Add Fresh Life and Strength this Holiday Season

It is only when we silence the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.

~K. T. Jong

If your life is anything like mine, you’re stuck in the busyness that comes with a full life. Your diary is chock a block with commitments, kids activities, and earning a living. You do take a moment to breathe most days – you sometimes even take time out to do something just for you. It may be the weekly yoga class, the daily walk with the dogs, the regular pedicure, or a monthly coffee with your girlfriends.

But come this time of year, with all those additional things – like end of school year and Christmas – on to your to-do list and that rather large list of expectations, things get really frantic. There are only so many hours in a day – and it isn’t enough!

You sometimes long for it to be over and done with. And then feel guilty because you know that’s wishing your life away. You know that here and now are all you have, but boy, you wish here and now wasn’t quite so intense.

You feel like you’re flying headlong into the holidays… and the brakes have failed.

Plan for Renewal

As we rush towards the holidays, we lurch from commitment to commitment, task to task and don’t have the time to stand back and look at the bigger picture. We can lose perspective unless someone else pulls us up with a gentle (or not so gentle) reminder.

So I hope this will be your gentle, personal, reminder of the power of planning for renewal.

I found these definitions in my dictionary - Planning: ‘an intention or decision about what one is going to do’; and Renewal: ‘give fresh life or strength to’. Let’s put them together:

Planning for Renewal:

making an intention or decision about giving fresh life or strength to You

Fresh life? New strength? A burst of sustainable energy?

Sounds good right about now!

You may have to steal some time to get a start on this, but let me tell you – it will pay you back big time in energy, zing and enthusiasm.

Fresh Life and Strength

• Get quiet. Notice I didn’t say find quiet. Sometimes it’s impossible to find, or you’ll spend all your energy looking for it, and won’t enjoy it. So, no, Get quiet. If you’re outdoors and can sit and do nothing for 10 minutes, terrific! If not, sometimes you can even form a little bubble of quiet around you in a busy coffee shop. By quiet, I mean no conversation (except saying thank you when they bring your drink); no reading; no studying your shopping list; no sending messages from your phone. Just sit. Imagine that bubble around you, feel yourself quieten, inside as well as out. Sip your drink. Stare into space. Take a giant step back from your busyness for 10 minutes.
• Change your perspective. You’re so involved right now in every little thing that needs to get done that you’re definitely not seeing the big picture. Take a step or two backwards. Imagine yourself floating above the ground – high enough that you can see the whole forest, and not just that branch you were madly shaking. Start to question what you’re doing. Is it really so important that you make all the cards this year by hand? Is it vital that you go to that work Christmas party when you know you’ll hate it? Take a look at what you’re adding to your lists and ask why. Look at your obligations from a different perspective as you float by up there.
• Tune in to your body. Notice your stress levels. If they are higher than normal it’s time to take action. Notice where the stress is located in your body. Is your forehead all bunched up? Is your head aching? Is there a churning in the pit of your stomach? Or do you find you’re clenching your teeth tight, trying to hold it all in? Ask what is it you need to do right now to help your body cope better.
• Soothe yourself. Send yourself soothing thoughts. Treat yourself like a young child who has woken from a nightmare. Speak softly, calmly and with love. Stroke your forehead, rub your temples gently, massage your jaw. Relax yourself. Tell yourself it is okay.
• Tell a better story. When we get to this stage of the year, we’re often telling ourselves a story about how we just have to ‘get through’ this busy time so we can relax. I’m hanging out for January – but that’s a way off just yet and I don’t want to get there a total blubbering mess. So I’m changing my story about the next six weeks. I’m rewiring my thought patterns to enjoying the moment. I’m telling myself that everything that must get done, will get done; and that stuff that doesn’t get done doesn’t matter. As the definition of planning said “an intention or decision about what one is going to do“. Set your intention, make a decision – this moment is the first moment I am calm and clear.
• Get it out of your head. If you find yourself waking in the middle of the night in a cold sweat afraid you’ve forgotten something really important (like batteries for Christmas Day;) it’s time you started brain dumping. I’ve always advocated having a notebook that never leaves your side at this time of year. In it goes all to-do’s, shopping lists, gift ideas, menus, and lists of what you’ve bought for whom. There are three reasons to keep it with you – firstly, you’ll be able to jot down ideas as they arise (and hopefully get straight back to sleep); secondly, you’ll avoid all those little bits of paper floating around and getting lost; and lastly, if you’ve young kids – you don’t want them discovering that list of what they are getting from Santa!  When those infernal lists are out of your head and down on paper you’ll feel a whole lot calmer about everything.

Here’s to not just ‘getting through’ the next few weeks. I wish you peace and clarity and enjoyment of the moments in between now and then.

What’s your intention this holiday season?