Dear Reader,
The other day I woke up with a pinched nerve in my back–oh and I have so much to do! The pain was shooting into my neck and head, and my shoulders kept getting stiffer. Great! I have so much to do! …didn’t buy any Christmas presents yet; I guess no Christmas this year?
…why am I having this pain? I try to exercise regularly, get plenty of sleep, and eat well, although sometimes skipping breakfast (and/or lunch), what else do I need to do? Oh yeah! Breathe!!!
Why are holidays so stressful? I consider myself a pretty calm, laidback person, but the holiday season always gets to me. And of course my New Years resolution starts with… “I will take care of myself, find time every day to meditate, and breathe”. I even have in my blackberry reminders set (appointments) for myself — “take time for yourself”. So why am I not doing it? I usually click “dismiss.” I truly believe there is some chain reaction with stress during the holidays. Everyone casually talks about stress during holidays–what happened to us!?
Wouldn’t it be better to simply enter the holiday season with smiles on our faces, breath deeply enjoying all the great smells of trees, hot wassails and chocolate, and move through the day and evening without all the feeling of tension, hurry, and running out of time?
I can’t tell you how many emails I received about how to avoid holiday stress, how to meditate, but ironically I don’t have time to read them all! Well, let me stop here, because I’m getting even more stressed just writing about all this holiday stress. So I guess before my body crashes, my back gets any stiffer and my breathing gets any shallower … why don’t I start my New Year resolution right now… Ok…. I’m taking a few deep breathes, turning off the TV, not answering email/text/phone calls, lighting a candle, making myself a hot cup of tea and giving myself 10 min of quietness, stillness, and try not to think about anything — just be still for 10 minutes. I deserve that. We all deserve that … it’s not that much to ask of ourselves-is it? Just 10 minutes out of 1440 minutes in a day?
Happy Holidays and give yourself the “gift of giving to yourself.”
Sincerely,
Gabriela Gerhart
