Have you thought about your goals this holiday season? Any New Year’s resolutions? Have you thought about ways to stay healthy? Or keep the holiday cheer? Holidays are fun but can be a demanding, busy time as we try to meet the needs of our family and friends. There are gifts to be bought, turkeys to be cooked, and trees to be put up!
During this hectic period, it’s easy to feel a lot of stress. In giving, the giver feels just as rewarded as the receiver, if not more. However, we sometimes forget to give to ourselves. In your time of giving, don’t neglect your own needs. This will help to reduce anxiety, and keep you calm throughout the season.
Would you like to improve your finances? Volunteer? Do you want to feed the poor? Maybe you want to make some healthy lifestyle choices such as eating better, or losing weight? Whatever your goals, I wish you success!
Let’s prepare to stay merry. Here are some tips to keep you in the holiday spirit!
- Be thankful – Nurture a thankful heart. It’s hard to be unhappy when your heart is brimming with thanks! By changing your attitude, you can experience joy even when circumstances don’t change.
- Trust – Develop the trust that life will provide you with what you need. Serenity comes from contentment with what you have.
- Forgive – Let go of resentment and remorse which wastes energy on yesterday. Forgive and live today.
- Give to yourself – Give yourself compassion and understanding. Recognize your abilities and value.
- Savor life – Enjoy the taste of cranberry bread, the smell of Christmas cookies, the sight of sunrise.
- Do something for someone in need – Write a letter to a lonely friend, make a phone call to an ill relative, or bake a pumpkin pie to welcome your new neighbors.
- Love – Remember the deeper truth of life – you are loved. When you feel holiday stress, remember the voice of God who beckons, “Come to me when you are weary, and I will give you rest.”
May your holiday and New Year be filled with joy, happiness, and peace.
Happy Thanksgiving!
– This holiday letter is reposted from a newsletter I edited for health care
notwithoutgod.net 
Wow Zina! That’s awesome! What great advice you gave. I love the 7 tips. Very well written. I’m proud of you and thankful for you. I’m especially grateful you’re getting your wisdom out there to bless the world! 🙂
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Sharon, I’m glad you love the 7 tips! Thank you for being proud. It means a lot to me 🙂
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Great advice Zina.
Yes, today is the day we focus on being thankful. Our family along with millions of others across the USA will gather with family and loved ones and if only for a few moments will take a look inside ourselves to see all the good God has bestowed upon us. In these times of prayer we will leave aside lifes pressing problems and will conclude that all things considered we have it pretty good. This simple act will bring a feeling of peace (even if brief and fleeting) and I for one always have looked forward to it because it just feels really good!
In many places in the Bible we are called to give thanks to the Lord in the worst of times. For those of us who live with paralysis this is a special challenge.Tomorrow marks the 2 year anniversary of the spine tumor surgery that left me paralysed from the chest down. I have also found that giving thanks also presents a great opportunity to find meaning in our affliction. Give thanks? For this? Really?
Ever tried being angry while giving thanks? Can you shake your fist at God in anger while at the same time giving him thanks and praise? While seemingly contradicting that we should give thanks while suffering such hardship I have found that it has an incredibly calming effect. A feeling of peace and calm overrides my anger.
Today, I am taking my wife and twin 10 year old daughters for a family “walk”. It is said that some times a little bit of heaven spils out of “A cup runneth over” into our daily lives. Is it a beautiful sunset ? As you have said “the smell of Christmas cookies” ? An ocean view at dawn?
On our walk we will try to spot things we consider “Heaven Sent” . Perhaps we will claim it is the clear robins egg blue Georgia sky we have today,a beautiful bird that will fly by, or a loving smile from my wife. For each one we find the girls will make a flower tagged with the event(s) that moved us and the bunch will become the centerpiece of our holiday dinner table.
Heres to wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!
I know I am thankful for Zina’s words of wisdom and feelings of overwhelming positivity!
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Pete, thank you for the kind words about me. I’m glad you liked this post. I hope you enjoyed your walk on Thanksgiving. I love the idea of your girls making flowers tagged with events that moved you, and adding them in a bunch as the centerpiece at your table. Very cool! Thanks for sharing your story. I will keep you in my prayers.
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