Children singing, people laughing, bells ringing, people calling, emails flying, emotions soaring… the holidays are here!
In the midst of all of the flurry of the holidays it’s easy to get caught up in all of it and forget to take care of ourselves. There’s so much energy swirling around you can practically feel it and if you close your eyes, you just might get dizzy.
It’s in this time, when I feel myself spinning, things moving so fast around me that everything becomes a blur. I’m making my lists, all 240 of them, and checking them twice, and three times and four times, then transferring them to another list so I only need to focus on what’s left…. The house needs cleaning, cards need mailing, gifts need wrapping, menus need planning, cookies need baking… ribbon is twirling, lights are flashing… make it stop!
The other day as I was feeling the pressure from every direction a friend reminded me… “in the storm, create your own centered space, Zen, if you will”. Then everything came to a stop. Calm and peacefulness came over me. I was feeling the storm and needed to revert back to my centered space. I had gotten caught up in the undertow. My friend threw me a life-preserver. When I “go inside”, meditate and ground myself, I’m a much happier and calm person. I smile at the chaos. It’s like having a magnetic force field protecting me from the noise. And by noise, I mean everything: the music, the commercials, the reminders, the emails, the registers, the intense emotions, the intoxicating scents, all of it.
Raisin
If I go to my centered space (envision the raisin exercise), I can watch it all take place (much like watching a movie), take it all in, and then choose whether or not to get involved. I get to choose my action versus just reacting to the situations at hand.
So as the days wind down to just hours until we celebrate Jesus’ birth, I thought it would be a good time to pay it forward. Just as my friend reminded me to go within, I’ll remind you as well. When things get hectic, when emotions are running high or low, when things feel like they are getting out of control and everyone is losing sight of the true meaning of Christmas, remember to go to your centered space and breathe.
Just… breathe.
Kate
Walnuts n Pears 
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