Whether you are readying yourself for the social party and highlife or perhaps the quiet evening relaxing in front of the glass fireplace, whatever you decide to do, you can rest assured in the peace and quite of your mind that it's only once a year...

Celebrations are an important part of life, for without them we would have no way of marking events and changes. Historically they mark the passing of an era or the change in seasons. The story of celebration is perhaps a celebration in and of itself.

April the 1st is marked as the day of Fools because it used to be the 1st day of the New Year in the Roman calendar and still celebrated by some who had not yet moved to the NEW New Year of January the 1st. New Year was a day for exchanging gifts and those who had not recognised the NEW New Year were given 'mock' gifts as a sign for not being up-to-date.

This giving of gifts is a symbolic representation of the celebration. The symbol is the smallest unit of a ritual and governs our values and beliefs we hold about a change of events and the meaning we ascribe to them.

Birthdays and Christmas are an example of the giving of gifts. The passing of events and changes marks the difference between one state and condition to another. The rituals performed are innocuous to the values and beliefs held by those who perform them thus giving rise to the celebration. The innocuity is the free from sin, the giving without restraint or want for return, as a measure of marking the passing event. 

Celebration as a cultural necessity

Whether you partake or sit on the side, the value of the cultural ideals of marking these changes is a necessity in understanding who we are and how we ourselves celebrate our own changes.

Celebration is not an idealistic cultural value or a hedonistic ritual but a means by which we give over to the passing of one state to another. Regardless of your history, personal background or beliefs, you will always celebrate and continue to celebrate in whatever fashion or form some change. Why? Because celebration is a needed release from one state to another, it is as psychologists say, the resolution of a state of dissonance, where one state is in natural movement to another and the tension between the two mounts such that change gives rise to release. This release is marked by the ritual: the celebration.

Celebrations act as a valve by which we are able to vent the tension. The changing of seasons has been celebrated for centuries because with each new season the effects on the environment decided how the people would live. If it had been a harsh winter, the ability to gather the necessary food and resources for living would have been difficult for the inhabitants and so when they knew the seasons were changing this would give them cause to celebrate. The collection of food would be made easier as life started to grow again and the villagers could thus stay alive and tend to those that survived more easily. The tension dissipated through the event of the change in season, but the tension in the inhabitants needed to be released too; thus the need for celebration.

Laughing is a natural tension reliever, and celebrations by their own design can allow laughter to happen. 

Know how to celebrate

When you are in transition between one thing and another, don't just let the transition happen and then go onto the next, mark it, make it an event, a celebration. The celebration can be in whatever form you desire, with or without friends. But perhaps the important thing is to look back at where you have come from to where you are now and then notice the difference.

We live in an age, where information is king and our emotions and states are subservient to this ruler, yet if this happens for too long, there will be an uprising because they have never been acknowledged for the work they have done in keeping the kingdom of life alive.

So how do you make a celebration of your changes, your achievements, yourself?

The pub or a bottle of wine is one answer, but perhaps to offer it a celebration worthy of the change, the accomplishment of a ritual that matches the value of the change would be far more worthy than a token gesture. Just think, you have put alot of your effort, heart and soul into accomplishing what you have achieved; whether you decide to believe it or not, or perhaps even brush it aside or not fully acknowledge what you have achieved, the need for celebration is perhaps greater than you think. The celebration acts as stated ealier, as a marker, a passing of an event, it allows you and your unconscious to mobilise as those village dwellers have, resources and skills that are needed for the NEW season ahead, and not keep anything in reserve for what has gone by.

Some people find celebrating a bit uncomfortable, they can be a bit unsure, perhaps even embarrassed because they have not thought themselves as worthy of a celebration, yet in their heart they know it is what they crave, they can feel the need for it. It is in these times that celebration is important; it is the stoking of the fire, the cleaning of the attic and the laying of new clothes that maketh the person.

Below we have included a a technique which you can use anytime in which to perform as a ritual, a celebration of something you have acheived. No matter how small, or how large, celebrating the passage and mark of an event allows you to leave behind what you have achieved and gather your full resources for where you are now and where you are next going.

The NLP Celebratoin Technique (developed by Robert Ballentine)

Step 1 Find a place that is comfortable and relaxing (you can do this standing or sitting)

Step 2 Think of the event or context wish to celebrate? i.e. a new job, relationship, new house, personal change (i.e. confidence, new behaviour e.g. stopped smoking) new attitude etc.

Step 3 Imagine a line in front of you that represents time. To your left, see or have the sense of the event/time when you first made the decision to pursue your achievement. (If this is unclear make a guess when you think it started)

Step 4 Make a picture of yourself in that time, see yourself starting fully and clearly. Notice your posture and the way you move and the scene around you.

Step 5 Watch the progression of yourself through time as you see the events unfold to where you are now in the present. Notice any event/s that you consider to be special or important or challenges that you overcame and how you did this. When the YOU over there arrives at the present time. Stop and shake yourself about to disocciate from the imagery and now...

Step 6 Once again see yourself in the past at the time when you first began and STEP into the 'you' there fully associating into that position 'Seeing, Hearing and Feeling ALL that you are experiencing NOW...Walk or move forward in-time, through-time experiencing ALL of those events that you visualised before now, Seeing and Hearing and Feeling them from this associated position and notice any changes or subtleties within yourself. As you move forward in-time allow yourself to notice anything that may be different from this position that you did not notice when you were looking at yourself.

Step 7 When you are moving towards the present time, ask your unconcious mind to find a symbol that fully represents the marking of the end of or passing over of those events and achievements. This symbol may be a visual symbol or a sound/phrase a feeling or any combination of all three.

Step 8 When you are standing in the present time with your symbol fully associated into where you are now, take a moment to look back to where you started to now with the symbol in mind and quickly retrace those steps to the present and then when you reach the present time, bring the symbol fully inside of yourself feeling all that the symbol represents as the mark and celebration of the end of a time and then... 

...step forward into the future to a suitable time and look back at the celebration and then forward to what you are already or will be doing next.

Step 9 Step off the time line and allow the integration and celebration settle inside of you and your self.