Five New Holiday Tips for Collapsing Stress

Are you looking forward to spending time with family and friends?

You may have the power to simply change who you spend time with over the holidays. It may be just a case of awareness and choice. That situation is pretty easy to manage. The situations that are more complex and difficult are those that we feel we cannot change. These situations usually involve our families. We all have them and all families present challenges.

Here’s an alternate way of being able to look at family stress that can help shift your experience and reduce your stress.

For a moment think about everything being energy. We are all individual packages of energy, the environment around us is energy and we interface with others through this energy field co-creating flow, or blocks and interference patterns. And most often we have a combination of those things.

In our families we have webs of energetic patterns that have been in place for a long time. Even if we have changed as a result of growing up and moving away, when we return to the fold we typically reenter the familial field and take on our old energetic roles.

This being the case, it is imperative for us to have some consciousness about ourselves and our roles in order to change our part of the family dance — in this way we free ourselves and can craft a different experience even if no one else changes. At the very least we can perhaps neutrally observe the familiar dance and that alone can reduce our stress.

You can shift the flow of energy within yourself and between you and others by noticing what is happening in your body during interactions. Notice where there is constriction and focus on opening it and creating more spaciousness.

Another way to create a more harmonious flow of energy is to experience gratitude and focus on feeling it instead of reacting negatively to people, places or things.

You can also think of one thing that you appreciate or enjoy so much that it is easy to feel good feelings as a result. Commit to using that as a trigger to shift your energy during gatherings where there may be stress.

When you are with a person who normally creates discomfort in you notice one thing about them that is admirable, healthy, or attractive—hold appreciation for that in your awareness and watch the interaction shift!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!