“I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year.”
Beautiful words from Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol
Christmas is a special time for most, surrounded by family and festive cheer. To get to this point often triggers stress levels to ensure everything and everyone is remembered whether by sending a Christmas card, giving a call, popping round for a mince pie or sharing the big day. Did you know that apparently each person in the UK consumes an average of 15 mince pies over the Christmas period. As a nation, that is over 780 million mince pies!
The festive season is around Christmas cheer, hugs and kisses and dare I say a good glass of wine or two while sharing banter about the year that is coming to end and making way for the New Year. The Christmas work parties, local get-togethers and family gatherings can leave us with an aftermath of feeling uncomfortable from overeating, a little slow thinking from one too many glasses of wine and a lack of energy, because quite frankly it’s the end of the year and most of us have been on a marathon to complete everything in order to switch off and relax for a few days.
The days are short and the nights long. Nature has a way of showing us what it is we should be doing. The cold, winter days are a time of nourishing one’s self and slowing down, just as nature does in order to refuel and be full of energy and vitality ready for the coming spring. It’s a time to listen to your body and if its shouting “have a pyjama day”, have one. If it is asking for a hearty stew whether with meat or otherwise, enjoy one.
The main focus around Christmas is about the heart. It is a time of giving and receiving and both drive positive heart energy. Giving with joy and unconditional love is one of the most positive emotions and energies we can transmit to others. Receiving with gratitude even if you are thinking “What on earth……..?” feeds not only your heart, but the other person’s heart. Both raise our vibration and energy that we transmit attracting more of the same. Like attracts like. This is simply the law of the Attraction. The Law of Attraction is a concept that suggests that we attract experiences and outcomes in our lives that are in alignment with our thoughts.
Tips for Honouring Yourself and Others Over the Festive Season
It would be ridiculous for me to state the obvious to avoid over-eating and limiting alcohol intake. In fact, I can hear you all laughing now. Let’s try a different tack:
- Give gratitude for the abundance in your life – friendships, family, good health, good food, Mother Nature….. There is so much to be grateful for.
- Try to see the positive in everything and everyone. Sometimes this might be difficult, but with practice judgement drops and is replaced with unconditional love.
- Avoid over-eating. When you feel full, stop to avoid that uncomfortable bloated and tight feeling due to too much food.
- Balance alcohol intake with water to keep hydrated. Drink long drinks, for example white wine spritzer instead of simply white wine or champagne with orange juice as opposed to straight champagne. The addition of water or juice helps keep the body and mind hydrated, while consuming less alcohol overall.
- Choose the vegetarian option at the office party. Vegetables are generally digested easier than meat, and do not lie heavily on the stomach, affecting your quality of sleep.
- Include a wide range of vegetables, cooked and raw of different colours to ensure you get plenty of antioxidants that strengthen the immune, as well as providing fibre to aid effective digestion.
- Eat slowly, chew well and enjoy your food while being fully present to all those sharing the table. Eating slowly is a good tactic to eating less as it means you feel when you are satiated before becoming uncomfortable from over-eating.
- Your body and mind will thank you for leaving 12 hours, better 16 between the last meal of the day and the next meal on Boxing day or New Year’s day. In fact, any day. This gives the gut time to digest everything fully, increasing both mental and physical energy.
- Enjoy the benefits of the “great outdoors” with a good walk, run, cycle or play of some kind each day. This increases oxygen levels in the blood, clears the head, increases energy, while also assisting the lymphatic system in clearing toxins from the body and sustaining the effectiveness of your immune system.
As a closing thought, if you don’t get that present you really wanted, if the family starting falling out over lunch, auntie has a panic attack and mum gets locked in the toilet:
“Just remember true Christmas lies in your heart.” Santa, Polar Express
Wishing everyone a Christmas full of festive joy and fun, and a blessed, heartful, healthy, happy 2025.
