Navigating the Holidays with Grace

Take a big, deep, beautiful breath because the holidays will be here before you know it. For many, this time of year brings with it the joys—and challenges—of family gatherings, gift exchanges and other holiday festivities. With some extra planning and mindfulness, you can navigate the holidays with grace.

Your answers to the following quiz will help reveal opportunities to minimize stress and maximize joy for yourself this holiday season. You’re worth the effort!

True or False?

I start planning for the holidays early so that I’m not running around like a maniac in November and December.
When my family is making plans, I share my desires concerning where we go and what we do and collaborate respectfully.
If my family and friends exchange gifts, I honor my finances and joyfully give what I can afford.
I invest the energy necessary to I ensure that I eat healthy food that I enjoy every day.
I only accept invitations when I genuinely have the energy to participate wholeheartedly. I say “no” firmly and graciously. I don’t feel guilty or succumb to pressure from others.
I recognize the need for downtime and breaks, so I don’t fill my schedule to the brim with events, shopping and other holiday preparations.
I value my important relationships and give them the time and energy they need and deserve. If this means that I go to fewer gatherings outside of my immediate circle, so be it.
I don’t make myself miserable by obsessing over unpleasant situations and strained relationships. I find peace by relaxing into all that was, is and will be.
In the lead-up to the holidays and during the holidays themselves, I do something I enjoy every day.
At the holidays—and every day—I notice and express gratitude for all of the blessings in my life.

Author’s content adapted under license, © 2008 Claire Communications

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About djwlifecoach

I am retired from 40+ years of helping individuals and teams build lives and organizations they love. One of the great joys of my retirement from professional practice is having greater bandwidth to donate my professional and creative talents to support and promote animal and social welfare charities. During my 30 years as an organization transformation consultant, I served as a senior partner in four of the world’s largest, most prestigious global professional services firms. In 2005, I took a five-year sabbatical to find healing and peace because non-stop work had taken its toll. My recovery from burnout led to finding my purpose guiding others on their journeys. As a board-certified coach, author, consultant, radio host, Reiki Master and EFT/tapping practitioner, I share hope, possibilities and empowerment with the world. 111419 DJW Sid CH Pet Corner Photo ShootI help clients achieve rapid, extraordinary, sustainable results by connecting who they are with what they do, a connection often lost through stress and the sheer busy-ness of daily life. Courageous self-awareness and unconditional self-love lead to honest choices based on priorities that nurture you and those around you on a journey to wholeness. Decades in coaching, consulting, change management, organization development, human resources and mixed media artistic expression honed my business sense, professionalism, creativity, intuition, leadership and communication skills. The result? Practical tools that help you become more insightful, creative, committed, productive and fulfilled. Even the most dedicated and hard-working individuals can shift from frustration to a sense of futility when their values, passion, work, and lives become disconnected. One of the problems with not taking care of our health is that the effects of ignoring it are often slow to show up. We continue to juggle family responsibilities, work and finances until we lose ourselves, waking up one day 50 pounds heavier in body and soul—no good to ourselves or anyone else. I love working with people who are ready to take life-changing action to make their dreams a reality. At each moment, you have inside you all the wisdom you seek to choose your life and your way of showing up. Limiting thoughts, beliefs and feelings can block you from moving forward. An absence of love and concern for yourself can result in negative head talk that holds you back with discouraging messages about who you are and what you can do. By listening and caring deeply, I guide you in connecting with your own inner wisdom. We identify the way you’d like to live. We determine what’s blocking you and release you from the hold those blocks have over you—unleashing the positive energy that will fuel you forward. Together we develop a plan to move you closer to your heart’s desire. My books, blog, radio show and signature coaching programs help individuals and organizations harness the transformative energy of love to turn unexplored possibilities into fulfilling realities and step into their greatness. What’s love got to do with it? Everything! My book, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! (Hay House/ Balboa Press 2013) shares my story and the stories of 10 of my clients along with my signature Discovery Framework. For fun, I love reading, sewing, knitting, yin yoga, afternoon tea, opera and movies. I live in Williamsburg, Virginia with my spouse, Wilson Abney, and the cat who runs our life, Maisy Jane.

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