Hi everyone! This week I wanted to talk about Christmas Day and specially how to celebrate a conscious Christmas Day!

But what is really a conscious Christmas? Check out my definition! My definition would be concerning a few things like: the attitude that you want to bring with you into that day, the spirit that you want to celebrate and the most important of all the attention that you want to put in…Celebrating a conscious Christmas is about finding the true you in this celebration. It is about putting an effort to bring your values, intention and attention into the moment and the people you are with. If you are interested to open more during this Christmas and be more true to yourself, this article has been made for you!

A Christmassy Conscious Attitude

If you think about it, we often see in the movies that the ‘right’ Christmassy attitude is all about being happy and grateful and even more happy! And we think, we are negative and annoying people if we are not in that happy/perfect mood. But I invite you to think about what attitude is really true to yourself that exact day? Be honest with yourself: are you sad? do you feel lonely? or just like it is another day like every other. If you struggle to really put your feelings into words, meditate, breathe deeply for few minutes and connect to yourself to see how you feel. And now think about this: whatever mood you are in, the most important question to ask yourself is: what energy do you want to bring with you to the party? What part of your personality do you want to show to other people? Do you want to look like the grumpy young lady or do you want to be the open person, happy or at least content to welcome and talk to everyone? There are no good answers to this and I certainly won’t tell you that to spend a conscious Christmas day you need to be the happiest girl/guy on Earth! No, no. Bring whatever vibe you are in that day, be clear with it and wear it. The only thing is to be conscious of that vibe. If, for example, you know you are going to struggle with your family on many various topics but you know you want to remember this Christmas day for a great time where for once in the year nobody will be fighting and throwing each other rocks, you can remind yourself of the energy you wanted to bring in the first place and focus on that. Whatever happens, just be cool with yourself and don’t judge yourself too harshly for not being the happiest person on Earth. Nobody cares. Everyone just want to have a good time. And if at least one people in the party, you, are conscious of the vibe and are all about being true to yourself and being aware of how your attitude affects people, you can change the attitude of the place. You don’t have to pretend anything.

Check out your intention(s)

What is your spirit this year? Do you want to break the ice about a few subjects? Open yourself more to your family? I have always felt personally that Christmas was THE day where everyone in the family was sharing their goals, their struggles, their projects, like New Year’s Day actually but if there are a lot of people at the party, it can be a little bit more of: ‘Who had the best year? Who was the most successful?’…And it can be really triggering to resist judging so the best is to focus, as much as possible, of what intention do you want to bring to the party.

What conscious intention do you want to focus on? Do you want to repeat to the people around you that you love them? Do you want to show them you love them through gifts, food or gestures something more that you would usually share with them? Do you want to have a special intention for this year’s celebration? Name it and focus on it.

Make conscious connections

It may be the time of the year where you want to open more, let people in your precious and safe bubble. Destroy the walls and bring back more vulnerability. Maybe you want to connect on a deeper level, leaving the small everyday talk and instead having the deep conversations.

Or it can be the complete opposite, you want to reinforce your defensive field to feel more protected than ever against everyone. You might not want anyone to reach you. 

There is nothing wrong with any of the answers. What I would encourage you to try though would be to feel fully present during the conversations you have that night. Even if you are talking to 2 people, try being fully in the present moment and connect consciously to the people around you. You can manifest that by your body language, just by looking someone carefully in the eyes or turn toward that person so they can see your face. Just make people feel heard, you will see that you will receive a lot too.

Eat consciously

Let’s be clear on that, Christmas Day is certainly not the time of the year where you have to stuff yourself to please your grandmother or your dad. As we usually cook more fancy food, it is normal that you want to enjoy a bit of everything but remember to be reasonable. By eating consciously and check in regularly with your body, you will know already what you can handle and your level of hunger. If you can, the best thing you can do before eating, would be to assess with yourself how hungry you are already, by closing your eyes and taking a few breaths. If you need another motivation to eat consciously, think about how badly you are going to sleep and how awful will be the next day if you eat too much!!

Help, I’ve zoned out! How to come back to the present moment?

Practicing the art of attention is I believe the most difficult thing to do especially if you are celebrating Christmas with a large group of people! When there is a lot of noise, different discussions and people talking to you, it can feel overwhelming and you can actually zone out just to protect yourself. In these cases, I would suggest you go outside or in another room to check in with yourself. How are you feeling? Do you feel overwhelmed? Sad?…Just listen to what your intuition and body has to say. If you can, practice a little meditation and then go back in there. If you feel like you can’t stay 3 more hours seating at that table, you shouldn’t feel like you have to stay there for the sake of Christmas Day. Don’t force yourself to stay for the sake of it.

Let go of your expectations, act as the true you and be aware of your vibe.

And have a wonderful Christmas Day!