LIFESTYLE
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Your Best Self
Forget Christmas Stress; Engage Your Creative Side BY SANDY COWEN
you truly enjoy. The day is yours. Success or failure, who cares?
Holidays can push us to the brink; too much to do and too little time. The panic of finding the perfect gift, all the food prep in advance, decorating the house and wondering if the items we’ve ordered online will look as good as they did in the picture – especially clothes. It’s always the same, but with the COVID-19 panic this year, stress is off the charts. I have a secret, it’s all in your head. Stress and worry and over-thinking all reside in the left hemisphere of our brain. So, switch gears, shift to the right hemisphere and become more creative. There are very simple acts that will help you to engage your creative side and allow you refocus to the present moment. It’s living in the moment that eliminates stress. When you do that, you push out projection, which invites worry; and wipe away the past, which reminds us of regrets, guilt and sorrow. Instead, choose to live in the moment; the joy of that can be overwhelming and it eliminates stress, while you’re in that state. Yes, and while in the present you’ll find it easier to actually love the task at hand instead of dreading it. Take cookies, for example. Even if you’re not a cookie baker by nature, baking cookies can become a fun adventure. Dig out your mother’s homemade cookie recipes for butter cookies or sugar cookies or Mexican wedding cookies. Select a few that sound appealing. Then, take an entire day off and drop out of life. Turn off TV news and bask in the stillness of a quiet house or turn on low music in the background that
My favorite creative experience is wrapping the gifts. I set aside part of my dining room table as Santa’s workshop. Of course, if you have little ones at home, a person has to be a bit more clandestine with the effort. In that case, find a large waste basket and fill it with wrapping, bags of ribbon, tape, scissors, name tags and everything you’ll need. When you take the basket from the closet – you’re ready to go. Feel the love you have for the person you’re giving the gift to, as you wrap each one. There’s something about doing a task with love, that always make it turn out better. Take your time – even if you only wrap a few; fill each effort with lots of love. Finally, shopping for gifts – stocking gifts, in particular. This project is the most fun while engaging one’s intuition and creativity. I try to always shop for stocking gifts primarily in person. I devote a day or two before Christmas to trek out to male-type stores, if I’m buying for a guy – and female-type stores, if I’m buying for a gal. It’s best if you rarely shop at them so everything is discovery. Stockings, for me, are the most fun to fill – and I wrap every single gift that goes inside – not with ribbon but absolutely with paper. Unwrapping the gifts as they’re removed from the stocking extends the process and builds anticipation. If you’re the gift giver, this is the best experience to watch. When a person allows themselves to be creative and intuitive, it seems like it is more natural for the feeling of love to flow into the task. These magical breaks in your normal Christmas routine will help diminish your seasonal stress level, guaranteed. So, shift gears this season, it could be the best family holiday ever., Merry Christmas.
SANDY COWEN
615.591.7990 | alwaysinbloominc.com 227 Franklin Road | Franklin, TN 37064
Sandy Cowen is a national and international consultant for major corporations facing challenging markets. She helped found and was the programmatic architect for the largest and most comprehensive women’s resource center in the country that quickly accommodated 30,000 client visits a year. She is a role model of resilience. She teaches others that answers always exist and that each of us can take charge of our lives in ways that can be fascinating and exhilarating.
