Seasons Greetings, Everyone! My name is Dr. Theodosia Marigold Hartwell. I recently moved to Spinster’s Row to establish a small therapy practice combining modern natural philosophy with ancient wisdom traditions. Mr. Percy Underleaf serves as my indispensable right hoof, managing my schedule and putting clients at ease.
It’s exciting to be a part of an artistic and intellectual community that’s open to the metaphysical world. Sentient beings are complex, so approaches to healing must be multi-faceted. Don’t you agree?
The Holiday Conundrum
For an example of complexity, look to the holiday season. While bringing magic and joy to many, it’s also responsible for increased complaints of the mind and heart. The specific ailments vary. Some are trying so hard to create a perfectly festive season that they deplete themselves. Others find that difficult relatives haunt them like ghosts of Christmas past. You can drown in the gap between what the holidays should be and what they are.
What is a holiday hopeful to do? The penny press is full of advice about the holiday blues. Rather than add to the cacophony, I’ll offer one quiet word: presence. Let’s observe this specimen more closely, calling out its central features.
Correcting One’s Temporal Bearings
Presence summons a focus on the here and now. As the Buddhists teach, ruminating on the past causes suffering and anticipating the future may lead to anxiety. Now is the only time life can be lived – the only opportunity for action and change. Experience your holidays without judgment or comparison.
When you feel stressed or downtrodden this month, check your orientation in time. Worrying about cooking a dry fowl on Christmas? You’re in the future. Feeling sad because your family argues during gatherings? You’re in the past. Recall yourself to the present moment with awareness exercises:
- Five Senses: Focus on five things you can see, four things you can hear, three things you can touch, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste. Behold the beautiful decorations, hear the fire’s crackle, feel the snap of colder weather, inhale the fresh pine, and taste a sugar plum. Your senses ground you in the present.
- Deep, slow breaths: Swirling thoughts can wind you up like a clockwork spring. Take slow, deep breaths. Make your exhale longer than your inhale. Long exhales are like a reset mechanism that releases the tension in your spring.
- Take a walk: During your stroll, pay attention to all of the sensations you encounter. Look at the flora and fauna as if you’ve never seen them before. Take in all of the details. The combination of exercise, fresh air, and focus on your environment will help you clear your head.
- Do a body scan: Remember that your environment includes you. Being aware of how you feel can help you care for yourself. Pay attention to each part of your body, beginning with your toes. Slowly travel upward. Notice how you feel without judgment. If a part of you wants your attention, ask it what it needs. That tension in your shoulders might ask you for anything from a good stretch to some loving self-talk.
Don’t be too hard on yourself if you find these exercises difficult. They require practice.
Steering By One’s Better Lights
It can be challenging to keep an even keel when one’s relations misbehave. Presence can’t prevent Aunt Phyllis’ awkward questions or curb Uncle Horrace’s rants against women’s rights. Mindful practitioners will notice, however, that they can better master their reactions to unwelcome family stimuli. (Offenders mustn’t walk the plank for every transgression.)
Presence helps you attend holiday gatherings as the best version of yourself. You’re more able to experience the sensory delights, manage your fears and expectations, notice when you need to take a breath, and offer your family and friends your focused attention. (Think about the incredible gift you give others when you focus on them – truly seeing and hearing them. That’s a rare experience.)
Attunement to the Greater Whole
The word presence might make you think of Spiritualists and vibrations. I’m not talking about that, per se. However, most religious persuasions include a belief in something greater than individual earthly life forms. Living in the present moment and paying full attention to your environment and inner promptings provides the best portal to larger-than-life experiences. Presence tunes your antlers to potential experiences of holiday magic, feelings of unity with all creation, charitable impulses, and gratitude for life and love.
May you receive the gift of presence (along with your presents) this holiday season!
Sincerely,
Dot
One Response
So insightful and a perfect way to approach the Holidays!! ❤️❤️❤️