The Art of Self-Nurturing: Creating an Intentional Holiday Season

“Be grateful for the tiny details of your life and make room for unexpected and beautiful blessings.” ~unknown author 

For many people, the holiday season is joyous and filled with family, friends, festivities, and fun. For others, holidays may be stressful and challenging, highlighting loneliness, difficult relationships with family, disappointment, and loss. Whether you have been waiting all year for the holiday season to begin or can’t wait for it to be over, nurturing yourself is the key to feeling grounded and centered. One of the best ways to ensure your holidays are nurturing is to create an intentional holiday season. 

Start by thinking about how you would like to feel this holiday season, like peace, joy, gratitude, and/or love. What experiences would you like to engage in that could inspire those feelings? What activities could you include in the holidays to feel inspired and uplifted? What intention could you bring to the holidays this year that is in alignment with your values? 

When you bring the energy of intention to your plans you elevate your experiences. You naturally feel a deeper sense with meaning and gratitude in your life, which feeds a positive mindset. Bringing intention to your planning allows you to create an experience where you make room for unexpected and beautiful blessings. When you embrace the art of self-nurturing, you are able to embody the true meaning of the holiday season. Coming from a deeply nurtured place you are able to spread more love, kindness, and compassion in the world. When you create an intentional holiday season, you find it much easier to connect to the joy of the season and be fully present, nurturing more peace, love, and gratitude in the world. 

Here are some empowering strategies to support you in creating your intentional holiday season: 

1. Set your intention for the holiday season and affirm it every morning when you wake up. Throughout the day acknowledge your intention and reflect on whether the activities in your day are in alignment with your intention. Say yes to those experiences that will inspire how you want to feel and embody your intention. 
2. Start the day out with your most self-nurturing practice. If you know that exercising, meditating, or acknowledging what you are grateful really fills you up, choose to begin your day that way. The more nurtured you feel at the beginning of your day, the more energy, grounding, and patience you will have with what follows and the more intentional you will be able to be. 
3. Simplify your holiday experience. There are many ways to simplify your holidays including choosing not to over commit, being intentional about the invitations you accept, inviting others to help with food at holiday parties you host, simplifying your gift giving by purchasing gift cards or donating to a meaningful cause in someone’s name, and choosing to focus on what is truly important to you. Affirm your intention for this holiday season in the choices that you make. 
4. Create time each day for self-reflection. Nurturing ourselves requires knowing what we need and making supportive choices for ourselves. This is important at any time of year, but definitely during the holiday season. Spend some time each day cultivating your self-awareness by journaling, meditating, creating a list of things you appreciate about yourself and your life, and/or just pausing to breathe, connect with yourself, and your intention for this time. 
5. Be sure to include play in your holiday experience! Play is such a powerful self-nurturing strategy. Find ways to release stress and increase joy by being playful and having fun. You can play board games, watch holiday movies, dance, hula-hoop, take a walk, bake your favorite holiday dessert, and/or be creative all in the spirit of playfulness! Give yourself permission to say yes to what brings you joy and no to what does not. You do not have to attend every party or gathering or say yes to every invitation or request if it overwhelms you. If your priority is being intentional this holiday season, then let that guide your decision making process. Saying yes to what brings you joy will naturally support you in being intentional. 
6. Schedule time for a sacred pause in your day. Allow yourself time to reconnect with you, reflect on your day, and ask yourself what would be the most self-nurturing thing you could do in this moment. Even ten minutes of intentional time for yourself will provide balance, grounding, and presence to your day. Choose not to overbook your schedule. Allow for time between commitments, as well as unscheduled time to enjoy the moment, instead of being a prisoner to your “to do” list or your fear of missing out. Make conscious choices and you will feel more empowered and present in the activities you intentionally say yes to. 
7. Spend time each day acknowledging all you are grateful for and the blessings that are unfolding in your life. Gratitude brings you into the present moment and focuses your mind and heart on what is going well in your life. Place your hand on your heart and identify things you are grateful for about yourself. Gratitude reinforces being intentional. 

I hope you find that you benefit so much from creating an intentional holiday season that you are inspired to bring this level of intentionality into the New Year. As you live in more alignment with what you value and is important to you, the more unexpected and beautiful blessings will unfold in your life. Intention is the key to living your most authentic and inspired life! 

May you commit to creating an intentional holiday season and nurture peace in the world from the inside out! 

Sending you peace, love and gratitude, Kelley 

The Self-Nurturing Starter Kit

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