The significance of Advent

We are now in the season of Advent, an important time in The Christian Calendar marking the weeks leading up to the Christmas season.

The Christian calendar (as with many other religious festivals and practices) helpfully corresponds with the seasonal change of the climate. The elemental forces at this time of year, is a helpful metaphor inspiring meditation, self-reflection and focussed action!

Advent starts four Sundays before Christmas day, and this year was the 27th of November. Another name for this festival is - ‘Stir up Sunday’ – when traditionally people started to make their Christmas puddings. It gets its name from a verse in The Book of Common Prayer - ‘Stir up we beseech thee O Lord the wills of thy faithful people’ and is less about puddings and more about stirring people out of complacency and lethargy; time to get ready for the festival of Christ’s Birth!

As a counsellor/ life coach my question would be - are you ready to be stirred? ‘Stirred’ meaning, according to google, ‘to feel a strong emotion and desire to do something’

Carl Rogers the founder of The Person-centred approach to counselling which I espouse to, in his paper, ‘A therapist’s view of the good life’ describes how the good life is ‘a process and not a state of being’. And to follow the analogy of the pudding further, it is only in the stirring that the ingredients can be successfully incorporated, and the transformation can begin.

However, Carl Rogers acknowledges that humans have a constant desire to grow and progress, therefore the 'fully functioning person' ‘the complete pudding’ is not an end point, and why the pudding analogy has to be dispensed with here; to be a truly ‘fully functioning person’, there is a need to be vigilant and ready; to constantly evolve in the light of experience and circumstances.

In his paper he describes the processes of a fully functioning person; becoming more open to experience, living fully in each moment, and a growing trust in the ability to make right decisions.

The parable of the sower is another biblical text that alludes to the need for us to be fluid and receptive. It describes thorny and stony terrain where the seed is unable to take root and grow. It describes how, despite the need to grow and change, there is continuous resistance. Resistance because of past trauma and a need to protect against the resurfacing of painful experiences. However, resistance to acknowledge difficult realities and to change is the very thing that causes many of the maladies of our modern times- depression, anxiety, and fatigue.

If this is a significant time of year for you, take time to consider some of these questions.

Have you experienced something in your life that has stirred you up? Are you ready to receive help? Use this time of uncertainty as an opportunity to consider counselling or life coaching to make a positive change in your life and grow as a result.  

Are you stuck but have a desire to develop a greater openness?  Use this time to consider counselling to facilitate you in making the changes in your life that will allow you to move forward; feeling confident that you can make the best decisions for yourself.

Maybe you are not ready and worried that it will be too late. Remember it is never too late to make the decision to change. In addition, meditate on this fact; one plant can produce 20 000 to 50 000 seeds, following the analogy of the sower, know that the possibility for growth and change is incalculable and exponential.