pinecone in gloved hands

The holidays are upon us again—a busy time of year filled with visiting with friends and family, shopping for gifts, and preparing special meals to enjoy with loved ones.  To help you get more joy out of the holidays, here are 3 Meditations to Get You in the Holiday Spirit – an article by Melissa Eisler

The holiday season is meant to be a happy time; it conjures up images of cozying up by the fireplace, baking ginger bread cookies, giving to and helping those in need, and stepping away from the day-to-day grind to focus on family and loved ones. But it can also come with a lot of stress—worrying over extra expenses, navigating unpredictable family drama, and burning out from a jam-packed schedule. With all the hustle and bustle this time of year brings, it can be easy to get caught up in this stress and lose focus on the essence of what the holidays represent: feeling and sharing joy, kindness, and gratitude for all that you have in your life.

Meditation is a great way to help you refocus on what matters most this holiday season. You can’t control other people or events, but you can use meditation to help you navigate through the overwhelming feelings. Try practicing the following meditations to cultivate joy, kindness, and gratitude for 10 to 15 minutes each day from now through to the end of the year.

A Meditation for Cultivating Joy

The stress this time of year can sometimes leave you feeling exhausted, often zapping the joy that the holidays are supposed to bring. Meditating not only helps you be more joyful and present, but it can also help you spread joy to those around you. And spreading joy, lifting others, and being jolly are central to the holiday spirit! Try these simple steps to cultivate that joyful, jolly feeling:

  • Find a quiet area—this can be in a room in your house, an area in your garden, or next to the fireplace when everyone else has gone to sleep.
  • Sit in an upright position. Close your eyes and take a deep breath in through your nose, and exhale through your mouth.
  • Continue with five deeps breaths. Pay attention to how you are feeling, finding any discomfort or pain points and adjusting yourself to be more comfortable.
  • Continue to breathe, focusing on the feeling of your chest rising and falling.
  • Now, turn your attention to your thoughts. Your mind may be racing with your holiday to-do list; if so, visualize yourself crossing the items off and feeling accomplished. Know that you are taking this time for yourself, so that you can have the energy to tackle that list joyfully.
  • Now that you are clearing your mind and making room for joy, think of a holiday memory from your past when you felt deep joy. This could be a joyful holiday moment from your youth or from a recent memory. Focus on the details of that moment as you attempt to relive it in your mind, like you were watching a movie of that memory.
  • As you bring that moment to the center of your consciousness, pay attention to the joyful emotions and sensations that you felt, the smells that you experienced (ginger bread and peppermint, perhaps?), and the rich tastes of the season. Stay with the memory for a while.
  • Next, think of a way to recreate those feelings in your life today, perhaps with different people, a different location, and a different activity, but working to cultivate the same mood of joy for yourself and those you would like to share those feelings with.
  • Release that visual and take 10 deep breaths, inhaling to fill yourself with the holiday spirit of joy, and exhaling to send joy out into the world.
  • When you’re finished, sit quietly for a few moments before gently opening your eyes.

Practice this meditation daily, focusing on cultivating and spreading joy. With repetition, you’ll be able to tap into those feelings more readily, even when faced with the stress of the season.

meditating

A Meditation for Cultivating Kindness

The holidays are a great time to give back and spread kindness to your loved ones, strangers, and even to those who you are not on good terms with. Kindness is about extending grace, compassion, and love to others, and you can use meditation to improve your capacity for empathy and compassion. Try these simple steps, a derivative of the Loving-Kindness Meditation:

  • Before you start this mediation, set a timer for between 5 and 20 minutes and think of a few phrases that invoke kindness and compassion toward others. String three or four short phrases together. Write them down if it helps you memorize them. If you can’t think of any, try these:
    • “May you be at peace.”
    • “May you be healthy.”
    • “May you feel free.”
    • “May joy fill your life.”
  • As before, find yourself in a comfortable area where you can focus on your meditation without distractions.
  • Sit in a comfortable position and start to take five deep breaths. Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth, while tuning in to any discomfort in your body and adjusting as needed.
  • Continue your rhythmic breathing and pick someone (or yourself!) or a group of people that you will channel loving-kindness to (for example, your family, your neighbors, your community, your country, or refugees across the world that you read about in the news).
  • With this person or people clear in your mind, repeat your loving-kindness phrases silently for the duration of your meditation:
    • “May you be at peace.”
    • “May you be healthy.”
    • “May you feel free.”
    • “May joy fill your life.”
  • When your timer goes off, sit quietly for a few moments, smiling at the kindness you have sent to others, and gently open your eyes.

Try practicing this meditation when you wake up and before you go to bed, so that you start and end your day with loving-kindness. You can change the beneficiary of your meditation each time you do it if you’d like. It will help you practice kindness to everyone on this planet during this holiday season.

A Meditation for Cultivating Gratitude

Being grateful is something you can practice year-round, but the holidays are often a time to be especially reflective on your life. This meditation will help you think about what you are grateful for and how to express that appreciation. Try these simple steps to develop a gratitude mindset:

  • Find a comfortable, quiet location to begin your practice. For this one, find a sunny spot on your patio, take a seat next to warm fireplace, or curl up in a warm blanket on a cold winter day.
  • Sit up straight, adjusting your posture as necessary to ease any pain points.
  • Start by taking a series of deep breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Lightly close your eyes and continue a rhythmic breathing pattern.
  • If you are sitting outside on a sunny day or next to the fireplace, notice how the warmth embraces you and melts the cool winter chill. Breathe and enjoy the sensation of warmth flowing through your body.
  • Start to reflect on the gifts that life has given you today. What can you be grateful for today, in this very moment? You can choose something specific that happened today or even the simple fact that you are alive and breathing and practicing the gift of meditation.
  • Bring to mind all the potential comforts that you have in your life, for example:
    • Access to water and food
    • Clothes
    • Electricity
    • Home
    • Friends, family, and pets
    • Technology
  • One by one, think of all the special people or animals that are a part of your life, both directly and indirectly:
    • Family
    • Friends
    • Pets
    • Coworkers
    • Mentor
    • The farmer who grew your food
    • The officer who keeps your neighborhood safe
    • The engineer who constructed the school your kids go to
  • Now, think about something in your life that you are grateful for that was new in the last year.
  • Now, think of one talent or skill that you possess that you’re grateful for.
  • Now, think of one thing that you are really looking forward to in the future.
  • Now, think about something that makes you smile or laugh, and observe the emotions that flow through your body.
  • Release the gratitude images, take a few deep breaths, and finish by taking inventory of how you are feeling. Without judgment, simply observe.
  • When you are finished, you can gently open your eyes and bring the feelings of gratitude with you into the rest of your day.

When you practice these three meditations, you are actively working to cultivate feelings of joy, kindness, and gratitude this holiday season, benefitting your well-being as well as those around you. What better way to get into the holiday spirit, and in turn, make it contagious!

Ready to start flowing with the universe, instead of against it? Learn a natural, effortless style of meditation that helps make every day feel easy, fresh, and fulfilling with Basics of Meditation, a self-paced online course guided by Deepak Chopra. Learn More.