Experience Your Life Blog

Stress can put a heavy weight on to our ability tostress free holiday truly enjoy the holiday season.  But there is a special secret weapon we can use to lift that weight and make the holidays soar.

That special weapon is laughter.

In my family we have a wonderful  traditionHoliday Traditions to find a new Christmas ornament for the tree each year.  The search for the new ornament is a year long adventure and they are often found on vacations, craft fairs, or a trip to a unique artist studio.

Each year as the ornaments are brought out to be hung on the tree, floods of memories fill the evening air with many a story or joke to accompany them.

So what are your unique holiday traditions?

In step three of having a stress free holiday, we talked aboutball0007 getting some regular exercise every day.  Just as important is step four, making sure to give yourself some down time, a special time that is just for you to be quiet with yourself.

So what makes you calm?

Family and friends visit for the holidays and you findstress free holidays yourself sitting around eating good food and maybe sharing a drink together. Perhaps you sit around and watch movies with the kids or find yourself sitting for hours wrapping gifts and addressing holiday cards.

And you wonder why you may feel sluggish, unfocused and stressed out.

You need to get up and Move IT. Every day!

As we look at the tools that can help you reduce stressstress free holidays during the holidays, it is time to explore that hectic schedule that you are busy creating for your holidays and really take a look at what is important to make your season bright.  As I mentioned in part one of this series it is vital to realize that in truth we can only do one thing at a time and truly be present.

The hard truth is that you will probably have to choose to do less this year but the trade off is that you will be able to enjoy each thing more.

We are coming to that time of the year when manystress free holiday of us experience the pressure of trying to create the perfect holiday for everyone.  We try so hard to make everyone else happy that we end up feeling exhausted, stressed out, unhappy, and sometimes even angry.

It doesn't have to be that way.  In fact by taking care of ourselves we can make the holidays a time full of fun and joy.  So, in this ongoing series, I will share a few tools that you can use to make the holidays stress free.

First up is a concept that may feel a little unusual for many of us.  Ready...Here it is.. Do only one thing at a time.

With all of the noise in the air these days anxiety and stresslet go of the stress and anxiety have become the norm and connecting to the peace and strength within can become a huge challenge.  All of the news, gossip, traffic, construction and other noises from the outside world can distract us in our efforts to connect to the inside world.

So how do we release the anxiety and stress, reconnect to stillness, and find our way inside to serenity, calmness,  and peace.

I think my dog has the right idea about leading a good life.  best dog for therapyShe always seems content.  Her biggest project of the day is to lie in the sun and drink up all of the juicy warmth from the bricks on the patio. Or if there is a patch of sun in the living room...

Caretaker. Co-dependent. Giver.

Those of us who offer our energy freely to the world often fallfocusing meditation under the heading of these blessed descriptions with much of our time in the care of others but not always concentrating on the care of ourselves. 

Yet the energy that we expend on bringing healing into the world has to come from somewhere and taking the time to bring even a small amount of peace into our busy lives can be beneficial to ourselves and the people we interact with on a daily basis.  And we can get there in three easy breaths!  Here's how.

As spring, the season of growth and development, approaches, steps to successit is a good time to pause and evaluate your priorities. It is easy to just keep following the day-to-day grind without reflecting on where that pattern of behavior is taking you. It can be invaluable to take a moment and look at the big picture and your place in that larger frame.

I would like to invite you to ask yourself the following three questions:

1. What are the most important things in my life?

2. Am I focusing my daily energy on at least one of those things?

3. If not, why not?

Let's delve a little bit further into this process one question at a time.

As we head into the holiday weekend it looks like I will befloating away having some much needed time off where I will be doing nothing. It is very rare that I spend a day and do nothing. 

I wonder why?

By now you may have seen the latest video disaster onlinefearless leap of New Jersey Housewife Danielle Staub performing her new song " Real Close".  If not take a look !

What I think is interesting about this video is not the failure of it but the idea that this woman took a shot at an opportunity. How many times have opportunities come your way and you have passed on them?

I heard an interview with Anthony Doerr about his new shorttime slipping by story collection, Memory Wall, and he was speaking on how we place ourselves into the larger context of time. He used the phrase " the tiny fingersnap of time we get to be on this earth" and it got me to thinking of how we can better appreciate the moments we have.

The signs are up at Target, the ads are in the papers,iStock_000003134043XSmall and a certain sad expression has appeared on many of the kids in the neighborhood. It can only mean one thing.  It's back to school time.

With all of the back to school energy in the air, it got me to thinking about how all of us can take advantage of this energy and find our own back to school project.  

As an educator and an advocate in the HIV/AIDS community I am often asked “Is AIDS still with us?” HIV counselingThis question usually arises after the latest television story or news report about the newest treatments for HIV positive people.

According to the Center for Disease Control, the answer to that question is yes; the disease is still with us with over one million reported cases of people living with HIV in the United States alone. Worldwide the numbers become more staggering with UNAIDS estimating over 31 million people who have contracted HIV.

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