Whilst I’m recovering from digesting a food baby, I’m sitting quietly reflecting on an amazing year of challenges, adventures, laughter, tears, friendships – new and old. So many memories to cherish.

I have reflected on what has worked this festive season, and already made some notes in next year’s diary to ensure I have TIME to meet my own needs. Call me a nerd, but I’ve already pre-booked my massage and kinesiology sessions for December next year. Why? Because I’m worth looking after, and it’s nice to have something to look forward to. Also, because like me, the service providers I utilise are all local businesses just like me, so they deserve to be supported, and feel positive about future bookings as well.

I’ve also prepared my ‘elf on the shelf’ letters for my daughter, and the hijinx this Elf will create. I’ve tagged my favourite festive recipes and converted them to gluten and dairy free. Now that I’ve trialled that these revised versions worked, the recipes have been copied into my master cook book. I’ve got a family festive newsletter template created to support me streamlining communication with friends and family next year.

My current reflections from Christmas past, have taught me to understand what processes work, and what don’t. This year, I radically changed the pace of how I work, both in clinic and my volunteer activities, as well as parenting duties, and had scheduled a daily self-care regime which worked a treat. After doing this daily for a month, I’ve set myself up with a fantastic daily habit which can easily be carried through into the new year whilst I’m on leave.

With a few small action based modifications to this system, next year will be even better – I needed a little extra time for food preparation for the great feast, and to squeeze more time for ‘things that crop up’ – which they did!

This all sounds a little controlling, but I’ve reflected on what worked and simply marked time for me in the calendar so I don’t double book my “self” time. It was that simple. There wasn’t a list. I didn’t get stressed out, a little bit of pre-planning enabled me to achieve all that I intended – and then some. This planning was literally marking out time for me in my work diary and setting my intention to feel awesome the entire festive season.

It can feel foreign to sit quietly with self and allow creative imagination to ‘dream big’ if you will. Some aspects of society try to make us feel ‘selfish’ or ‘self centred’ when we utilise the law of attraction and invite gratitude into our lives. When we incorporate a daily practice of gratitude, we can build upon the wonderfulness of abundance in our lives and truly create the life we want!

Top tips for surviving Christmas next year!

With these couple of hot tips, you too can succeed even more than you dreamed in 2018! Don’t wait until Christmas, start now – you have nothing to loose!

• Set aside five to ten minutes to reflect on how are you feeling today – great and on top of the world or tired and wanting to hide in your bed? Even better write the ‘feels’ into your journal.
• Focus on what was fantastic, and how it made you feel and be grateful for that. If you get the chance, multiply this fantastic feeling by three!  This way, we you repeat the ‘great thing’, the euphoria kicks in quickly! You can quickly feel great on a conscious level, which builds upon your ‘happiness account‘.
• Identify any small changes which would support you to feel different, perhaps more buoyant today. What small thing could you do differently so that you could be feeling awesome today? eg less sugar or alcohol, less time with toxic family?
• Could you be starting these small actions this week? So that by this time next year you’ve got a rock solid habit of self nurture to support the changes you want to see in your life?
• Schedule ‘self love’ appointments for December 2018 in your calendar now, before 2017 is over. I’ve already pre-booked my massage, kinesiology, chiropractic and hair dresser appointments for the year.
• Once you’ve got templates / schedules that work in your life and lifestyle – keep them! Write them down and save them someplace safe so you can repurpose these positive aspects. After all you want to be thanking yourself for investing a couple of minutes planning this week instead of reinventing the wheel next November!

Remember you can choose to change and bloom from within – it could start with a reflection of the life you are living right now xx