‘Tis the season to be jolly…or not. Many people experience rising anxiety and other symptoms of a wanting mind during the festive season, so today I thought I would offer a few tools to move from a wanting mind to a mindset of abundance, so we can have the most joyful Christmas possible.

I think gratitude is our most powerful tool to shift our mindset from wanting to living, and there are several ways it can be used. Here a few ideas.

  • Whenever we find ourselves wanting or complaining we can look for something in our lives where we can feel grateful and focus on that until the wanting or complaining has passed.
  • We can start a gratitude practice that encourages us to notice the abundance we already have in our lives – when we notice what we have we are less concerned with what we don’t have.
  • Gratitude practices include a daily practice of finding three things you are grateful for and recording them in a Gratitude Journal, Facebook or little slips of paper and putting them in a Gratitude Jar; setting a reminder to notice something you feel grateful for, every hour or so (particularly good for people in difficult workplaces or daily circumstances); or a daily practice before bed of feeling grateful for your life, food, shelter, family, friends, material well-being, goals and the means to achieve your goal.
  • Focusing on gratitude brings acceptance and a general background feeling of abundance and peace. This also enables us to see opportunities when they arise and act on them because our mind is free from the limits we might otherwise place on ourselves.

Another way of moving from wanting to abundance is to set an intention of looking for beauty. Recognising beauty in our lives lifts us into our own divinity, regardless of what that means for us and we can experience true joy.

This is easily done once the intention has been made, either because you start noticing beauty in the world around you or because you are deliberately choosing beauty.

  • You can take walks in parks and gardens, listen to uplifting music, watch sunsets, buy flowers for your desk and/or home, chew food slowly and mindfully so that you sense all the flavours.
  • Essentially bathe your senses in beauty – it is hard to feel deprived when your senses are alive and the world around you, which was drab is now beautiful.

So I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, full of abundance, gratitude and joy.

with love,

Lynnette