5 Easy Ways to Have an Incredible Holiday

When the thought of the holidays approach, does it bring you back to your childhood self?

Do you find yourself regressing to behavior and/ or a position in the family that you dread?

Or are the holidays a time that bring on feelings of loneliness because you may not have the same type of family gathering that everyone else talks about?

What’s a person to do?

Lead with your feelings. First get clear on how you want to feel and then make decisions based on that. Lead with your heart.

1 – Start with what’s most present. What are you most stressed out about right now?

Many times we have already decided we are going to be stressed out, angry, sad, (enter your emotion of choice). We take on anger or stress because it is expected of us.

How about trying a new approach where instead of deciding in our mind how terrible it’s going to be? Just run with it and allow ourselves to think about this present moment only. Quite possibly what we’re worried about won’t even be an issue but because we focus so much on finding the stress we think in our minds will be there, we end up creating more stress instead of enjoying the moment we are in. We can create our own joyous moments.

2 – Take charge of your JOY.

Let go of the expectations of taking care of other people’s happiness and let go of allowing them to be in charge of your own happiness. They will do what they will do. We can only control us.

Embrace the parts of the holidays that you love and do away with the parts that you don’t. Take responsibility for making a choice to do something or not do something. The holidays are about JOY. Make sure we are doing the things that bring us joy. If there are old traditions that bring us sadness, then try something new! Create new traditions.

3 – Open your heart to others. Be the joy for someone less fortunate. Engage in some act of service.

If loneliness is something that comes up, a great remedy is to reach out to others. Volunteer in a way that makes YOU feel good. There are so many people that could use what you have to offer in your very special way. The best way for us to feel better is by giving of ourselves to others in a way that feels good to both the giver and receiver.

4 – Catch your breath. Take quality time for yourself.

Take some time to walk out in nature. Breathe in the fresh air and then remind yourself all of the things that you are grateful for. Taking a few moments to do this can really lower your stress level and make you feel more grounded.

5 – Change your expectations.

Do the holidays make us revert to our childhood self? For various reasons, our minds take us to how we were treated or the expectations that certain family members put upon us.

We carry around so many past memories of family members. We are not obligated to stay upset with them.

Have you noticed being uptight with them before we even see them? We keep thinking about the way they acted in the PAST so we end up missing out on joy from others around us NOW because we are so focused on what this person did to us in the past.

Ask yourself? Is it necessary for me to hold on to this expectation? What good is it bringing me at this moment?

“Knowing how you actually want to feel is the most potent form of clarity that you can have. Generating those feelings is the most powerfully creative thing you can do with your life.”

                                                    -Danielle LaPorte

How can you lead with your heart and have your feelings direct you so that you can have an incredible holiday experience? Please share your thoughts below.