The holiday season can bring so much light and beauty to a dreary backdrop of winter… but the holiday season can also bring chaos, disconnect and discord. It’s easy to get saturated with all the holiday hub-bub:

lights;

decorations;

constant onslaught of Christmas carols;

present buying, present giving;

seeing family, missing family;

seeing friends, missing friends;

going here, not going there.

It’s a lot.

And going into our SECOND holiday season with the added pressures and complications of the pandemic… it’s more than a lot. The holiday season can easily become overwhelming.

I feel it and I’m sure to some extent you may, as well. So, over the next four weeks I’ll be posting tips on how to stay present over the holidays. I had fun and was a little silly with the title,

Staying Present in the Presence of Presents

This first week is all about how to ground over the holidays.

Stay Grounded for the Holidays

Grounding is a great way to become your own source of energy, instead of feeding off others and situations around you. It’s easy to feel spacey, scattered, even anxious over the holidays. Grounding yourself gives you steadiness and strength, keeps you centered and focused, help you calm your nervous system.

A quick way to help you ground is through mindfulness.

In the moment you’re starting to feel overwhelmed, begin to be mindful of what you have around you.

• 5 things you can see
• 4 things you can hear
• 3 things you can touch
• 2 things you can smell
• 1 thing you can taste

Try it right now, see what happens when you go through these five senses.

For me:

I can see my laptop, my cat pippin, a blanket, my cozy flannel pants, my wedding ring.

I can hear Pippin whining at me to play with her, a clock ticking in the corner, the hum of my fridge, the wind outside.

I can touch the keys of my computer, the tips of my fingers, the flannel of my pants.

I can smell leftover turkey stew that I made last night, the candle burning in the corner.

I can taste pretty much nothing because I burnt my tongue on last night’s stew, and it’s slightly painful.

By going through the five senses, while it doesn’t take long at all, it really helps me ground into the moment. And by paying more attention to minor things, it helps me take better stock of my current situation. I can focus easier.

Have you tried it?

What do you notice when you practice grounding through the senses?

I’ll leave you with a great quote to contemplate by author and psychoanalyst, James Hollis:

“We are not here to fit in, be well balanced, or provide an example for others. We are here to be eccentric, different, perhaps strange, perhaps merely to add our small piece, our little clunky, chunky selves, to the great mosaic of being. As the gods intended, we are here to become more and more ourselves.”

P.S. If you’re looking for more ways to ground, I’m holding a yoga for Winter 2 part online series that starts on Dec 15th. Each 75-min session will be all about warming, grounding and balancing from the inside out. You’ll also receive weekly journaling prompts and access to the replays for a month!

For more info go to: Winter Connection