The holidays is often a time for family, friends and festivities. The season usually brings our relationships and interactions with others into the spotlight. It’s often said that our closest relationships present us with our greatest challenges in life, so it’s little wonder that family gatherings over the festive season can be fertile ground for tension and conflict. Bringing mindfulness to our interactions can help us to navigate our way through this period and cultivate positive connections. Here are a few tips to help you maintain sanity this season….

Practice Mindful Eating

With so many gatherings over the Christmas period, it can be easy to over-indulge and stop paying attention to what we’re putting in our mouths.

By eating mindfully, we can really slow down and appreciate what we’re eating.

Think about your body and stop eating when you feel full and eat when you feel hungry when possible.

When you’re eating, make it your main focus and try to not to get distracted by all the stimuli around you. This can be particularly difficult with all the family gatherings that happen this time of year but, not impossible.

Keep To Your Normal Routine

This is a really important point that often gets overlooked because it’s easy to lose track of your normal routine over Christmas. Ultimately this can make it more difficult to get back into your regular routine after the holidays.

If you’re not working out, eating healthfully or going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, you can end up feeling sluggish and miserable. If you’re staying up late and not getting enough sleep, you can end up with a ‘sleep debt’ which will affect your concentration and decision making skills during the day. This can lead to making poor food choices and ultimately unwanted weight gain.

Take A Mindful Pause

Taking a mindful pause is a great way to step back from a stressful situation,

before acting or speaking in a manner that you may later regret.

Taking a moment to connect with your body to help alleviate tension and remembering to breathe can make all the difference.

Take the time to be grateful for the things you have this season. It doesn’t have to be something big, but try a make a list every day over Christmas of some things you find inspiring, pleasant, joyful and that you are grateful for.

Around this time of the year, we can find ourselves bombarded with images of Christmas ideals of unity, harmony and joy, but the reality can be different and far more complex for many people. Practicing mindfulness during the holidays can help ease some of these stresses for many of us.