Happy Healthy YOU
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Kelly Spencer - Happy Healthy YOU
(A wellness column by Kelly Spencer: writer, life coach, yoga & meditation teacher, holistic healer and a mindful life enthusiast!)
Mid-week, I drove up town at about 10 a.m. The traffic was busier than usual. The parking lot at the mall was much fuller. The stores starting to brim with people in a hurry.
The holiday season had officially begun.
Sometimes the holiday season may not be all the peace and joy that we may have hoped for or promised by idealistic advertising and inspirational holiday movies. We want to feel generous and giving, perhaps even a titch indulgent, but in the contrary we can end up feeling financially squeezed and maybe even overburdened.
We hope to spend time with old friends, close friends and work friends as well as extended and immediate family. The challenge being the calendar: there are only so many days in a week! And with the best intentions of experiencing quality time, engaging conversations, laughter and cheer with everyone we know, it can end up being a time of stress and over-excessive social agendas.
Even if your timetable or credit card isn’t packed to the max, the speed of the world around us quickens regardless. Occasionally we can get sucked into the twisted tornado where we can feel the hurry, worry and panic.
This mix of high expectations, financial pressure and family tension can put even the easiest of our relationships under strain. We start wishing the holidays would just be over and done with. And they haven’t even begun yet.
But there is another possibility: Find pockets of peace.
This year, my family has decided to dial-it-down and make some conscious choices about the holiday season. We plan to spend less money, buy fewer “things,” schedule limited commitments, and we are planning food menus that will make us feel uplifted and nourished rather than bloated and bogged down.
It’s important to find the little moments of stillness and calm through the busyness around us. If you go to the gym, don’t stop. If you attend classes that make you feel good, go. If you like going for early morning walks, keep walking. Most often our moments of loving self-care routines provide us with energetic fuel and steam to balance hectic intensities in our life on a regular basis, whether it’s juggling a family schedule or demands from work or bills. During the holidays, stresses of schedules, social demands and bank accounts can be amplified. The everyday stresses we feel are super charged and taking care of ourselves is all that more important.
Here are a few tips for us to keep stress at bay and to find moments of peaceful re-alignment over the holiday season.
1. Slow down.
You might not be able to indulge in a day lounging on the couch, but you can nab small moments of slowing down. Maybe your leisurely walk in the forest is 30 minutes instead of an hour. Maybe you take five minutes of mindful breathing or meditation instead of 20 minutes. Notice if you are moving so fast that you aren’t noticing what is around you. Slow your walk, your breath, your eating pace but don’t stop finding moments of calm.
“For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.” - Lily Tomlin
2. Shift the focus.
If you are focusing on pleasing everyone by getting to every gathering invited to or buying every present everyone wants then maybe it’s time to shift your focus. Instead of focusing on “things” focus on feelings. What is important to you? What do you feel is most valuable in life? When you get the answer, focus on that.
“Joy is not in things; it is in us.” - Benjamin Franklin
3. Spread the Love.
What a wonderful time to let those around you know how important they are to you and how much you love them. This lovefest can be spread beyond those immediate to you and extended out to our community. Look for moments during this holiday season where you can give back. Volunteer some time at a community holiday event, invite some folks living solo over for a meal or assist someone that is feeling challenged by life (we’ve all been there). Nothing is more rewarding than helping another person in whatever way you can. While the receiver benefits from your good deeds, giving to others will lift your spirits and remind you what “it" is really all about.
“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?” - Bob Hope
And while we all are hoping for peace on Earth, everything starts with self. So work on peace of self, joy in owns moments, and gratitude for all that we value and care about. When we focus on what makes us feel good (body, mind and heart) we feel peace that sends a ripple effect to those around us.
(If you would like to see an article on a specific topic, please email kelly@indigolounge.ca)