How to enjoy Christmas (and life in general)

Image with gratitude to Aaron Burden at Unsplash

I am sitting in Foyles drinking tea and wondering what to write about. Gratitude has come to mind as it is a traditional theme around Christmas and a wonderful and transformative practice. Or family but I wrote about that last Christmas time (family for some is fantastic for some rather challenging to say the least and the whole range in between). And then it comes to me…

A simple tip for how to enjoy Christmas more and life in general too!

There is a way that the majority of us make our lives less enjoyable. A trick of the brain that is essential due to the quantity of incoming sensory data through the eyes ears and other senses as well as thoughts - we get accustomed to things and then we do them on auto-pilot.

"As soon as you see something, you already start to intellectualize it. As soon as you intellectualize something, it is no longer what you saw."

~ Shunryu Suzuki

It is why the first bite of the mince pie is the best, we normally miss the rest! It is why so many people love new experiences. The first moments of any new activity are the most heightened as we are more aware.
But this is also the case for things we don't like, whether it's the washing up, pairing socks (seriously how can socks disappear? I have half a drawer of spare socks!) or doing your tax return (aargh!). The first few moments are the most intensely awful and then we become accustomed to it and it becomes less awful.

The issue? We tend to rush the pleasant because it's nice and delay the unpleasant so we stop start stop start giving us more of the hideous first moments and less of the wonderful first moments. Clearly this is not a sensible thing to do.

So best tip for Christmas, and in fact every day, when you do the unpleasant things, don't stop until they are done! And when you do the pleasant things keep pausing, giving yourself that best first moment again. You are giving yourself more happier moments and less unhappier ones, even though what you are doing has not really changed.

And If you have never tried a moment of mindfulness then Christmas is a great time to start or to dust off the practice. Experience the moment fully. Smell the Christmassy aromas (as long as you haven't been eating too many Brussels sprouts), taste the delicious food (fingers crossed), see the lights, the decorations and the faces of your loved ones, listen to the carols to the voices,  feel the mulled wine warm going into your stomach. Experience with all the senses and savour the moment! Enjoy!

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.”

~ Thích Nhất Hạnh

Seriously this human brain is an extraordinary thing. But someone should have given us an instruction manual. Left to its own devices it will just keep on giving us the same old same old story we have had before. So if you really want something new next year come to my workshop “Fateh! (Victory) Break the old, Bring the New”. learn some techniques to help you create what you want and stop you getting in your own way.

"A human being is like a television set with millions of channels.... We cannot let just one channel dominate us. We have the seed of everything in us, and we have to recover our own sovereignty."

~ Thich Nhat Hanh