When it comes to scenes depicting the holidays, movies, television, commercials and other advertisements, mainly contain images of gatherings with family and friends. If you don’t have a partner in your life, or if you are unable to be with family and friends this holiday season and are feeling down about it, cheer up! You can find happiness and enjoy the holidays, even if you are alone.
Here are my top three tips to have the joy of the holidays no matter what your circumstances are:
Move your body
You may be wondering what moving your body has to do with having a joyful holiday. Actually, a lot! Moving your body has a physiological effect on your body. Endorphins are released which can immediately affect your mood.
While it may be easy to sit on the couch watching television and wishing things were different, get up and move! Go for a walk. Ride a bike. Workout with yoga, Pilates, kick boxing or whatever is fun for you. You will feel much better!
Ask Questions
Joy through the holidays or any time of year starts with asking questions. If you have the point of view that holidays are going to be less than desirable for whatever reason, they likely will be. Your point of view creates your reality. What you decide is so, is so. If, however, you start asking questions, you open the door to possibilities that you could not otherwise see.
Here are some questions you can ask:
What would it take for this holiday season to turn out better than I could imagine?
How does it get any better than this?
What else is possible here that I’ve never considered?
Change Your Mind
Thoughts, feelings and emotions can change. If you are stuck in the idea that you should have a partner, that you should be with family and friends, that the holidays are not the same without that, you don’t have to stay there. Every time you have a thought about how the holidays “should” be, stop and say, “Interesting point of view. I have that point of view.” Say it a few times. What starts to happen is that all of the places where you are judging you or your circumstances become simply interesting points of view rather than truth. And, when something is just interesting, it can be changed. If you didn’t have any points of view of how the holidays were supposed to be, you could have fun no matter what. Change your mind, change your experience.
Finding holiday happiness is possible. The key is you have to choose it. Get up and move your body. Ask questions about what is possible rather than contemplating what is not. Let go of the points of view of what the holidays should be and create it as what you would like to be.