Christmas Stress Looming? Try These 5 Simple Tips…

Christmas.

Feel the word.

Does it open you up to a sense of connection, festivity and love?

Does it make you think of relaxing summer evening strolls, the fragrance of wet grass on a sunny morning, and a time to rest and rejuvenate over your holiday break?

Or does it also connote a whiff of stress?

A gnawing uneasiness about all the things you’ll need to do.

If you’re like many healers, the Christmas period can be a time when the urge to hole up at home and never come out can grow by the day!

It can be a time when, in doing your best to rally your strength for upcoming events, you stop doing new things, moving forward and growing.

You go into ‘survival’ mode and simply do what you can to keep your boat afloat.

Now, objectively speaking, you might be busier than normal during the pre-Christmas rush.

You have work that needs to be completed before you go on holiday.

You have presents to get.

You have end-of-year functions to plan for.

But let’s be honest: you are also often busy during the year, but at such times, you don’t go into your shell.

So what’s the difference?

The difference, you might say, is that during such times, you don’t need to spend so much time with your family!

For no matter what you do, they just don’t get you. No matter how much you try to explain yourself, they just don’t understand the things you value and the things you are doing.

And boy, are they good at pushing your buttons!

Now, personally, I’m lucky with my family, and I even spend most weekends in Melbourne with my parents. But the family stories I hear from some of my students!

Makes me think of the famous quote by Ram Dass: “If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your family.”

On top of all that, at the end of the year, you have to put up with the scattered energy of everyone else.

And not just of friends and family, but also of the energy projected by society at large.

The anxious energy that oozes out of the masses to muddy the lives of innocent, sensitive healers!

So what to do?

How do we not just survive the end-of-year but even delight in it?

5 Tips for Successfully Navigating the Christmas Period

Tip 1: Be Kind to Yourself

Let’s face it: at some point over the next six weeks, you’re probably not going to be as Zen as you would like.

People will push your buttons, and you will snap.

Then, you’ll be tempted to beat yourself up for not being as ‘spiritual’ as you would like.

It’s like, you do all this meditation and healing practice, and then the moment you are ‘tested’, you fail.

You react.

You lose your emotional balance.

And you seemingly let yourself down.

But that is life. That is actually what your spiritual practice is about. It’s about knowing you won’t be perfect but accepting that imperfection with kindness.

It’s about getting back on your proverbial horse and trying to do better next time.

It isn’t about beating yourself up and wallowing in guilt and self-recrimination.

That will only keep you stuck in negative energy, which will lead to more ‘negative’ actions.

So if you want to clap yourself on the back for being spiritual, then be kind and forgive yourself for your imperfections, for to do that is to be spiritual.

Tip 2: Remember the Basics

A Zen anecdote runs like this:

A student goes to his teacher for meditation advice, and the teacher tells him to do twenty minutes of practice every day.

“But I don’t have time to do twenty minutes,” the student complains.

“Then do one hour!” the teachers say.

The anecdote points to simple wisdom we can easily forget: often, the very time we should practise our meditation/healing more will be when we are seemingly too busy to do so.

For this will give us the clarity, calm, and balance to get everything done.

So if we feel like we have a million things to do over the pre-Christmas rush, maybe it is time to work extra hard on our meditation and healing work.

Tip 3: Relax with Your Family!

If you find that your family can get on your nerves during Christmas social events, ask yourself whether it is really worth buying into whatever they are saying/doing.

As healers, it can be tempting to try to explain what we are doing, but if you’ve done that time and time again and it has never done any good, then don’t wait for the miracle this Christmas!

Most people reading this newsletter are over forty, which means that their family is typically over forty, too (and often way older).

So if they don’t understand what you are doing with your life, if they don’t understand how you have changed since you were a teenager, then don’t hold your breath for the epiphany to happen next time you see them.

Rather, just be smart and avoid certain topics (religion, politics, etc.) that never lead anywhere but to frustration.

And if you feel your family judging you for your lifestyle, simply redirect the conversation to another topic.

You don’t need to explain yourself.

You don’t need to justify yourself.

If your family genuinely wants to understand you better, you’ll know.

If not, talk about something that interests them and simply enjoy reconnecting. Underneath petty frustrations, you’ll almost always find plenty of love. So tune in to that and forget about the rest.

Tip 4: Energetically Prepare Yourself for the Christmas Crowds

Most healers are extremely sensitive to energy, and that means that venturing out into crowded, stress-filled shopping centres can be an intense experience.

So my advice is to energetically prep yourself ahead of time.

Don’t simply stroll into a shopping jungle and hope for the best.

Ground yourself beforehand.

Work on your base chakra.

Work on your hara.

Then, take the calm and balance they give you on your shopping trip.

And here is a pro tip: If you want to have a better chance of maintaining your calm and balance, work ‘in layers’.

That means don’t jump straight from the calm of your home to the chaos of a giant shopping complex.

Rather, go first from your home to someplace that is relatively relaxed, like a bookstore.

From there, move on to a café, a calm department store, and only then into the throbbing heart of a frenzied shopping centre!

If you work in layers – from energetically easiest to hardest – you’ll acclimatise yourself to each layer and find it easier to hold your energy/emotional balance on the next layer/level up.

And if you don’t have time to get balanced before your shopping trip?

Then stop fluffing about at night, go to bed earlier, and get your meditation/healing done before the day starts.

Except for the rarest of occasions, there is always time. It is simply a question of priorities.

Tip 5: Be Smart with Food and Drink

Just because food and drink are in front of you doesn’t mean you need to consume them – not even if everyone is urging you to do so.

So before you consume substances you know are going to make you feel bad later on, ask yourself whether it is worth it.

Will the upside outweigh the negatives?

Maybe.

But then again, maybe not.

Typically, moderation (as you know!) will be your friend.

Which is why you don’t want to get sucked into pleasing others.

“But it’s Christmas!” your colleagues at work say. “You need to relax and treat yourself.”

“Have another beer,” your uncle says.

“Have some more roast beef,” your mum says. “Have some pudding. Have some ice cream. Have a coffee. Have some chocolate. Have some turkey.”

Bang bang bang bang until you’re bloated, feel like crap and can’t enjoy the rest of the day.

Big treat!

So, instead of giving in to social expectations, create your own social rules.

Tell everyone you’re on a diet.

Tell them you’ve come up with a new philosophy on eating and drinking.

Tell them whatever you like!

Then, enjoy the right amount of food and drink and feel fabulous afterwards.

Conclusion

If you want to thrive during the Christmas period, be intentional about your actions.

Consider the five suggestions above.

Create your own ‘rules’ and guidelines.

And then do what you can to up your current spiritual practice.

Take a course.

Do more yoga.

Take extra relaxing meditative walks around the park.

Whatever!

But instead of shrinking back into your shell, double down on your practice and enjoy your best end-of-year ever.

Do that, and Christmas can be an opportunity.

An opportunity to help you shine brighter than ever.

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