Short Circuit Holiday Stress

Photo by Sonia’s View

The holiday season brings so many positive, happy and wonderful things, but as we all know there are also many opportunities for stress and the accompanying difficult emotions that can catch us off guard in spite of our best intentions. As with so many things in life we need to have an action plan!!

Emotions are very real energies that move through us. If we do not manage them, they will manage us.  Negative emotional hurts do not disappear if we ignore them, they merely go underground to erode our systems and wreak havoc with our health at a later time. Time does not heal them automatically. Time only heals if we engage in a process that helps heal within that time.

We are human and so hardwired to feel. The secret to emotional mastery is to have methods that allow us to be in charge and able to transform our emotions so we do not become helpless victims of them.

A very helpful process is to notice when you are focused on a negative feeling. Stop the action in whatever way you can and imagine a huge red stop sign in your head, imagine hitting the pause button on your remote control, and say stop’ to yourself. Then use a memory or your imagination to get in touch with feelings of appreciation, gratitude or unconditional love. Feel as though you can breathe those feelings in and out through your heart. Keep doing this until you have shifted your emotional focus. Then see if you can adopt a feeling of ease in maintaining it. Remember this is a skill, so practice is the key.