going to make a plan. Yeah, for sure. You know, when we're talking about gifts and kind of all of our traditions, you know, we're a big family of gifts family. Not always big, expensive gifts, but funny, cute gifts too. gifts, but funny, cute gifts too. And so we're more of a quantity over quality family. And true story, you know, the best gift that I've gotten is one year when I was on a health kick, my mom wrapped an avocado for me. And my brother was obsessed with Arizona iced tea for a few years.

So we would wrap some of those for a few years for him. So it's actually entertaining to watch people open their gifts. And I like what you said about, you know, creating them and watching people, you know, having joy and actually giving the gifts rather than getting gifts. And I feel like that's such a cool idea. I would love if somebody hand painted something for me. I need more creative people in my life. So I think, you know, those are all those kind of like small moments where it really shows that you know, a person, I think those are really, that's what I think of when I think of Christmas, I think of, oh, you know, if it's not a customized gift that necessarily they made with their own hands, the fact that you know me well enough to give me something that will kind of bring joy to my life is telling in itself. It doesn't have to be the most expensive thing. It doesn't have to

be something that's name brand. And I was perfectly happy getting that avocado. I actually don't remember any of the other gifts from that year um to be quite honest and so I think if I had to pick a favorite gift I would say that would be my favorite gift and what about you do you have a when you think about Christmas and do you have a favorite gift I firstly I have to comment on this I remember in our episode one we were talking about what you dressed up for Halloween and your boyfriend was an avocado right so avocado really features big in your life I love that I mean they are delicious so for me it definitely was being able to be in New York City December last year.

I think that was just the most special thing, experiencing a white Christmas. It was really something different for me because in South Africa, of course, you are used to summery Christmas lunches. It's always quite hot and lovely salads and cocktails around the pool. And yeah, it was so different being cold and cozy, looking at the Rockefeller tree lights, wearing my Christmas socks and just being able to make and throw snowballs in the air. You know, it was just this beautiful, what you hear in the songs, you know, I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. That's what it felt like. And, and it was,

it was really, really special. So that would be my big one. And yeah, you know, it's so interesting to me. I was thinking about this, about the idea of gifts. And when we kids, you know, we believe we ask Santa Claus for gifts, you know, for the most part, or your parents. And it's so fascinating how there's this utmost unconditional faith that when we tell Santa Claus or our parents that we want something, we will get it at Christmas. I mean, of course, sometimes you don't get it or sometimes you're disappointed and sometimes you

do get it and it's wonderful and that's reinforced. But at least even if you don't get it, you learn that life doesn't always work in that way necessarily but as we grow older there's no rule book helping us kind of pivot from asking Santa and believing that that gift will be there that we want to asking ourselves and giving ourselves what we want and I just thought that was so interesting that this Christmas time really brought that up for me you know like attracting joy and peace is not always something we can expect from other people to do for us and it's something we share with others during this special time too you know it has to kind of sometimes come from yourself

and one thing I really love is when people give gifts that they have made so I think there is often this expectation from other people to buy a lot of expensive things and there is this craziness like we were talking about you know that steps in during this time and our bank balances are often very ungrateful for that you know and but it is still possible to feel joy with others and not break the bank and so experiencing this time of gratitude like we're talking about having the gift of celebrating unconditional love together and whatever your faith may be you know if we think of christmas and where it stems from which is christianity But it talks about Christ really coming as a human to share his light and as a messenger visiting this earth to remind us just to love.

And I think it is our worldly nature to obviously revert these things to commercial means, and it's important to enjoy that energy exchange in the world. But we don't have to feel pressured. We maybe can invite our audience and ourselves this Christmas to change it up so think about how you can share love in a unique and a creative way and let and i think you know it's reading some of those stats from earlier and just thinking about how the world sees this time of year we keep saying

christmas we mean happy holidays to everyone globally but we just happen to celebrate Christmas. And the funny thing is, is I'm not even Christian. I'm Hindu. So we actually just celebrate Christmas because of the gift side of it. And like the Jollyman and all that other stuff. It's not because, you know, it's part of our religion or anything. And so the commercialism has kind of gotten to us, I would say. It's less about our faith than it is about, you know, having people over and, you know, looking at little kids. I think it's a lot for us. It's a lot about like the little kids and them finding joy in doing things

and looking forward to Santa or snow or things like that. And like you mentioned, and so, you know, thank you for kind of reminding us that it is quite a gift to give to yourself and to remember to kind of give those gifts to yourself as well. You know, as we get older, and we're not so much asking Santa for things, it's on us to actually give those gifts back to ourselves. So I really appreciate you saying that it's a very unique perspective. And I think that brings us to our gem of the week. You know, what is it enabling you and empowering you to be successful working professional in the world? And so for me, you know, this past week I met some really amazing people and I hope to have a few of them as guest speakers on the podcast soon. I just found myself really humbled by some of the people I sat next to in meetings and events at cocktail parties within the last week. And I just thought, you

know, if I was working in my nine to five, I probably would never find myself in some of these rooms. And it really just reminds me of how far I've come and how far I have yet to go. And just kind of stopping for four seconds and saying, wow, this is kind of amazing. I think that was a gem of the week for me within the past week that, you know, until we talked about recording this episode, I hadn't really reflected and kind of really absorbed, I would say. What about for you? I just want to say that's amazing. What about for you?

I just want to say that's amazing. And I think it's so beautiful when the universe presents you these moments where you can see that for yourself, right? Like you said, how far you've come and the situations and spaces that you're in that you wouldn't have been in if it wasn't for all the things that have happened this year. So that's really awesome that you experienced that. And yeah, this week has really been a bit of a struggle for me. that have happened this year so that's really awesome that you experienced that and yeah this week has really been a bit of a struggle for me I'm going to be honest I was really battling to focus on the things that I know I need to do it's a really long to-do list another topic we need to talk about at some point is this you know the to-do list topic but it felt to me like the energies out there were really nudging me this week to sit with my feelings you know like it was just these bouts of overwhelming emotion and maybe

it's this time of the year maybe it's the season maybe it's not being with friends or with family at least and but I had to feel through it and I really had to bite my tongue at times. I'm generally pretty positive. But sometimes I was wiping tears away and I know that none of those things that came were really negative. I was kind of smiling inside through all this bouts of emotion. reminded me that sometimes you don't always know why shifts are occurring within you and what it might be bringing up emotion-wise for you that's been sitting there for a long time waiting to be let go of and I find as I travel sometimes it's the small moments of things happening that can create significant shifts and then sometimes you just have to ride that through, observe what's happening. And I used to actually push these emotions under the rug. And I

used to pretend like I'd get on a call and I'd be all this super duper human happiness person, you know, all the time. I wouldn't show that I'm going through something. I thought that that's what was expected of me. But it really filled my cup this week not to do that. To be honest, to be upfront in conversations with others. And I know I got into a conversation with you and I could tell you, look, I'm in this space now. I'm aware and I'm grateful, but I need you to know that I'm in this space. And so if I respond in a certain way, it comes from that. And it was really a new experience for me this week to embrace it and to find that actually leaning into that brought me to more focused moments, brought me to a place of working smarter.

And it was because I was in a more free state and I was allowing my body to be. So that was really interesting for me this week. Yeah, that's awesome. I think sometimes, yeah, if you kind of try to push your emotions somewhere and put them in a box, sometimes it works, but I feel like it kind of surfaces in other areas. So it's good to kind of let them out. And I often find like if something's bothering me, even with an interaction with someone,

if I don't say it, like I can't, I can't like navigate around it. I will not. You'll hear it in my tone. You'll hear it in my voice as much as I might try to kind of hide it. For some reason, I'm very bad at that. I'm inspired by you in that and I want to thank you. I always feel like when I get on to calls with you, I can be honest and open.

And so thank you for giving me the space to feel through emotion and be able to be honest. And yeah, no, I think also in this time of the year, a lot of people, you know, you guys listening out there, we are all feeling a lot of emotion. It's been a hell of a year. And we know 2024 is around the corner. And between Christmas and New Year's, there's always this weird time where you're kind of rolling out of the pudding from Christmas. But you are also contemplatingating what on earth am I

doing with my life and what does the next year look like? So I know it brings up a lot of emotion and just for everyone to know, you know, it's okay. It's okay to feel it and celebrate that and be grateful for the fact that you can have that. So. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, we invite you to celebrate with us this Christmas on how to attract joy and peace. And so, you know, we invite you to celebrate with us this Christmas on how to attract joy and peace. And so, you know, we'll be sharing what we're up to. And we know that it's not always possible to be with friends and family. Or perhaps you're in a space in your life where you're doing the solo thing. And sometimes that gets lonely.

It's okay to feel sad if you are. But, you know, hey, being lonely is not the same as being alone. And you know, you don't have to be a stranger. We are here and we want to know what you're getting up to. So we've also put together a little gift list of some cool things that you can try out this Christmas as a gift to yourself. And if you're with loved ones, try out these together and share this special time and these memories with them and with us as well. First up, we were thinking you should wrap yourself in fairy lights. You know, those little twinkling bulbs just make everything feel warm and fuzzy and wonderful. So take the time, decorate your home, set up the tree,

spoil yourself with beautiful trinkets and trinkets. And, you know, take a leaf out of Saj's book and make it a theme for the year. And a poor glass of wine, make yourself a cup of cocoa, put on the music, enjoy the solitude. Sharing that intimate space with yourself is something so special. And being able to then appreciate what you've created in your space, in your home, is such a gift to yourself. So wrap yourself in fairy lights this Christmas. And you can also create something crafty like we were talking about.

It could be to cook that dinner you've always wanted to have. So do not be that person this year who waits for another special someone or family who can cook. You can do it. I know I always struggle with that. It's the roast and it seems daunting, but you can do it I know I always struggle with that it's the roast and you know

it seems daunting but you can make it make the roast make the magnificent salad the pasta whatever gets your tummy juices flowing and please share the recipe with us you know we're always looking for some good food feels and maybe the Friday feels cookbook is around the corner you never know so enjoy that make something crafty whether it's food or anything else and please share with us what you get up to and another way is to actually get involved in community you know there's so many ways in which we can get connected with others in our community you can take the leap pick up the phone show up to people and help wrap gifts read read kids a story somewhere. There's always

kids that are needing, you know, love over Christmas. Maybe you're adopting a pet, maybe you can go spend some time at a shelter. And there's always an older person that's alone, you know, and doesn't actually have family anymore. So go and have a wise chat with someone who might need it this Christmas and just share the love. You never know where and what it may lead you to and you'll be attracting joy for future encounters as well. And then lastly, and this might sound crazy to other people, but, you know, I do it all the time.

So whatever. Have a conversation with yourself and it's not crazy to talk to yourself. So don't be fooled. Try it out. See where your thoughts and your ponderings take you. You may discover that being intentionally intimate with yourself opens yourself up to a whole host of gifts that you didn't even know you had inside you. And they were just waiting there.

So tell us about your crazy conversations. Tell us about about your encounters tell us about the things you make and please send us pics of your fairy lights we are attracting joy and peace by starting with gratitude and that is for yourself for those you have attracted into your life at this very moment who are supporting you in your journey and for those that you're going to life at this very moment, who are supporting you in your journey, and for those that you're going to be attracting, those that are yet to come. So keep it light, keep it full of love, and we'll be spreading the cheer all the way into 2024.

Our question to you is, how are you celebrating this Christmas? And what is the greatest gift you can give yourself this festive season? Yeah, we'd love to hear from you. So please share your thoughts on this topic by engaging with us on LinkedIn, at Friday Feels, and then on Instagram at These Friday Feels. And remember to tag us using hashtag These Friday Feels to share your stories. We've been reposting funny content that's come across that's hashtag mood and we've also really enjoyed connecting with you guys and it's been really fun you know working with nicole and saloni to kind of sift through

the messages and see how people are feeling over these past few weeks. And you can work with us or to potentially have us broadcast Friday Feels from your space. You can check out our website at friday-feels.co or you can reach out to us via email at hello at friday-feels.co. We are now live on all platforms, including Spotify, Google, Apple, and Amazon. feels.co we are now live on all platforms including spotify google apple and amazon and you can find all of the episodes on our site friday-feels.co and next week we'll be three

sleeps away from a brand spanking new year it's absolutely crazy but since 2024 is almost upon us we want to get together and celebrate what 2023 has been. One hell of a year. So let's sip on the champagne, ponder on life and strategize on how to make 2024 the year of actioning your attraction. It is our final episode next week for 2023 and we're excited to close this chapter with a bang of light and love for you all. And joining us to do so is our dear friend and amazing working professional, Nikki Thompson, Creative Director at Menez, who will be sharing some of her journey on getting distracted, moving from distraction to attraction in her life and tips on what to do to activate your attraction in 2024. But until next time, have yourself a merry, merry Christmas. Let your heart be light

And next year all your troubles Will be out of sight So have yourself a merry little Christmas night. Thank you everyone for chiming in and for your continued support for Friday Feels and your happy hour. And looking forward to next week. Take care.