Spiritual awakening pulls us out of auto-pilot into living with full awareness of who we are and what we are choosing to do. It sheds a brilliant and compassionate light upon all that we see, freeing us from the tyranny of mindless habit and participating in rituals that do not align with our soul. If you are navigating a conscious life, the holidays can bring you face-to-face with habits that may have little meaning, pull you way out of balance and create disharmony with you soul’s core values. This season, it is possible to reclaim the holidays through mindful attunement and alignment.

You always have a choice. Though the holidays are here to stay,  as you awaken, your interest in participating in the same-old-way may wane. This is because your soul is seeking expression and liberation from the false paradigms created by the ego. In other words, your soul is freeing you from unconscious habits of thought, word and deed. This is not anything to judge or fear, simply to notice, discover and free yourself into conscious choice.

Tips for Creating A Spiritually Attuned Holiday Experience

  • Create Simplicity and Authentic Connection
    • Get quiet and compassionately notice what you are doing and have always done for the holiday. In the stillness of your being, ask yourself:
      • How can I create a simpler and truly meaningful holiday experience?
    • Breathing deeply into your body, release to the Light, all your ideas about what you “should do” for the holiday. As you continue to sit in stillness, fill yourself with light and envision your entire holiday season. Allow yourself to see what your soul is longing to experience throughout the holiday season.
      • What are you doing? How are you feeling? What would you like to experience most? How will you do this? Let yourself see the whole season and how your soul longs to create it.
    • Give yourself permission to break-free from all activities that do not align with your soul’s deepest need for simplicity, serenity and aligned living. It may help to write your intentions and then refer to them each morning, as you move through the Holiday Season. Let your soul guide you, one day at a time, to align with your intentions for this holiday.

    • I create a meaningful, soulful holiday by navigating each choice intentionally, with compassionate awareness and loving presence.

  • Listen deeply to heart, soul, mind and body.
    • It takes practice to honor what your heart and soul yearn for you. The holidays are filled with expectations of what it means to be a “good” Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. The habits, myths and rituals around the holiday are often highly charged within our emotional body and psyche. It may take time to unravel all the expectations that drive your choices throughout the holiday. Be gentle with your reclamation of the holiday and give yourself permission to be in the process of change.
    • When you sit in the stillness of your being, reflect upon what the holiday means to you.
      • What is sacred and holy about this holiday? How does your soul connect to it? What are the ways your heart and soul long to feel that connection and therefore, create it for you?
  • Become Deliberate
    • Centered in your heartful presence, choose the activities in which you will participate and those which you will release. Give yourself permission to honor your deepest truth this season and plan your schedule by breaking down your vision into small, manageable steps. Let go of obligations and people pleasing; instead, live from spiritual alignment.
      • For example: if you are participating in giving gifts, tune into why and what you want to give. Give gifts that align with your soul’s values and are from the heart.
      • Set your intention before engaging in any shopping activity. Surround yourself in light. Shop at off times. Clear your energy after you shop. Be mindful about what you are participating in, when you shop and give gifts.
      • Have you ever gone through the frenzy of opening gifts and then feeling a let-down? This is a signal from your soul that the experience is reflecting mindless habit, lack of presence and rituals without meaning. Don’t judge this in yourself or others, rather choose differently. Give and receive gifts within a state of full presence. Move slowly, deliberately and with purpose.
        • What are you giving and why? Express this meaning in each gift; and your connection to the recipient. What are you receiving? What does it mean to receive this gift and from this person? Feel this deeply within your heart and soul.
      • Don’t force feelings to be there. Let yourself be fully present to whatever shows up and be authentic within your experience.
    • Create New Holiday Rituals
      • You can create rituals that speak to your soul and may differ from what you have always done. When you contemplate the essence of this holiday, what is a ritual that you want to create that will be meaningful to you?
      • Are there rituals that no longer serve you, that your soul yearns to release? Are you willing to release them? What does it mean to do so?

      • Give thanks to all those who passed down the rituals you have used, but may no longer choose to observe. Thank them for their gifts, send them light and let them know that you are now letting these go and opening to a whole new way. You may be surprised to discover how supportive they will be through this loving practice.

    • Give your time and energy to those in need.
      • In the stillness of contemplation, ask where you can be of service. Create time and space to give of yourself in a meaningful way. This can be volunteering, bringing a meal to a friend in need; reading to a child; caring for animals. Remember, this is not an invitation to overdo or obligate yourself, rather; to honor your natural state of abundance through giving in ways that are truly aligned with your soul.
    • Invite others to join you
      • Share your creative vision or meaningful ritual with your partner, children or intimate friends. By bringing others into your experience, you will find that they too have longed for meaningful connection. This practice may deepen your connection to the holy days, to Spirit and one another.
    • Bring Spirit into your Holy Days
      • Connect to Spirit each day of the holiday season by creating a meaningful practice that brings the Divine into the center of your experience. Call in the Divine through prayer, meditation or chanting. Ask the Angels to support your intentions for the holiday. Honor your loved ones in Spirit and pay your respects to all living beings during this season. Act as the being or reason for the season. In other words; let your words, thoughts and deeds reflect those you honor for the holiday.

Holidays are rituals that honor the Divine, sacred ancestors, seasons, cultural history, spiritual communion and more. Most often, these rituals are passed down without deep connection to their originating purpose. Often, they’ve become permission to have a day off, overindulge in food, alcohol and shopping. They are times when we check-out and rarely tune-in to what we need to express and discover about our spiritual experience here on earth. Sometimes we become consumed by the religious idealization of the holiday, dogmatic obligations and still feel alienated and lost within celebrations that do not truly align with our authentic nature.

Within an awakening life, we come into direct contact with the Divine. We discover this divinity within ourselves and within all that is. We encounter the exquisite holiness of life and the wonderment of existence, here and now. We may also simultaneously feel disillusioned by the rituals and expectations of our past and the disconnected world, as we discover that love and Spirit are eternal and exist beyond all dogma. But don’t lose heart. By opening to loving awareness throughout our days, we learn that we have the power to choose how we create and experience the holiday. We awaken and consciously choose to create the blessings of a new holiday season that enriches our soul and serves the highest good of life.

May you feel the blessing of your true nature guiding you throughout the holidays and always,
Lori