Being Present for the Holidays

As the year comes to a close, it’s an excellent opportunity to spend some time in quiet meditation. Standing, sitting or laying, make your body still and focus on your breath. In and out, in and out, with long smooth breaths. Relax into your chosen pose and scan your whole body with your internal awareness. Let yourself really feel your body and adjust your position until it is comfortable and self-supportive. Take your time.

Next, bring your attention to your mind. Quietly observe the flow of your thoughts and feelings without actively engaging with them. If you find yourself thinking about your thoughts, return to focusing on the flow of your breath. Your breath is the only vital function of your body that is both under your conscious control and unconsciously automatic. It is the bridge between your mind and body, and your conscious and subconscious minds. Slowing and deepening your breath has the power to calm you.

Continue focusing on breathing and relaxing and observing the mental and physical sensations of just being. We spend the majority of our waking moments hyper-focused on the external effect we have on the world through our actions. Even thinking falls into this category. Give yourself permission to just be present in the moment. Just observe the course of being – both of yourself and the world around you. Let the sensations of the world around you flow in, and your consciousness flow out, without any concern for results. It’s perfectly natural to find it difficult to be still and quiet. It can feel initially boring, frustrating, and even pointless. That’s your survival mechanism talking – the part of you that evaluates all information as benefit or threat. It’s an essential part of you, but it tends to be overactive. Let it go for now. Don’t worry about the point. Think about it as a moment’s rest from feeling the need to be in control.

Return to your breath, and let the world and yourself continue on without any conscious effort on your part. Let your breath be natural. Observe how you breathe when you’re not trying to breathe. Simply let yourself breathe. Observe how you sit or stand when not trying, when you’re just resting into the posture. Spend at least ten minutes doing this. Put on some relaxing music or ambient sounds and just get into the moment. For that ten minutes or more, nothing else matters. Nothing needs to get done. Nothing needs to be solved. You just get to be. A sort of mini-vacation from the noise and chaos. After a while, you may begin to feel calmer, and the issues of life appear more distant.

Then, you may wish to engage with some thoughts and feelings. In this state your mind will be clearer. You will feel distanced from your negative emotions – more objective. Then you can raise questions to yourself. You can begin to dig deep into the fundamental issues you face within while being less affected by anxiety and fear. This is the time to think about who you really are, what you really want and need, and what direction you wish to take in this new year. You may not find this activity pleasant or easy at first, but it will get more so with each session. Eventually you may want to do twenty, thirty minutes – even an hour. Meditating daily, for as little as ten minutes, will cultivate a more balanced and centered state of being, granting you the ability to meet life’s challenges with patience and grace.

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