Try these quick & simple mindfulness tips to tap into your inner peace & get more joy from the holiday season…

While peace and joy may be common messages during the holiday season, many of us feel anything but this time of year! Stress and conflict can be magnified during the holidays, whether it be due to year-end deadlines at work, travel schedules, or family conflicts.

However, there are ways to rediscover the inner peace that lives within us all – even during this busy time of year – and radiate peace and grace to the world around you! And don’t worry – none of these methods take a lot of time and effort. In fact, all you need is 5 minutes to reframe your attitude and bring some peace back into your life! You can do these while stuck in traffic, in your car in the parking lot before or after a shopping trip, or on your lunch break at work. Take a few minutes to reset your mind and you’ll be able to enjoy the holidays more fully, and appreciate your loved ones more as well.

Mindfulness is key to staying centered no matter what the holidays bring, and following these 3 simple mindfulness tips can help you to achieve the peace and joy that you’ll be singing about around the Christmas tree this year:

1. Remain centered

The natural state of the mind is calm, quiet, and undisturbed. This fact gets lost under stress and forgotten when there is constant activity during the day. The return to being centered is simple, because you are aiding the mind’s natural tendency.

Don’t wait until you feel frazzled to regain your center. Make it a habit during the holidays, anytime you feel distracted or less than calm, to find your center again.

To do this, simply sit quietly by yourself with eyes closed. Take a few deep breaths, then place your attention in the heart area of your chest. Breathe naturally and let your attention rest on your heart. If your attention wanders, gently bring it back to your heart. Do this exercise for 5 to 10 minutes and repeat as needed during the day.

2. Take some bliss time every day

There is joy and bliss at the core of your awareness, but it is covered over by constant mental activity. Before you can follow your bliss, you must find it first. To find it, take some bliss time every day.

Bliss is easily triggered or sparked through memory. Sit quietly by yourself and take a few deep breaths. Recall something in your life that has brought you joy.

You might use a visual image, but the trigger might be music or recalling somebody saying, “I love you.”

Once you have your memory, put your attention on your heart. Feel the bliss as a sensation in your heart—it could feel happy, smiling, vibrant, warm, loving, a glowing of white light, or any combination of these qualities.

Don’t worry about how strong the sensation is. Even if it is just a glimmer, rest with it for 5 minutes. With practice your bliss moment will become more natural and stronger. But begin where you are; it will be the right place for you.

3. Put aside expectations

One of the prime causes of unhappiness is defeated expectations. Children expect to be happier during the holidays, and this expectation is not only powerful but a source of bliss for them. As adults, however, our holiday expectations have often been defeated.

Therefore, we enter the holidays expecting a repetition of old negative experiences. Sometimes it takes only the first sight of a difficult family relation to bring to mind all the misery of past holiday dinners.

This is where you need to stop allowing your memories to control you. As soon as you have a past image or thought that brings up negative associations, take a moment, close your eyes, and say to this phantom from the past, “I no longer need you.: Ask the image or thought to fade, and wait for a moment until it does.

This is one of the easiest and most practical ways to bring your mind back to the present moment, which is the only time that is real.

Read more at Chopra.com…