Christmas and the festive season can be quite stressful especially if you have members in the family that do not get on or you are hosting everyone for the traditional Christmas feast. It can lead to stress, anxiety and anger which in turn can spoil your Christmas.
Here are a few exercises that you can do to calm you down instantly and help you stay on track for an enjoyable festive season. I call these exercises “Instant Calm.”
Exercise 1: Become aware of your bum on the seat. Feel the softness/firmness/texture of the seat below you. Become aware of the support of the seat…and notice as your body becomes heavy and sinks into that support…
Lean back and feel the support of the seat behind you. Lean right into it, melt into it.
Exercise 2: Become aware of the soles of your feet. Focus your awareness on whatever is touching your soles – your shoes, the floor…Become aware of the firmness/softness/texture of that.
Exercise 3: Notice how your body moves as you breathe. Don’t tell a story about it, just notice it…
Exercise 4: Become aware of the sounds around you…just hear the sounds. DO NOT listen, because that is doing. Simply hear.
Notice how things inside of you have become calm, have become still..
DO NOT WAIT UNTIL YOU ESCALATE – try each of these techniques and find which one does it for you – bum on seat, soles of feet, breathing or hearing.
FOR WHEN YOU CAN’T REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THE SOURCE OF YOUR REACTION
Even when things are going on around you, you can simply put your awareness on the soles of your feet…feel the shoes below your feet – the texture/firmness/softness. See if you can get some awareness of the texture of the floor beneath your shoes.