Here are some tips to help you navigate through the holidays with ease and equanimity and experience peace with whatever shows up!

Making Conscious Choices by Practicing Mindfulness

In part 1 of this blog I shared tips about bringing balance into your life during the holidays by eating balanced healthy meals, exercising and by practicing mindfulness.

Be Mindful.

It doesn’t matter how long you practice, what matters is taking the time daily to practice. This will create a strong foundation that will give you the ability in your daily life to take a breath and pause a moment to respond rather than react to life’s challenges and stress.

During the holiday season having a mindfulness practice will provide you with simple easy to use tools to navigate though the hustle and bustle with ease.

Respond vs React

Here is an example of mindfulness practice in action.

Like most people in Southern California, I deal with traffic.  Traffic sucks.  None of us like it.  Just the other day I was driving to an appointment and found myself stuck in traffic. I started to tense up and get angry, worried about getting to my appointment on time.  I started to wonder if the person I was meeting was going to think poorly of me if I couldn’t make it on time.  I noticed my shoulders were getting tense and I was gripping the steering wheel tighter as I was focused on being stuck in traffic.  As soon as I recognized it I took a deep breath and told myself “I am stuck in traffic – that is what is happening right now”. Instead of trying to push it away and react to the situation – I simply acknowledged what is so, including how I was feeling. “I notice that I am feeling angry. My shoulders are tight and lifted, my hands are tense, the muscles around my eyes, forehead and mouth are tight, and I am not breathing fully”.  My tension went away as I started to acknowledge that I was tense and allowed my body to accept what is.  I responded by taking action and calling the person that I was meeting to let them know I was running late.  This might sound like a simple situation, but how often to find yourself simply reacting to situations and not being mindful of them?

When caught in these frustrating situations in life, ask yourself these 2 questions:

Is there anything I can do to change this?

Can I leave the situation?

If I cannot do either of those 2 things then I must accept what is happening. Otherwise I am creating my own suffering.

When you are triggered by something or someone, take a moment to pause if you can and check in and notice your breathing and any sensations in your body. Then become aware of any emotions and resulting thoughts. Try not to get swept away by those thoughts or emotions – but just notice them. You can even label them: “Noticing anger. Feeling hurt. Feeling frustrated.” Sometimes just acknowledging what is happening can take the stress reaction down a few notches giving you the opportunity to take a deep breath and respond appropriately rather than over react and snap at someone angrily.

Try this practice and ask yourself these questions as you navigate through the chaos and hustle and bustle of holiday madness when you are out in public maneuvering through crowds of people and cars.

It is particularly a great practice when you are running late and feeling rushed. Our usual response is to start moving and doing things quickly to get out the door as fast as possible. This can end up being counterproductive. Try deliberately slowing down, and doing things methodically and mindfully, while being aware of your breath and notice how that keeps your stress down and actually supports you in getting where you need to go if not on time, at least calmly.

Below are some resources for developing a deeper mindfulness practice through mindful meditations.  The foundation of a mindfulness practice begins with having a regular formal meditation practice. You can find guided mindfulness meditations here.  For deeper study consider a Mindful Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course here.