5 Paths to Peace and Joy this Holiday Season

Take Time To Pause Before The Holidays

The Holidays are coming! The Holidays are coming! It’s hard to believe that we are facing yet another Holiday season – but alas, it is true. Halloween is behind us. Thanksgiving is approaching. Christmas and Hanukkah shopping is gearing up. Before we know it, it will be New Years 2016! Yikes! So, let’s take this opportunity – this brief reprieve before the Holidays are in full swing – to pause, plan and resolve to create a Holiday Season full of joy, peace and happiness, regardless of what’s happening around us! Here’s how we’re planning to “pause before the holidays.”

1. Carve out time to stop. Before we start our Holiday shopping, planning Thanksgiving dinner or doing anything to kick off the season, we will be making an appointment to STOP. Join us for a weekend away, a spa day, or an hour of meditation to mentally prepare for what’s to come. In order to be in balance we know we need to breathe and center. After all, we definitely want to start this season from a clear and focused place of intention.
2. Make a plan. Now that our head is clear and our and mind has heart stopped racing, we can begin to plan our season from a calm and heartfelt spot. Isn’t that what the Holidays are about after all? We’ll be sitting down with our calendar and planning out the next 2 – 3 months, making sure that we do not overwhelm ourselves and that we consciously schedule some “me time” throughout the season. We know that this will help us re-center and keep our focus, without getting overwhelmed or distracted from our original intent of peace and calm.
3. Book in some “self-care.” We’ve written enough blog posts on self-care to know how important it is, especially in the midst of stressful situations. We are also human, so we know how easy it is to let self-care slip when life gets busy! So this holiday season, we are promising ourselves that we will continue to eat healthfully, exercise at least 30 minutes every day, and be mindful of our stress levels. In order to do this, we’ll be enlisting a friend or co-worker to gently remind us if we veer off track.
4. Create reminders of the real meaning of the season. Okay, what is the real meaning of the season? Being thankful for all we have. Spending time with the ones we love. Appreciating the magnitude of this world. Giving back to those less fortunate, and enjoying our lives. So often these basic tenets of the Holiday Season get lost amongst the “to do” lists, presents, parties, obligations, and everything else that is going on around us. So each day during this season we are setting a reminder on our phone to be grateful. We’ll be writing down all the things we are grateful for every morning. And when the stress starts to get the best of us, we promise to look back at our list and remember the real reason for the season.
5. Go with the flow. No matter how much planning we do, sometimes things just don’t go according to plan. So, this season we are committed to doing our best to plan, but then going with the flow as the days unfold so as not to let our own rigidity create more stress! We don’t want to miss those special unexpected moments that happen and often become some of our most cherished memories. We can always pickup where we left off later, knowing that there is always enough time to get it all done.

Ahhh, we already feel so much better about the upcoming Holiday Season and we can’t wait to get started at our spa day! How are you going to pause before the holidays? Tell us in the comments.