Stuffing and Pie and Grinches, Oh My!

The holidays are upon us, in all their love/hate glory! There is so much to do and see and experience, and it is too easy to become overwhelmed.

What puts you slightly off-center these days? This holiday season, if you count from now to New Year's, is about 6 weeks long. That's too much time to spend off-kilter. Now is the moment to make the choice to stay as close to center as possible for these next weeks. This choice will lead to less stress, reduced illness, and more actual cheer (as opposed to the teeth-gritted merriment we sometimes feel obliged to present). 

Choose to stay in your happy place this season. Choose vibrant health; choose generosity; choose love.

Lock the door on your inner Grinch! Bar Scrooge from your holiday table! Let your heart grow three sizes or more, and enjoy without dread. How? Here's a hint: What you put your attention on increases. So put your attention on the happy. Put your attention on the do-gooders. Be aware of your mood after you watch the news (get what you need online so you can monitor what you take in).

What you put your attention on increases. So don't dwell on the commercialism. Don't worry about things that do not directly affect you. It's not "putting your head in the sand" to notice the good things; we have made it a virtue to bemoan all the "low-lifes" and to cry out indignantly about government and world affairs. We have confused shouting with right action. Shouting gets you nowhere. Right action gets you where you want to be.

Where do you want to be this holiday season? I know where I will be. And I will be smiling!

A Better Way

Are you stuck in a rut? Is today turning out like yesterday which is turning out like last Tuesday, last Wednesday, last Thursday? Do you get up in the morning and have the same old coffee in your favorite mug with a precise amount of cream and a regretful lack of sugar?

Then it's off to your day which is feeling a lot like your yesterday. You know, that yesterday when you had this big list of things to accomplish and a small window of time in which to do it.

And at night you climbed in between those same old sheets in that familiar bed and lay your head on your favorite pillow and just as you fell asleep you sighed, "There has got to be a better way!"

At the risk of alienating some of you, I feel a need to quote Taylor Swift here: "Shake it off!"

Oh, you prefer Chubby? "Come on, baby, let's do the twist!"

In one word: Change.

Just do it (ack, I didn't mean to quote a commercial!!). Don't obsess about how. Don't follow the path from here to there, just step out in a new direction and have faith that it will take you someplace new and exciting.

Don't lose me here, catch yourself before rolling your eyes, and hear me out.

It's not about wishing and dreaming and hoping, it's about realizing that when you repeat the same patterns over and over you will get the same results.

Start small. Eat your oatmeal BEFORE making your pot of coffee. Put both socks on before your shoes (or do sock-shoe, sock-shoe if that's your opposite). Before you place your hand on the door of your car, pause and take three breaths. Take the stairs or a different bank of elevators at work.

That's all for today. Easy, not too crazy. Then sit back and expect the unexpected. You've dislodged a pattern in your universe and since it's a benevolent universe* it will reward you with something new and wonderful -- the trick is you must be open to noticing! I repeat: You must be open to noticing when something new and exciting places itself in front of you. Don't push it aside and look around it for your usual salad! Don't ignore it when thoughts of the scenic route home have been popping into your head all day, and take the fast route home like usual.

Expect the unexpected, and expect it to be great!

*The Universe is benevolent; our planet can seem inhospitable but the "out there" is not! Just take a deep breath in and you will be experiencing the beauty of the Universe through that life-giving air!