Your Weekly Dose of Diva! Plus a Little Holiday Giggle…

A little yummy for your holiday season…
So, every week, I bare it all (well, maybe not all!) and let you in on my personal and professional aha of the week. That one thing that seems to be really up, not only for me, but also for my world and all the Divas in it.

I’m writing to you from beside a fire in the coziest chair imaginable…and, yes, I definitely am feeling a nap coming on in a little bit. But, for right now I’m stoked to be sitting down and writing to you, especially today, as we head into winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and, in many traditions, the birth of the sun. How’s that for symbolism?

I’ve been tapping deeply into my inner rhythm this year and my body has been calling out loud and clear for rest, quiet and relaxation and lots of it! So I’ve been listening and have written a little diddy just for you…all about finding your own yummy inner rhythm this holiday season (especially when chaos has a tendency to take over!)…

The holidays-a time of year that elicits a very intriguing array of emotions and responses. From downright rejection of Christmas and all it’s about, to a sweeping and incessant hectic-ness that seems to leave us powerless to its crazy-making charm. And pretty much every possible combination in between. This year, I’ve been exploring what it means to experience a holiday season from the inside out and I have to say, it kind of rocks.

Here’s the thing. In the end, how we feel about the holidays is in our hands. And how we want to experience them – well, that’s a choice too. It may not feel that way – especially with the pressures of family and friends, social outings and perceived obligations, or even the potential feelings of downright loneliness that this time of year can bring to the surface. But it’s true.

During the past several Christmas’s my goal was to heal some of the “old stuff” I had been hanging onto about this time of year. Little hurts and niggles, a couple of heartbreaks, a let-down or two. I decided that I wanted to experience the holidays differently so I did some BodyTalk and journaling and EFT and meditation – it was time to clear out and clean up. What did I want? I wanted connection, love, a light heart, beauty and authenticity – a little hard to create with all sorts of old wounds having salt poured in them.

Once the wounds were healing nicely, I got to work on some of the other pieces of my unique Christmas puzzle. How did I open up to a rhythm all my own during the holiday season, rather than the all too common hectic, crazy, chaotic rhythm so pervasive at this time of year? For this, a deeper connection to my feminine nature was the missing piece. That and Five Rhythms dance.

You see, we all have an innate wisdom dancing us, whispering sweet and loving messages to our spirit and our bodies – whether we choose to listen and take part is a whole other story. This is one of the many reasons I adore dancing – it is an opportunity to touch into this yummy instinct, the part of me that knows exactly where it wants to go and how to get there. Our feminine essence, that of receptivity and openness (and we all have it! Even you wonderful men reading this), is the part of each of us that is deeply in tune with our rhythms. In essence, it is in touch with how we would move through our world if all we were following was our intuitive internal compass.

You might ask, what would we follow if we weren’t following that? Well, that is a somewhat loaded question. Each of us is rich in conditioning, in beliefs and fears and ways of thinking that shift, modify or completely stop up our desired and inspired actions. Take the fear of judgment for example. This one fear has the potential to stop up even the most inspired of actions and the potentially yummy experiences that might ensue. All because we’re terrified of looking silly or stupid in front of someone else and this fear-based conditioning is wired deeply into our nervous systems in an attempt to keep us out of danger. The trouble is, that is also has the annoying tendency to keep us out of all the joy and yumminess as well. Hmmm…

So how do we shift all of this, and getting back to the whole holidays theme, start experiencing this time of year on our own terms?

Well, I have a few fave ways…

1) Put on some groovy music and dance your ass off. Seriously. If you can do this in a safe space with other equally inspired and non-judgmental human beings all the better. My first choice is five rhythms dance because it has such awesome correlations to real life. But anything that lets your body do the talking and your over-worked brain rest and just trust is great. Give yourself lots of space to flail if necessary and bring your face into it too – the sillier the better! Your inner rhythm and flow is just waiting for you to let it one through! And once you find it on the dance floor, it’s going to be so much easier to find out how YOU really want to experience your holiday season this year. And since I love doing this so much I found you a couple of playlists to rock out to…Here’s one and here’s another 🙂

2) BodyTalk or some form of energy medicine. It’s time to clear up that old stuff and see the holidays for what they really are for you, not through the lens of Christmas’s past. You can literally change your experience of anything so why not try it out on the holiday season? And shake some of those annoying holiday guilt trips and obligations while you’re at it. Really, what do you have to lose?

3) Journaling and writing and meditating. Alright, maybe it’s just me but this time of year is naturally an introspective time. Doesn’t always feel like it with all the hectic-ness but take a look at the natural cycles and it’s plain to see. We’re two days from the Solstice, aka the shortest day of the year. After December 21st, it gets a little lighter, a little more expansive from here on out. If that’s not a call for deep introspection, connecting with our essence and getting beautifully quiet, I don’t know what is.

4) Do absolutely nothing. Yep, end of story. Stop. Please. The holiday season is called that because you’re supposed to not work. Someone had it right. Because it’s time to chill and reflect and give space for all the goodness of the coming year to percolate and rise to the surface and anything that needs to integrate and let go from the past year to do so. Breathe, hike in the woods, do a whole lot of sipping cocoa by a warm fire. Create space. It’s the time. And yes, I’m going to do my very darndest to take my own advice because it is exactly what my body and I need right now.

Oh, yeah. Doesn’t that take a whole lot of pressure off? I officially give you permission to have a holiday season exactly the way you want it! If you want hectic, go for it! If you want quiet, do it. if you want a mixed bag, have at it. If you want to nap for the entire thing, high five. You are allowed. There are no rules. Your body, your spirit, they know exactly how to roll. All you have to do is follow along.

Here’s to your most deliciously YOU holiday season yet!

To your utter fabulousness and with so much love,

Alexa

A little holiday giggle just for you…this year’s Christmas card from our crew to yours!! Recognize anyone??