Less than 4 weeks ’til Santa’s sled takes to the sky. If only surviving the season was as easy as sitting back and waiting for delivery.

Black Friday! Cyber Monday! Riots at the Walmart! Deals all over the web!

And we haven’t even gotten to the mass family gatherings.

To create special memories during the holidays, we sometimes go overboard. We overspend. We over expect. We over demand.

As the pressure increases, holiday vacations can feel more like work than the old J-O-B. But with some forward thinking — about 4 weeks out — you can preempt the struggle with present moment awareness.

You can defuse your short fuse and hit the release valve before there’s a concern (unless you, dear reader, were brawling at Walmart last weekend).

This week, I bring a message of everlasting peace and goodwill towards men. A simple technique to make your time in traffic and your spot in line a moment to practice being kind.

Kind to yourself and then kind to the rest. It’s really quite easy to keep things off your chest.

This simple technique, as you’ve most likely guessed, is to take a deep breath at the slightest hint of impatience. Notice rise of discontent and then watch it fade, as you concentrate on drawing a full breath into your lower belly.

Repeat. And again.

Count to ten, like this, deeply breathing, heightening your awareness of the situation. Notice your impatience, your desire to be somewhere else (you can practice this right now if it fits).

Feel yourself surrender the resistance, feel your mind release its tension, and feel your body relax along with it. What if everyone in line were to do this!?

Daily practice like this, whenever you remember, will keep your holidays sweet and tender. 🙂

Stress Release Tip

Examine your stressed-out thinking. Are you constantly on the go? Rushing from morning ’til night? Have you ever considered why? What’s the rush? What’s waiting for you on the other side? Is there another side? Many of us have an addiction to “done,” yet never really allow ourselves to arrive. Bring yourself to rest, and then consider where you’re about to rush off to. If, after consideration, you really must be going, then do it with awareness, making it a conscious choice instead of a default setting.

Mindful Moment

Take a look out the window. Yes, now. Allow your gaze to relax a bit and become a bit fuzzy, almost like your focusing on nothing. See how much of the scene you can take in all at once. Now bring in your other senses, one by one. What do you hear? Are there any scents in the air? Can you feel the pressure of your body against your chair? Now focus on just one thing. Did you notice how constricted your perspective became at that moment? Mindfulness is about expansion, and to expand, we must relax.

Quote From Adam

“The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy in now.”
– Robert G. Ingersoll