How to Have a Happy (and Healthy) Holiday Season

Do Something Different this Holiday Season – Choose How You Really Want to Celebrate It!

Today’s blog is about exploring ways that you can rethink the cultural insanity of how we typically observe and celebrate the holidays – mostly marked by excess (food, drink, parties, shopping, spending) and give yourself an opportunity to rethink how you spend your holidays, and how you can make small, subtle (or big, if you prefer) changes that actually allow you to have more fun, stay healthier, and feel happier during and after the holidays are over (as in ditch the post holiday exhaustion, brain-fog, weight gain, sluggishness, etc.).

Video: 3 Tips to Avoid a Stressful Holiday Season

This year, my husband and I decided to rethink our Thanksgiving holiday, and we were so happy we did. It made me want to share our experience with you, and give you ways to rethink the upcoming holidays. For Thanksgiving, instead of the traditional family dinner, we booked a trip to the beautiful red rocks of Sedona, AZ. If you haven’t heard of Sedona, check out the photos on this blog because it is truly one of the wonders of the world – jaw-dropping beauty and magnificence. It is also a very spiritual place, where you naturally stand in awe of creation. It moves your soul.

One of the benefits of breaking with tradition this trip was that we weren’t destined to stress out over cooking, entertaining, cleaning, or overeating all the traditional Thanksgiving foods (as well as under-exercising). Instead, we did exactly what we wanted to do during our entire 3-day Thanksgiving Celebration – hiking in the amazing red rocks, poking around shops filled with beautiful, original treasures, reading ,resting and eating what, where and when we felt like it. Besides being the perfect place to feel and express extreme gratitude, it gave us an opportunity to step back from the chaos and stress of everyday life and recharge our batteries for the holiday season.

So, today, I would like to write my first blog of the holiday season, with a few tips on how to have more fun, stress less, and avoid the pitfalls of eating and drinking too much, spending too much money, and sleeping too little over the holiday season.

Create a Vision For A Happy, Fun, Relaxed and Healthy Holiday Season

Visualization is powerful. It taps into the incredible power of your mind (and soul) to create what you truly desire (we create our lives with our minds). So, I want you start thinking about what your ideal holiday season would look like – if you let go of all the should’s and have to’s about how to celebrate the holidays. Don’t get me wrong – holidays are important – and, the deeper, spiritual meaning of them is vital to our humanity. The holidays have been one of the most joyful events for humans for literally millennium – the music, lights, candles, foods, gift-giving and religious observances have given people joy, meaning and fulfillment since time immemorial – and I include myself in those that love the true sacred meaning of the holidays along with all the merriment. So this is not about giving up the parts that you love and that give you meaning. It’s about letting go of the should’s that rob the joy and meaning from the holidays (and oftentimes leave you fat, broke and tired).

But, I know that change is difficult and scary. I get it.

So, before you start creating your vision of how you want this holiday season to be – and considering breaking with any of the traditions (of excess – not when practiced in moderation) that drain and deplete you, imagine that instead of being a sheep and just doing whatever everyone else does, consider feeling and behaving more like a lion/lioness.  It takes strength, courage and willingness to fight for what you value, and lots of quality time alone taking good care of yourself to change the way you’ve always done things, and to not be afraid of being “different”, “left-out”,  “rebellious”, or whatever other negative feelings and fears come up when you consider doing something different, or taking better care of yourself.

Visualization

• Close your eyes
• Begin to imagine what you would like your holiday to look like
• See all the details and notice how you feel when you celebrate like this
• Open you eyes and write down what you envisioned and post it somewhere you will see it frequently
• ENJOY….the holiday experience you have created!

So, for this week, just start thinking about what (if any) changes you might want to make in how you celebrate the holidays – and set an intention to create the holiday you want to experience, knowing that you will feel better and feel better about yourself, come January 2.

I love you all!  Have a wonderful, fabulous week and I’ll see you next week with more tips on how to create a holiday season you love!

Blessings,