How to Make the Most of Christmas by Practising Gratitude
Kris de Jong
? Executive Life Coach | 8-week coaching programs for Clarity, Direction & Balance in your life & work | Auckland CBD
The Christmas holidays may be the only time of year you’re able to slow down, sit back and take things easy for a while. This gives you a great opportunity to unwind, relax and re-charge your batteries for next year. Here’s how to make the most of Christmas.
Practise gratitude
Holidays mean you have the chance to think about all the things in your life to be grateful for.? Consciously?practising gratitude increases our happiness, and what better time to do this than during the holidays?
How does practising gratitude increase our happiness?
Firstly, it helps you to be aware of all the wonderful things you have around you. You may be grateful for your family, your job, your car, your house, your friendships, your health.
There’ll always be some areas of your life that are not perfect, and may need addressing, but this is not the time to dwell on them. This is the time to focus on what is good about life.
Practising gratitude helps you to cope with stress and anxiety by allowing you to put negative events or circumstances into perspective.
The most important things in life tend to be the relationships you have with others, and your own sense of purpose and wellbeing.
Strengthen connections
If you express your gratitude to those who love and care for you, your social bonds will become stronger, which is another source of?increased happiness. A simple “thank you” or gesture of appreciation to those close to you makes them, and you, feel good.
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Gratitude reduces feelings of envy, which is a very destructive emotion. If you’re focused on all the good stuff that you have in your own life, you’re less likely to compare yourself unfavorably to others.
Improve your mood
Finally, being in a state of gratitude is fundamentally incompatible with negative emotions. This makes it extremely difficult to be in a bad mood when you’re feeling grateful!
Being mindful by engaging all your senses and experiencing your present surroundings plays into feelings of gratitude. When you're focused on living in the moment, your mind hasn't got space to dwell on the past or worry about the future - it's filled with the now.
Make the most of Christmas
This time of year gives you the opportunity to bask in the feelings of pleasure and serenity that come with being grateful for what you have. So this Christmas, why not make the most of it!
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gardener self employed at mc gardening
2 个月if you are practicing year round why would you be out of practice ?
Community Support Worker at Emerge Aotearoa
3 个月These things can be practiced all year around, even on a daily basis...and Christmas can be good place to start if you are out of practice ????
Founder at Web 8 | Delivering Revenue Growth | Driving Client Growth | Enhancing Client Retention | Automation to Streamline Marketing| talks about #digital marketing, #Web Design #SEO #Business growth
3 个月Kris totally agree that this is important to a healthy outlook to life. Is once a year enough? I would suggest that Christmas is a good time to start. On my recent solo camp I realised how much I had to be grateful for. Now I am tring to fill in a little log book of gratefulness. Just helps keep me focused For me taking time out at regular intervals, go away on my own for 1 or more nights, take this time to just think and feel it is important Easier now my children aer grown up
Microsoft Cloud Engineer
3 个月Christmas is a great time. Thanks for this Kris de Jong