Meditation is one of those commonly misunderstood forms of self-care. This post will talk all about meditating to stay calm and to lessen anxieties during the holidays.

The holidays are a hectic time full of great times, but also full of stress and anxiety. It can sometimes be hard to stay calm and avoid these feelings. When experiencing holiday anxiety or stress it is important to find a way to combat it. There are countless ways to do so, one of the most effective forms of holiday relaxation is meditation and mindfulness.

What is Meditation?

Meditation is often thought of as a religion. While it is used by religious people and has ties to religions such as Buddhism, on its own it is not a religion. A good resource for learning more about meditation, or self-examination, is Gaiam. Gaiam states, “Meditation is an approach to training the mind, similar to the way that fitness is an approach to training the body.”

So, meditating is all about your mind. There are many ways to meditate. One way that we will focus on is mindfulness meditation.

How Meditation Will Help Calm During the Holidays

Mindfulness meditation refers to a focus on experiencing what is going on. You focus on your body and your mind and you become aware and mindful of your surroundings and how they influence your body and your mind. Learn more about how to practice mindfulness meditation here.

So how exactly will self-examination help to keep you calm during the holidays? Well, it’s like yoga (in fact, yoga is a form of meditation really), so it allows you to be aware of how you’re feeling. And the more you practice it, the more in tune with yourself you will become.

Once you can recognize the incoming holiday stress or anxiety, you will be able to then practice self-examination to counteract those negative feelings.

Meditation Using Yoga

Yoga is most definitely my favorite form of meditation. Yoga places a huge focus on breathing and being aware of what you are feeling in your mind and in your body. Finding time in your schedule to do some quick yoga is super beneficial!

One of my favorite yoga practices is done at home. YouTube has a plethora of yoga videos, but Yoga with Adriene is my go-to. I particularly enjoy her 30-days of yoga challenges.

Now that you know a little bit more about meditation, check out 30-days of yoga challenge and get a FREE printable to track your mental and emotional progress.

Read more about Holiday Self-Care here.

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