Looking at the next few weeks and wondering how we are going to make it through the Holiday Season? Decorating, shopping, cooking and baking, entertaining, religious services plus many special holiday events. Even remembering previous holidays seems to feel like way too much stress.

Let’s think of how we want to feel this time of year. As we celebrate Light, Love, Peace and Brotherhood, how can we best achieve those feelings?

Being aware of what causes us the most stress, we can make some choices. Who do we want to connect with? People we really love and appreciate. Does it all have to include food and drink? If rich foods and drinking too much makes us feel bad, let’s not feel obligated to please others. Stress often happens when we have a resistance to something we really don’t want to do or feeling we have too much to do.

Most of all, we need to take out some stress-relief time for ourselves: taking a warm bath, walking in nature, meditating on peace, listening to soothing music, having a LIFE biofeedback session!
What really helps us is being conscious of the feeling we want to have and how we can achieve it. It really is a choice.

A friend with a large family was gathered for a lovely holiday meal that she had spent hours preparing. Everyone was so slow getting to the table. Exasperated, she re-heated the mashed potatoes three times. Then she heard everyone laughing and chatting and realized it was more important to enjoy her family even if the mashed potatoes were cold!