January, I need to let you know a few facts. Sure, you’re a long and hearty month, and one that demands we play by your rules, but seriously, we all must do what we must to survive you. I get it, if you had it your way, we’d all be hibernating like bears, hunkered down, stoking a smoky fire in a clay hut. But listen January, you may be bitter and cold and rigid and frigid, but we just can’t live like that. Not really. Not this year. Sure snowbirds may fly to Miami to escape the real you, but for those of us who hang tough to tell the tale come May, we have a few tried and true strategies. For starters, we keep color inside while your landscape lays bare on the other side of our frame. That’s right. A pop of color to remind us that even January, as big and rough as you want us to believe, is temporary.
Tag Archives: Mental Health
Gratitude Walk
Today, after the 46.7 million travelers have arrived safely, held hands around tables big and small, bowed heads in reverence, scooped, sliced, poured, then devoured, we push back our chairs and declare our thanks for the abundance. Deepak Choprah suggests an idea worthy of our attention on Thanksgiving Day: Take a Gratitude Walk!
Take a Gratitude Walk
This is a particularly useful practice when you’re feeling down or filled with stress and worry. [Or very very well sated by your holiday meal! ] Set aside 20 minutes (or longer if you can) and walk in your neighborhood, through a park, around your office, or somewhere in nature.
As you walk, consider the many things for which you are grateful … nurturing relationships, material comforts, the body that allows you to experience the world, the mind that allows you to really understand yourself, and your essential spiritual nature. Breathe, pause, and be grateful for the air that is filling your lungs and making your life possible.
Pay attention to your senses—everything you’re seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and maybe even tasting—and see how many things you can find to feel grateful for. This is a powerful way to shift your mood and open to the flow of abundance that always surrounds you.
Sounds like a worthy activity today, and everyday. Wishing you and yours much love and joy during this holiday. And safe travels!
making space
Yoga is comprised of postures that either constrict your blood flow, your organs, and your muscles, or expand and stretch and release all those parts that make up the whole of you. By practicing these back and forth poses you create space in your body, mind, heart, and who knows, perhaps your soul. Just by reaching up while at the same time pressing down. Sort of miraculous. As often happens, these yoga ah ha’s penetrate my consciousness until I’m thinking about creating space in every area of my life. After such a long and constricted period, clearly, I surmised, it was time to fly away. So, I did just that.
Nine Cent Girl 