Today is the first day of spring and the a hashtag event calendar day for #InternationalDayofHappiness.
It’s also coincidentally the weekend of my happiness book release. And I have a spring roll (swiss cake roll recipe to share below 🍥) to celebrate the occasion.
Up to now, most of us have learned to be more patient with the world, and uniquely in our individual lives. For better health and to enjoy your day, it’s better to celebrate what you have. Time today is a gift.
In the wait, focus on the positive things. You are a day closer to your destiny and joy if you decide to focus on love, beauty, and growth that you can find evidence all around in spring and nature.
In my muse and self-reflection today, I’m tickled (and a bit relieved) that my happiness book, Empowered Happiness, that I started editing last summer is completed and available now. I had intended for the book to be published last year.
I started writing in 2019, but for all kinds of start and stop reasons, I didn’t make the deadline. …and now I understand why it takes most authors more than a year to publish a book that has nothing to do with procrastination or writer’s block 😊
You know how things always take longer than you expect… my happiness book project was no different.
On the other side now, I see how slow cooking a book takes patience but produces a better, heart-filled, and soulful meal (end-product) than microwaving can ever produce. (…and as a writer, we prefer “simmering” over “nuking” and also the rhyming words associated).
When asked yesterday in a phone interview why I wrote the happiness book, I was stunned by what came out of my calm thoughts, mind, and mouth.
Like you, if you choose, I’m here to impact others’ lives with the gifts and opportunities I’ve been given. With the book, I aspire to impact readers in their own lives, no matter what stage they’re in as I know others have gone through similar experiences as I have. The mentors that I’ve turned to, time and time again, have been self-help books. And this is my way of giving it back as a writer and mentor advocate.
Everything else is gravy.
We all need each other for validation and can learn from one another about authentic living in this beautifully organized, delicate, and sometimes complicated Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs place we share called Life on Earth.
With what you can do, you just never know how you can positively impact someone else with similar or different backgrounds.
While piecing together my happiness book, I decided to include a childhood story about an older neighborhood kid who put on an Easter egg hunt. What suddenly happened that day, impacted my life and helped put a memorable smile on my face, like colorful confetti or rainbow sprinkles can.
You never know what an ordinary day can bring. Maybe I’ll get a chance to put on a surprising egg hunt someday and you’ll get a chance to plan or suddenly impact your local community in a way you never imagined.
Make it a great first day of spring… and if you think about it, reach out to someone you haven’t talked to for months. They may just be waiting for your text, call, or a nudge of encouragement that only you can give ♥
Morning mindfulness in a quiet NYC park. You’d never know that I had just given one of the most stressful high-level presentations I’ve ever had to deliver in my life. Our bodies and minds are super resilient!
I think many people need overall stress relief these days. I’ll share some of my insight on how you can become aware with mindfulness.
People walk around seemingly unaffected but underneath their skin, they are stressed out, anxious, annoyed, or irritated. You know that because of the stress statistics, and because you have shared and felt those same feelings at some point. That makes us human. And, if you live in a city or busy, suburban area around people, you probably know that all too well.
Living chronically stressed is one of the worst things you can do for your health (it’s a slow form of dying as I think settling into retirement is, but that’s another story for another day).
You may know stress is linked to 6 of the leading causes of death and probably more as our society is growing even more complex and filled with daily stressors. The saddest result from stress is if a person tragically considers ending their life or lives on anxiety medication. Inside of each of us, there are healthy alternative solutions, and that is the answer to life.
Jon Kabat -Zinn is known for his mindfulness and meditation work and writing. He worked on a study where employees practiced a mindfulness technique for 30 minutes a day for 8 weeks. Their brains were scanned before and after. Following the mindful 8 weeks, the participants had more activity in the left side of their front brain that showed enthusiasm and joy.
The study is an example of how we can affect our stress and daily lives by our thoughts. Most adults carry some out-of-control problems and walk around with varying levels of burden or worry in the mind-body construction we’re given.
Often, we don’t know what we can do to fix our immediate problems or we’ve already tried without a definitive solution, so we just accept that’s just how it is, at least for this season. And the season can be lifelong if never addressed again or if giving up or coping is the way of being.
That’s this life. It’s what you do with your thoughts and making them positive in some way, that makes all the difference in the world.
If you’re a natural Vata-Pitta type and live in a city environment, like I am and do, you’re highly susceptible to stress-related health issues. You can get warning signs initially showing up as acute or chronic anxiety, strong judgment, inflammation, aches, or pains that you can’t pinpoint the exact cause of. Over time these stress symptoms wear down your mental health and you can suddenly one day no longer get excited about your work, even though it was a gradual accrual.
So I starting making stress relief and work-life balance a priority in my late 20’s. I knew my health and appearance would suffer if I didn’t make changes.
We all want to live actively, and full of energy now and especially in our older years. Plus we have our individual desires like I want to look 20 years younger than my real age… and, I know I’m not alone in those wants.
Looking back in my young adult life, I had put my health on auto-pilot, prioritizing goals to climb the corporate ladder. And then I had small health situations, one after another, that made me question if my work lifestyle was contributing.
I took my job more seriously than my own health. Like, one time I had a panic attack and just went on with the day as though nothing had happened. I never forgot about it though.
Another time, I ignored the initial call to walking pneumonia. Not until the CEO of the company I worked for, urged me to go see the doctor, did I actually prioritize health over my job. I was lucky to get the encouragement and luckily I went to get medical help.
Those were warnings. They may have panned out okay for a healthy 20-something-year-old, but even a few years later makes a difference in the aging process as I started to notice my health more as I got more balance in my life.
I had accumulated stress in my body-mind for many years before I noticed or took any positive action. The body keeps score.
The stress I accumulated had started years before.
I grew up in a house with struggling immigrant parents. There was a lack of daily consistency. There was weekly household expressed anxiety-anger that got recorded in my young brain. And, I suppressed my emotions. As an adult, to become whole and healed, I needed to let out and process post-trauma still living actively in my old child’s brain and affecting my new adult decisions.
I didn’t know mindfulness could be an even better cure (than therapy). Back then in my 20’s, I didn’t know I had an issue, until I started learning more and getting aware (in our pre-vulnerable sharing society days we live in today).
As a young adult, I was just trying to put a roof over my head. That led to a panic attack incident from accumulated stress building up from a prior work victimization situation, then-current toxic management issues, and also working 55 plus grueling work hour weeks.
Different situations, but those are the types of multiple, complicated layers that many adults walk around with daily, that’s running in their mind-bodies. And they hold it all in instead of finding a healthy, sustainable solution that’s readily available (like I found).
In my case and so many others, my brain had recorded current stress-filled situations and mixed them with past emotional childhood trauma that was never healed. The body can then snap.
Our regular healthy bodies are naturally resilient but they can only take so much before there’s a breakdown, and that’s what happened in my case.
Most people live like that, unconscious and unaware about the damage carried around in the cell memories of the mind-bodies. Getting stress relief awareness is life and investment in your future health.
Stress eating can be real anxiety for the best of us (that can easily become a bad habit).
Feeling anxious from a negative thought can cause overeating and shoveling food into our mouths. This feeds our natural desire to enjoy pleasure. But then we regret our decision the next day, as it shows up on our body and then can turn into anxious body thoughts (in the mind-body connection).
Below are some ways to break the stress-eating vicious cycle, especially around the winter holidays.
Especially in December, we can’t avoid messages about the new year being around the corner, that brings awareness to what we need to do to finish up the year, and then that reminds us of the hoopla of what happened and disappointments of what hasn’t yet. We just want peace, joy, and love.
By no fault of your own, holiday anxieties can be triggered in your mind-body, and aggravate stress eating as a comforting behavior that disturbs healthy living aspirations.
One way you can start to change this is to find a healthy set of friends (or a virtual community) who will support you and you can share your successful moments with. Choose these optimistic friends over complainers. You want to leave your near-year ending on a sweet (not sour) high note. Stay encouraged, growing, believing, and finding new year inspiration.
On that note, I have some holiday stress management encouragement…
Because we all bear some kind of stress as humans. At a bare minimum, you may have been thrown a few monkey wrenches within the year and an uneventful holiday ending.
You may have thought you’ve had enough, and you would just coast the rest of the year and take time off, and then something suddenly came up. You’re asked to make an off-course decision or two, be more creative than you’ve been (thinking outside the box), and work harder in your uphill climb despite facing ups and downs.
You’re not alone.
Look on the brighter side of things, you’re needed and you have a chance to make an impact in some unique way.
Those you-matter thoughts help your inner peace, that you can get back and are just a few steps away in your meditation practice, prayer life, or relaxed walk.
By a simple choice, you can change your mind and attitude just like that if you want to, despite your feelings or moods.
You always feel better than you did after the fact. You never know what thoughts and ideas are on the other side, but the time you put in is rewarded.
You’re better off if you find some way to be optimistic, even if it’s just borrowing a belief. Sometimes you have to just do it, to adopt a new way.
Recently I was tasked to virtually decorate my Zoom screen background for a holiday meetup… those are common this year, right?
I don’t how you feel about yourself in a digital world, but coming up with a digital holiday background isn’t in my go-to wheelhouse bag of tricks, and maybe not in yours either. So I dug deep and basically looked around (…isn’t that how we were resourceful when we were younger?), and that led me to bring out the soft felted stockings and artificial decorations from the Christmas storage bin.
This is more than 16 candles, it’s closer to 66 candles!
Sixteen Candles was one of the coming-of-age comedy genre movies that existed during the Brat Pack Days. If you don’t know what that is or means, don’t worry ‘bout it… if you’re interested in candles and aromatherapy healing, you’re in the right place.
And if you haven’t seen the 80’s classic movie, the Actress Molly Ringwald played the slightly quirky and embarrassed teenager who had a crush on the most popular boy in the school.
Her family forgets her 16th birthday around the planning of her sister’s wedding and all kinds of family chaos. With her signature pouty mouth and rolled eyes typical of teenagers (…remember those rebellious years?), her character, Samantha, says it all in this one line… “this is the single worst day of my entire life.”
Because when you’re a teenager everything is so magnified and important.
…Long story short, the movie has a sweet ending that includes birthday candles.
You and I have long passed our sweet 16th birthdays, and have created so many memories since. Whether yours was uneventful or memorable, you’ve survived.
And you can choose to live each day like a happy birthday if you’re doing and being well.
I was able to relive my fond memories by bringing out these bright cotton candy pink, white, sunny yellow, and navy blue candles, that have special meaning to me. They’re the ones you can find at the dollar stores. They were also the ones I saw on many kids’ birthday cakes.
…maybe you have a similar or favorite birthday memory that brings happy nostalgia feelings?
As an adult, you can make your own great memories, and that’s something to celebrate. One way I do regularly in joy and celebration is with scented candles that create a happier mood.
Scented candles can be healing for your soul. The light’s warmth and the aromatherapy effects, positively affect your mind and moods. Candles are powerful and healing. They can define a practice in a special way. You could be meditating, journaling, or just creating a new room atmosphere.
Sixteen Candles
These are my favorite balancing sixteen candles, that are easy to find online or at stores, and come in all shapes and sizes. There’s also one called “Birthday Cake” that smells like yellow or vanilla cake batter (similar to Christmas Cookie), but I think that candle is retired.
Sand + Fog candles Limoncello
Sand + Fog Mango Tangerine
Yankee Candle Christmas Cookie
Yankee Candle Vanilla Cupcake
Yankee Candle Juicy Citrus and Sea Salt
Yankee Candle Belgian Waffles
Yankee Candle Sugar & Spice
Yankee Candle Tangerine
Yankee Candle French Vanilla
Yankee Candle Pumpkin Pie
Village Candle Orange Dreamsicle – orange and vanilla candles have special powers over anxiety. If you don’t smell them or they’re sickenly sweet then it’s a good indicator that you’re Vata balanced overall at the moment… or if you never liked those scents, that’s not your natural dosha.
Christmas songs therapy is real. You can get in holiday merry cheer with music that brings you back to under the mistletoe feelings.
Music inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes!
Peppy Christmas music can wake you up and help restore your mind and body’s anxious moods. If you have anxiety, brain fog, or need some joy, you can year-round get instant healing through the power of sounds, to calm and balance.
Below are 30 selected soothing Christmas songs that can help you do just that.
So often we think listening to music is entertainment, but it’s so much more as it’s used to heal mind, body, and soul.
Music will do that faster through the ears to the mind, than food that can take the long route from the digestive body to mind.
And if you have setbacks, looming worry, or stress, know that it starts in your mind and shows up on your body in the mind-body connections.
If you have stress, the first warning signs can be a stress pimple, wrinkles, early gray hair, or other visible signs. And if you’re feeling depressed or the blues, you could hold onto extra pounds.
This is common around the holidays and winter months when seasonal affective disorder (SAD) can kick in.
You hear many stories of heart-related diseases around the holidays. The body usually gives earlier warning signs, but the holidays present a stressful time to many hearts.
So, using Christmas songs therapy and instrumental sounds is one totally healthy and often overlooked preventative way to keep your holidays happy and bright (from the start of the Advent to the end of the year).
Just a few minutes can be all you need to restoratively calm an anxious mind or soothe an irritated soul that needs rest and peaceful healing.
Christmas Songs Therapy For Relaxation
Christmas songs therapy includes soothing songs, instrumental, classical music, and calm sounds.
1. Choral Classics (ethereal music) has a way of bringing peace-filled feelings, like the deep sound of a bell ringing that resonates.
When you hear classic Christmas songs in general, like “Noel,” sung by a melodic chorus in synchrony, they provide harmony to your mind. Even in a world of chaos, they can bring a feeling of peace and order, especially when feelings of uncertainty permeate.
2. “Noel” – Lauren Daigle has a modern twist to this classic Christmas song
3. “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” – Sarah Mclachlan (Wintersong Album)
4. Christmas Canon – Trans-Siberian Orchestra
5. Christmas Jazz – Kenny G Winter Wonderland
6. Dr. SaxLove – Snazzy instrumental saxophone
7. Kenny G saxophone – if you’re irritated, his instrumental music is known to hold the high notes longer that reach and impact your mind in a healing/soothing way
8. Ocean sounds – in real life, ocean waves are moving year-round (something for us to be grateful for as they affect the world climate). I have fond memories of going to the local beach in the winter when it’s off-season (and maybe you do also where you are). The waves are calm, and the beach uninhabited when everyone is indoors in hibernation
9. Tibetan Singing Bowls – these are used to start and end meditation sessions. Yoga instructors use these bowls for intentional yoga sessions. You can feel like you’re in a place of solitude (like monks).
Christmas Songs Therapy For Anxiety
Find indie music and off-beat music and chants.
Get out of the common everyday music and go into worldly music… in America, it’s easy to stick with the popular music bands that are advertised and played over and over again on television, radio, and half-time shows. You’ll get better mind-body satisfaction if you step out and explore other music. For a Vata especially, discovering fresh variety is going to be a breath of fresh air that awakens the mind if there’s a little Kapha going on.
10. “One Toy Solider” song AndWinter Came Album – Enya
11. Amaratine Album (Special Christmas Edition)- Enya
12. The Reindeer Room – A Christmas Chillout Album – Most of the artists you won’t recognize but the instrument twists are not your usual beats. They have a futuristic vibe that you may detect. They are remakes of classic songs such as Sleigh Ride, White Christmas, and Little Drummer Boy
13. Gregorian chants that can make you feel like you’ve been whisked back in time
14. Chamber music (Saint-Saens Chamber music) – You feel like you’re listening from inside a music chamber
15. Crystal singing bowls. These sounds are so light and airy and can make you feel enlightened. They’re good to use while meditating or journaling and can be restorative for panic attacks
16. Waterfall or rain instrumental sounds that have varying tempos. Those light background sounds (including fire crackling) can restore stubborn moods
17. Christmas blues songs – unlike jazz, there are greater varied ranges and moods
18. Dee Yan Key – snazzy, upbeat instrumental that you can find in Music Archives to help you create or compose your own music
Waking Up the Tired or Depressed Mind
Find inspiration and music with heavier beats.
19. “Little Drummer Boy” – Pentatonix
20. “Do They Know It’s Christmas” (1984) – this is an oldie but goodie with a couple of George’s… Boy George, George Michael, Duran Duran, and a bunch of the famous rock singers of the past. So nostalgic (when the Brat Pack on film were popular…I digress), but you just can’t recreate the same 80’s happy music and the time period it represented
…if you start singing along to your favorite songs, you’re doing double good. You can’t be depressed and joyful at the same time. Singing no matter what you sound like, off-key or not, will make you feel better and open up your throat.
Another one…
21. “So This Is Christmas” – John Lennon (if you’re a Beatles fan)
22. Andrea Bocelli – “The Prayer” duet will wake up your heart and soul with the opera-esque components. Andrea’s amazing singing quality holds onto long high notes. Return to Love is a beautiful video where Andrea Bocelli serenades with a chorus, to his wife, that can remind you of fleeting moments. As a blind musician, Bocelli started his young career as an attorney. But he could sense the happiness and smiles that his singing brought to crowds and that’s what tipped his decision to become a professional musician
23. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is a classical classic, that’s good for balance. The violin in the spring concerto is going to be light and help wake up your senses. Summer is going to be fast and dramatic. Fall is light. Winter is best for Kapha imbalances, as it’s a faster tempo.
24. Another classic is listening to the music from The Nutcracker. You’ve probably seen the dreamy fairy tale performance before and can watch it online. The varying instruments piped into the drama is good for getting your mind out of routine.
25. Bret Eldridge – a cross between a big band, country, and Harry Connick, Jr.-esque. His fresh, modern take on class Christmas songs can awaken your senses
26. “Amazing Grace” – The Il Divo tenors are captivating to watch as they sing their parts of the same song
27. “Hallelujah” – Pentatonix has a chorus that’s refreshing to listen to especially if you’re in a mood funk. It’s like throwing a splash of warm water on your face as the singers echo melodies and imitate sounds
28. “Christmas Tree Farm” – Taylor Swift jingles can be a reminder of a jolly and hopeful time that Christmas is.
29. “Christmas Valentine” – Ingrid Michaelson and Jason Mraz (maybe he can add a Dancing with the Stars dance to his video?)
30. “Please Come Home For Christmas” – The John Mayer modern version with high guitar riffs, Jon Bon Jovi sultry version, or original Charles Brown oldie blues version can bring different moods. See if you can find the version that makes your day a couple minutes happier.
Just remember if you’re fatigued in any way, Christmas-y songs lift up your spirit. They will stay classic, as long as you want to remember them that way. We all grew up hearing the classic songs sung by different artists and repurposing an old song to a new version. Or are sung in collaboration with other artists. New re-made versions and meditative healing music are good for restoring different imbalances that your body is quietly thanking you for.
