It’s the Holidays! 5 Ways to Keep Joy from Escaping Like The Gingerbread Man

I don’t know about you, but this time of year can leave me feeling overwhelmed. Buying gifts, baking cookies, decorating, wrapping presents, planning meals, on top of all the daily household chores and writing a novel. I’m busy.

It’s not that I don’t like doing any of those things, I just forget to enjoy them while I’m doing them because my mind keeps reminding me of the things I have yet to accomplish. That’s when I begin to shut down. Well, my heart shuts down, or numbs joy, and as soon as this happens the annoying voice in mind pipes up: It’s the holidays stop being such a Scrooge!

This year at the ripe old age of 27 (yeah, my daughter’s 21…can’t really get away with that anymore) I’ve finally discovered five quick ways to take a breather from my obligations and bring the joy back into my heart. Is everyone singing that old Sunday school song: Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy down in my heart…  You’re welcome.

Here are 5 ways to bring joy back into your heart this holiday season.

1. The wonderful thing about your thoughts is they’re your thoughts. You’re completely in control. So, even if you have cookie dough glued to your fingers and your kids are arguing over who has more cookies to decorate, you can call upon a happy memory that brought you joy. For instance, the first time you held your little one in your arms. Capture that feeling and let it replace the urge to scream, “That’s enough sprinkles!”

2. Take a ten minute break from wrapping or cooking, or shopping, and no…don’t go on Facebook and look at everyone’s happy holiday pictures and wonder why your holiday spirit has taken a vacation. Pick up your favorite book, one that inspires you, and begin reading. What? You don’t have one? Tsk. Tsk. Try Sue Monk Kidd’s When The Heart Waits, or The Alchemist, Eckhart Tolle or Brené Brown, Deepak Chopra, Neil Pasricha’s The Book Of Awesome, a comic book, whatever has brought you joy and will get you back to that place of peace.

3. Schedule time to bake a recipe from your childhood. Every December I make pizzelles because it reminds me of my grandfather John Dondero otherwise known as Mr. D. He was Italian through and through with a voice so loud it could be heard down the street. “Hey Kris, mangia!” Remembering him floods my heart with joy.

4. Turn on your favorite song. Maybe it’s a song from your high school years. Every time I hear, Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar on Me I picture me driving my manual Dodge Colt on the Pennsylvania hills with three laughing friends in the backseat. My heart is grateful to still have those friends in my life.

5. Perform one act of kindness that is not an obligation. It doesn’t have to cost money. Find a way to make someone’s day. Do something that is completely from your heart and makes you feel as though you’ve brought joy to someone else. One of the greatest gifts I ever received was words from a friend. We had lost touch for many years and upon finally finding each other again she told me that one day years ago when she was feeling down she drove to my old house and sat outside because it brought her comfort imagining that I was there and would know what to say to her. I had no idea how much our friendship meant to her or that she ever felt my words made a difference in her life. Hearing those words and finding out how much she cared was the one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever been given.

That’s what the holiday spirit is all about. Love. The wonderful thing about love is that it’s inside all of us even when the cookies burn, the kids scream, the cat knocks over the Christmas tree, and the line at the counter reaches to the back of the store. In those moments, take a breath and uncover the love that leads to joy.