Let it Snow: Family Expectations, Holiday Meditations

Today's Blog Entry Written by Kyra Oser & Jordan Musen, who share a tree at the holidays...

'Tis the season to find a reason...not to visit your relatives! But it doesn't have to be that way, once you've learned some of these meditations for managing family expectations. Sometimes holidays can be even more stressful when we're single and nearly everyone feels it's a seasonal obligation to ask when you've met someone, when you'll meet someone, remind you of when you met someone before and wonder why you didn't continue to meet up, and want to know when they'll meet your future children.

Holiday travel and entertaining can be stressful as it is, but that discomfort doesn't have to interfere with you having a good time with the people you love, many of whom are nagging you because they want so much for you to be happy and don't know any other way to help. Family conflict is the perfect opportunity to let holiday stress turn  you into your holiday best...with meditation! Holiday meditations are a productive way to begin a practise that can last throughout the year, and once you've increased you've had a chance to see how it's added more meaning to your everyday life, you'll be thanking everyone for their annual tradition of nagging!

Here are some to start with as soon as the season begins...

*Imagine a gratitude stocking above a fireplace; in it are all the things you're grateful for. Keep filling it with another thing you're grateful for, for the 12 days of Christmas. Or in your mind, light a menorah for 8 nights of meditation and think of something you're grateful for each time the flame starts to burn.

*Let go of family expectations. Envision your attachment to outcomes burning like a log in the fire.

*Think of people you care about and who care about you as a tree of connecting branches, each person's love a shining light. If you feel a resentment toward someone who is a part of the tree, send them a prayer that they may have for themselves everything you would want for yourself and all that would be in their highest good.

*Live and let live. Don't try to stop the snow from falling. Keep the focus on yourself and let your family and loved ones have the dignity of making their own decisions.

*Imagine one word such as "peace" blowing like smoke through the chimney, drifting throughout the world as you meditate on that word. Inhale through your nose for 5 seconds, hold it for 5 seconds, then exhale through your mouth for 5 seconds.

Or play your nose like a chimney and imagine your nostrils are the top of a chimney, letting go of smoke from the fire that represents feelings you are ready to release. Hold your left nostril closed with the right nostril open and inhale for 5 seconds, then close the right nostril, open the left nostril, exhale for 5 seconds, and repeat. Picture the word you chose circling the globe and coming back to you, filing you, becoming you.

Wishing for you, your family, and everyone you consider like family to find peace, love, understanding, and acceptance this holiday season and in every season.