7 Gifts of Expansion for the Holiday Season

Sponsored Content from JourneyPath Institute

The beginning of the holiday season is here once more. If you are anything like me, you need time away from others—space to be inside your own precious life. In a flurry of juggling holiday activities, work obligations, family connections, and endless to-do lists, I ask this:

When time is challenging you, how can you create more of it?

As a creative depth coach, I draw from the very processes I share with my clients and students. The examples below are a few of these practices. Each will alter your relationship with time and shift your perspective towards gently open and fully present. Try one or all as you care for yourself this season:

1. First, clear a space, so that an opening (even a small one) can be experienced. Find or create a small cozy nook and listen to music, read or write. An atmosphere of beauty will open you to feel life more fully, so delight your senses with fragrances, sounds, objects and words that will offer ease and inspiration.
2. Mark a moment and invoke sacred ritual, by lighting a candle, using chimes or music, and connecting to the winter solstice energy. Through sacred practice, you can create time and space to return to yourself. Do this any way that calls forth your unique wisdom and healing.
3. Find a quiet place and breathe deeply into your back, your belly or your heart. The medicine of true presence is always available. Try placing one hand on your belly, the other on your heart. Closing the eyes, inhale deeply through the nose, filling the stomach and lungs, then exhale slowly through the mouth allowing your jaw to open and relax. Notice how you can sink your roots and settle into to earth and body as you repeat this over 3 to 4 cycles.
4. Take a creative break and gather materials to explore with. Try something new or return to a favorite art. Simply be willing to lose yourself in transformed time - non-linear time floats, inviting deep rest and imaginative exploration. The act of creating will transmute and transform time and space.
5. Take a walk or visit a sacred landscape through an image to connect with nature. Gather flowers, leaves, stones or branches and bring them inside to adorn your surroundings with the grounded energy of nature. Use this time to reconnect with the natural cycles of the landscape, both within and without.
6. Set a timer and give yourself the gift of a few minutes to engage in something that will bring deep rest and delight. Often, this reminder of permission given and the experience of is all it takes to return to yourself and find some new moments of restorative healing and wholeness.
7. Immerse yourself in a guided journey and drift into the ease of a gentle inner realm, moving beyond-time space, feel yourself unwinding from any energy that no longer serves. This is a space where you can remember, gather, nurture and rest – a few moment of conscious untethering offers lasting benefits.

If you desire to create even more sacred time and space, then join me for 12 Nights of Solstice to celebrate the winter cycle. This is a free guided journey process, starting December 9, to help you connect to spirit, reframe your holiday experience, inspire deep connection, and dance with the deep nurturing elements of the season. Join me HERE.