How to be more present this Christmas

Don’t ruin your Christmas by being distracted and stressed!

It is packed with practical tips and tricks and lots of inspiration and ideas and really worth a listen to if you’re wanting to be present and fully embrace the festivities. So,

1. in order to help you be more present and to block out the noise and distractions you need to do what I call “putting your blinkers on”. If you think of a horse when they put those little blinkers on the side of their eyes, the purpose of that is to help them to focus on what’s in front of them so they are not distracted by what’s either side of them and so keeps fear at bay. So the blinkers mindset is all about getting you to deliberately block out what is around you whether that is for half a day, xmas day, a few days, the entire festive period it is such a great thing to do. Not to be confused with brushing things all under the carpet which is denial but actually temporarily pushing things to one side that focusses you to just look at whats in front of you is a really great way to be more present.
2. being more present is absolutely about thought management. so make sure that any unhelpful or distracting thoughts don’t take over. if you are feeling sad, negative or stressed or you feel yourself being dragged down into other things, stop and ask yourself what you are thinking and how you can change your thoughts to change how you are feeling. So important!
3. Be the boundaries boss! think about how much time you are spending on social media, how much time you are watching the news,, who you are spending time with, what time you go to bed, what your are doing etc, you’ve got to be the boss of them. if you are not the boss of your boundaries you will just get pulled from pillar to post and you will feel out of control. its one of the greatest ways to be distracted is just to have a lack of boundaries.
4. Think about as you wake up in the morning, setting your intention for the day that you want to have or the christmas you want to have. really ask yourself what do i want to do today?, how do I want to spend my time, what do I want to talk about, what do i want to focus on because we can absolutely take more command of those things. then create 3 words that describe the Christmas that you would like for you. Mine are mindful, easy, and magical and each day i’m looking at my yes/no choices, looking at my boundaries and ensuring that what i’m doing, thinking, feeling don’t take me away from what i really would like for myself. setting the intention and boundaries are very interlinked.
5. My biggest thing out of everything I’m sharing here is to remind yourself that doing one thing at a time is one of the best things you could do to be present. It’s really about compartmentalisation. our generation has got very good at multitasking and we think we are good at doing lots of different things but what we are actually doing is doing lots of things all at once and this is one of the sure ways you are going to zap yourself from feeling present and focussed and attentive to the things that you are doing or experiencing. Be really mindful and really experience what you are doing in that moment.The one thing at a time approach will make a huge difference.
6. PLAN your day! This doesn’t mean being super hyper organised for every single moment through xmas but linking with the fact that we can get pulled into all sorts of things. it happens a lot because people aren’t taking command of their time and their choices. A little bit of planning, not necessarily meticulous planning but I mean a bit of soft planning so you are including all of the things that are important to you each day over Christmas will really help. most of our greatest memories that we have are usually doing the simple things – we are human BEINGS not human DOINGS . So bring to your attention, or plan in some down time – those simple things. Its important to include some planning not to over plan! Find the ways to be fully engaged and pay attention to whats happening in front of you and really lock into pockets of activity, the people you are with or whatever you are being in that moment.
7. remember we choose what we think, what we focus on, what we watch on tv, what we eat, who we follow on social media, and the amount of time we are on there so just push back on yourself a little bit and think of the choices that you are making. When you feel yourself being pulled from pillar to post which is very easily done at this time of year especially if you are juggling too many things it can be hard to remember we do choose most things on our lives and if we are dealing with things that are out of our control we can choose how we respond.
8. Social media and technology are so ingrained in our lives now. If you take yourself back 20 years we would be having an entirely different Christmas experience and thats because of wifi and technology and in particular the smartphone and social media. just 20 years ago if you think about what we were doing on xmas day and over the xmas period it was so different to what we are able to experience now, whether that be by choice or by habit. So just take a moment and remind yourself that a lot of the habits we have now as a generation are just because of the tech explosion remind yourself of the times before we were interrupted and distracted by technology that we have so readily to hand today
9. what are your favourite things to do at Christmas sometimes the most joyful things are the simple things – Christmas food, Christmas films, Christmas activities. i love a pyjama day with my kids  –  all in our Christmas pyjamas and just being at home together something that fills me with joy. put your focus on what is important to you and create some of those.
10. you can always allow yourself to be swept up into negativity and uncertainty or you can put your blinkers on and block all that out and bring your attention to the good stuff instead and focus on what brings you joy. its important to have a bit of reflection and be present and mindful and journalling can help with this to bring attention.
11. do not compare to others, if you are looking at others all the time you are not being fully present when you see pictures on social media you are comparing their front of house by your back of house stop! ask yourself is it fact or fiction bring your focus back to you
12. slow down this xmas calmness, are world has got very chaotic think more slowly do more slowly gentle simple things keep things as simple as possible – simple old fashioned games
13. we are only guaranteed this xmas no guarantee there is another xmas for us so if this was your last xmas what would you choose to do so many wonderful things in front of us but we spend so much time looking at other people, choose how you would be more present

If you found the above helpful, you might want to check out my other high-vibe -inspired blogs HERE

Janey x

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