Self-Care Tips for a Mindful Xmas

2020 has been a very challenging year without a doubt, we are still very much dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and unfortunately as we see the cases starting to rise again, it is a reminder of why we need to be mindful of ourselves and others over the xmas period. 

There is great hope for 2021 though, with a new vaccine being rolled out by the end of the week and a renewed hope that, even though it might take some time, we will eventually see things opening up again and a renewed sense of being able to socialise with friends and family. 

Many of us have had taken the opportunity to reflect during this time, about things we can appreciate more, changes we want to make in our lives and plans for our future.  Now that we are coming into our xmas break , here are some tips on how you might integrate some mindfulness into your xmas. 

• Meditate – even short mediations can be a helpful way to ground yourself and bring awareness to your breath

• Be Present – appreciating and living in the moment in a conscious way

• Be Mindful – when we are living consciously, we are living mindfully we raise awareness and give ourselves choices on how we react and respond

• Listen to yourself – we can often dismiss our feelings and our thoughts, but they are a good guide to our wellbeing

• Acceptance – it has been a difficult year but often, when we accept where things are at, at any given time it makes it a little easier, it is not a blind acceptance but one that we can work with

• Appreciation – when we live in the present we might get a new sense of appreciation of the world around us, the environment we live in, the people that we might be able to see and talk to over the xmas period

• Gratitude – thinking of things to be grateful for can help change our mindset to a more positive one.  A lovely exercise at night before you go to sleep is to think of three things that you were grateful for that day; they don’t have to be huge but we might get a new appreciation of the smaller things in life.

• Kindness towards self & others – when we learn to be more compassionate and kind to ourselves, we can show this to others too and it is a very important part of self-care

• Exercise – whatever else you can do this xmas remember we can always exercise- go for a walk short or long it’s good for your mental health

Most importantly, just allow yourself to be!