Make this holiday season one you really enjoy and feel good about,
and during. Why wait until January to slough off bad habits and to start
doing what will make you joyful and inspired? Joy ought to be what the
holidays are all about! Try out these techniques, and go find some now!
1. Breathe, deeply and with your belly.
When someone tells you in the heat of the moment “to take a deep
breath,” it can sound condescending. But if you seriously start the day
with deep breathing,
even just a few minutes, maybe those moments won’t get so heated. Belly
breathing activates the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous
system to help you calm. If you breathe only into your chest instead,
the sympathetic branch stays engaged, putting you in a near-constant
state of fight-or-flight. So breathe into your belly even before you get
out of bed, or before you make breakfast, in front of a candle, under a
tree (or next to the tree in your living room), or every time you hit
“Send” or “Post.” You’ll be amazed how much happier your body will be
for the extra oxygen.
2. Leave the sugar to someone else
Yes, Virginia, it is possible to go an entire holiday season
consuming no sugar whatsoever. But the suggestion here is simply that
you stop using it in anything you make, drink or eat. If there are so
many goodies out in the world, and if you know you won’t abstain or be
able to keep the kids from overindulging, then just be sure not to add
any yourself. If you must bake sweets, experiment with using honey,
molasses, or maple syrup, or stevia. Or coconut flakes. Or just a lot of
applesauce and some extra spices and natural vanilla flavor. Be the
person who brings something to the party that won’t make the kids go
crazy. Load it with nuts if there are no allergies and let the richness
of those sustain you blood sugar levels. Sugar not only causes up and
down mood swings and contributes to sleep problems, but it can also
weaken your immune system and make you more likely to catch the cold of that snotty kid running through your neighbor’s living room.
3. Let go of negative emotions
If you’ve never heard of Emotional Freedom Technique,
prepare to be wowed. This technique of tapping certain spots on your
body can seriously make some of those annoying things that have weighed
on you for years – frustrating conversations, stupid mistakes, hurtful
words – just melt into thin air. A newer technique called WHEE (a combination of EFT and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing,
or EMDR) is even easier: you simply tap yourself on your forehead
alternating your index and middle fingers while you affirm that “Even
though” you feel (whatever emotion), you love and honor yourself. Be
sure to rate your level of the feeling before you start (1-10) so that
you stop when you notice the level has gone down to zero or the feeling
has shifted to something else. It may sound too good to be true, but
watch videos online and get ready to meet your new self without all that
baggage.
4. Go to bed by 10 p.m.
It’s tempting to stay up late shopping online, wrapping, baking, or
visiting with family. But our bodies really do need to do important work
in the night, and they need us to be sleeping to do it effectively. The
liver and gallbladder need to detox, but they can’t do that effectively
if you are engaged in activity. There’s a whole lot of interesting
chemistry related to times of rest and even seeing lights after a
certain hour. (Give your pineal gland the rest it wants and turn off the
tablet after dark!)
And, as tough as it may seem, try to keep kids’ bedtimes relatively stable and as early as you can. The book NurtureShock
makes a powerful case for consistency and for adequate sleep. Even
losing a half-hour for a few days in a row can dramatically alter how
kids perform on tests. Imagine, then, how they must feel. Talk about
sleep as something they are so lucky they get to do! Isn’t it true we
all wish we didn’t have so much work and responsibility that we could
spend more time sleeping? Help your children value rest!
5. Stop eating by 8 p.m.
It might seem like some kind of sacrilege to suggest, but your body
will thank you if you let it do its nighttime rituals of cleansing
without having to instead digest a whole bunch of new food. Ayurvedic practitioners
might even say to stop by 6 or 7 p.m., but 8:00 seems reasonable,
doesn’t it? Eat what you want, even a lot if you have to get yourself
out of a nighttime snacking habit. But then Just. Be. Done. You may be
surprised to find yourself sleeping better. It might feel good right
away or take your body a few days to adjust, but before long it will
just be what you do.
6. Eat with intention
Okay, so maybe there is a theme here. It’s about fully enjoying what
you’re doing rather than doing it to get by or just because you are
distracted or frustrated. This is especially important with food,
because what we put in really does become who we are. If you’ve got an
emotional attachment going on with, say, eating and stress, try EFT (see
above), but if it’s just a matter of habit, just pay attention and
start a new habit. Chew enough and slowly enough that your body gets the
signal it’s full. Sit and eat and only eat so that your body can use
its energy to digest. If it gets the signal that there is stress afoot –
like, say, that a bear is chasing you – your body is not thinking to
itself, “Let me break down this food.” Instead it’s saying, “Let’s pump
the adrenaline so that we survive to make it another day!” Drink only a
little – and nothing iced or cold – with food so that your digestive
juices don’t get diluted or the digestive process stalled by having to
bring everything up to body temperature.
7. Limit screen time
Whether you or your kids have sensory issues or not, everyone can
benefit from a little less blinking on the boob tube, especially at a
time when there are so many extra things to take in, from decorations to
performances to tasty treats. It might seem like relaxation to sit in
front of the TV, but give your senses a rest and watch only what is
really important to you. At other times, light a candle, read a book,
play a board game, draw a picture or, have a simple conversation, if you
must have some kind of input, just listen to some music if you don’t
have the means to play an instrument yourself.
8. Move your body
Some people say you need to exercise a minimum number of consecutive
minutes per day; others tell you multitask your muscle-time and just
walk further in parking lots and do squats each time you pick up
something for the floor. How about instead you just make the commitment
to spend some time – even five minutes – just moving your body and not
trying to accomplish anything else. Whether you sweat or not doesn’t
matter. Just get outside, or on the stairs, or on a bouncer, or on your
yoga mat, and tell yourself this is a gift. If you do it every day, it
will start to become something you look forward to, and then you can try
to up the minutes or set greater goals.
9. Get outside
Even if the gym or your treadmill at home are what gets you moving
your body in any kind of weather, do make sure that you also have some
connection with the natural world. Studies show that spending time in
nature can improve mood and concentration and provide a whole lot of
other great benefits. You don’t need to read a research report to see
for yourself. Even if you just get to the local park to shuffle through
leaves or to sled down your neighbor’s hill, make sure you spend some
time without walls around you.
10. Say thank you
Showing gratitude is not just the domain of lofty quotes by revered
thinkers; it is an everyday act that can totally shift how you feel and
how others around you feel. If people feel appreciated by you, they feel
better and go out to spread the good karma. We might be in the habit of
thanking people for gifts or for having us over to their home (and if
we aren’t, start now!), but we can also develop the habit of showing
gratitude for their very existence. It’s fun to practice: say thank you
to every person you can for anything you can think of. Start with the
cashier, the people who hold the door and other usual suspects. But go
on to thank the people who do volunteer work, even if they do it all the
time, and anyone who performs any action that in any way makes your
life easier or more enjoyable.
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