Its that magical season of the year ya'all!! There's something about this season which fills up our life with joy and happiness and we ought to utilize it to the maximum. Merry Christmas to everyone out there and I hope that everybody's busy with Christmas celebrations or holiday plans. If not, then here are some ways to keep your mind and body busy with some 'Mindful Christmas special tips'. Follow them to keep the joy and spirit of this day up.
If you're not into Christmas and all its festivities, then you could just see this as a way to rewire your brain and mind to have a more positive outlook for this day (I dare you to keep up with this routine everyday and set a positive outlook on your life for the rest of your lives *winks*).
Its always the simple things that add joy to your life. And you cannot deny the happiness that you get when your loved one acknowledges you even while being busy, the sweet wishes that comes from even the most unexpected people, the decor lights that add magic to your space, the sweet cake that you get from neighborhood or even the beautiful chilly mornings that fills up magic around you. Christmas is exactly the time for all these moments.
Even if you have no plans to do, you don't have to just lazy around and be bored all day. If you do so, eventually you'll complain about the boring day you had by evening. And trust me, one such negative complaint will then set your mind to more negative thoughts and this my friend, is not good. Why waste your time and energy for such negativity when you could actually create some 'life' all by setting some plans?
Without further ado, lets move on to those simple tips:
The above is just a quick sneak peak into the tips illustrated in my journal. Really simple right? Now continue reading. Because some things sounds better and important when they are stressed out a little further...
1 ✱ Reach Out to Your Loved Ones
Reach out to your loved ones. It could be your friends, family or some one else and reach out and have some kind of conversation with them. Make sure it would include people whom you haven't talked in a long time. Let this day be a day for rekindling old connections.
Let go of that ego or whatever barrier you had and just reach out. This would brighten up your day because talking to someone could shift your mind further.
2 ✱ Add Some Creativity to Your Home and Life
Being a person who loves to do creative things, I cannot stress enough on the importance of doing something creative. Make some kind of decor for your home or the tree, draw something special, do something crafty. Do whatever that interests you and spend a little time of your day being creative.
This will definitely get your mind refreshed. Its guaranteed! And oh wait, you could even create something so that you could gift it to someone special too! How about that? Definitely a way to make someone else happy!!
3 ✱ Practice Mindful Meditation
Whatever culture, whatever religion or whatever beliefs you have, it all says to have a quite mind once in a while so as to refresh your thoughts. So a quick mindful meditation is definitely a good idea. It doesn't have to be like, you have to sit for a long time closing your eyes or anything. You could go to a quiet place and just think about all that you're blessed for until this day and maybe even write it down somewhere and just think about it all. You could:
- Think about the achievements you've had so far
- Be grateful for the people who are with you now
- Be happy for the food and everything that you've enjoyed
- Be grateful about living another day
And the list goes on. Like I've said before, its always the little things that makes up the big things. You might not value something until its gone. You'll not be grateful for your health until you become sick and bedridden. You'll then think about all those things that you've done when you were healthy. So live in the moment and meditate upon all the good things in your life and be grateful about. This in itself is enough to make you happy.
4 ✱ Plan and Go for shopping
This a little trick that I use whenever I feel bored at home. Think of all the things that you need to buy. Make sure that its necessary, we don't want to waste money naah? Just don't go for the sake of shopping, go so that you could have some time outside and also to buy the necessary items.
Bonus: you could also enjoy the beautiful home and street decors when you go outside. Drive around (or walk around) and admire the beautiful lights.
5 ✱ Plan a Movies Night for Yourself
Find a good movie to watch on this day. Make sure that its not something that would make you sad or gloomy. Hey! its Christmas, lets save those drama and tragedy for another day okay?
Watching Christmas movies would be a great way to enjoy this special day.
6 ✱ Cook Something Special (or try something special)
Cook something or try out something simple. If you don't know cooking, then its your chance to begin. If you are not interested in cooking, at least try out a special dish today.
Christmas is also a time for good food and dishes right? Even making a simple juice or smoothie would add to your sense of achievement.
7 ✱ Stretch Those Stiff Muscles!
Look up Youtube or somewhere else and do some quick yoga or exercise. This would ensure some blood flow into your body. To all those people who have been wanting to do exercise or yoga, here's your chance. You don't need to wait until New Year to do something new. You can start right now and keep up with it.
So when you make resolution on the New Years eve, you don't have to worry about not keeping up with it because, you have already taken the baby steps. After all, a healthy body and mind is always essential for a happy life.
8 ✱Pray Mindfully and Meaningfully
If you are not into religion or praying, you could just skip this, but to all the other folks, I suggest you to pray mindfully today. I have always believed that special days like these are the days when magic happens. It doesn't have to be your festival or your kind of culture, but hey, there's a holy background attached to it right?
I like to think of special days and manipulate it into my own special days for communicating with God. Like I said before, be grateful and say thank you to God. Believe that you are on the right path with the guidance from power up above and pray for your people and yourself and more importantly, say thank you.
9 ✱ Forgive Others and Yourself
Let this day be reminder for you to forgive all those people who have done you wrong and forgive yourself too. Because letting go is the ultimate cure to free the aching heart. You don't need all those bottled up emotions in you.
You just have to let go of it and cleanse your mind before the New Year. It will make your day as well your life happy. Just believe that everything will be okay once you stop focusing on it too much and start seeing your past (or present) problems and situations it on another, positive perspective.
10 ✱ Have a Family Time and Live in the Moment
Well, its obvious that this is the day for being with your family and making the most of it. But make sure that you are making time for them and not just doing it for the custom. Have food with them, talk a lot with them, take a lot of photos, and make it memorable. Have a Christmas special photo session or get your family photos taken. Photo sessions are always fun right?
Just make sure that you are not including too much social media into it. Because it will definitely take away your mind from living in the moment.
So.. that's it folks!!The whole point of all these tips is to have a mindful day. So make sure that at the end of the day, you are happy and content with whatever you have done. Never do things for the sake of doing it.
Always do things and follow your routines authentically. Do and give things out of love. You have to keep in mind that all these are for your happiness and not to please anyone else or to expect anything from others.
Be the light and the light will follow you eventually.
*Merry X'mas & Happy Holidays!*