With all the bright lights, vivid colors and melodious sounds of the holiday season, it can be easy to become robotic just trying to get things done. The holiday season is so full of textures and smells, it is a great time to pull away from your family and take some time for yourself to slow down, relax and enjoy.
With the frivolity of the holiday shopping and parties, one of my favorite ways to rest and connect with myself is through my journal. Whether I am making lists (and checking them twice), free writing to release stress, or doodling with my favorite colored pencils, it is the Sacred place where I connect with my deepest Self.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Ten minutes with your journal will renew your Spirit in the busy holiday season!” quote=”Ten minutes with your journal will renew your Spirit in the busy holiday season!“]
This is the time to review the past year and to anticipate the opportunities of the year ahead. Here are some Soul Stems to assist you in the process. You may want to look back at your journal at this time last year to see what you planned for this year.
My greatest accomplishment last year was . . .
What I started and plan to finish is . . .
I have forgiven . . .
What excites me about the coming year is . . .
I am grateful for . . .
The one word that will guide me in the coming year is . . .
Each year rather than making a list of resolutions, I find I do better with choosing one word to focus upon for the year. Last year I chose Allow. To become more conscious I became aware of my resistance to situations and people and eased into allowing instead. This created a lot of self-awareness and was a great experience. I haven’t settled on a word yet this year, but will use the Soul Stem “The one word that will guide me in the coming year is . . .” a few times to become clear.
Here are some other Soul Stems to play with over the holiday season from my book Live Intuitively: Journal the Wisdom of your Soul.
Wishing you and your family
Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah
Happy Solstice
and Joy in whatever your Faith.
Cassie,
Happy Day and the Winter solicie is great and I do a Yoga practice on New years day and it Reallyhelpp to invigorate me for my year ahead. Thank You great article.
Lori English
What a great way to start the New Year Lori. What we do on the first day of the year paves the way for the rest of the Year! Thanks for sharing this.
Everyone is talking about spending time with family so I love that you’ve talked about time for yourself, Candess. It’s so easy to overlook this during the hectic holiday time. Journalling is a great way to reconnect with yourself and I love your list of soul stems.
Love connecting with other journalers Tamuria!
Journaling is so therapeutic for me. I really enjoy doing this first thing in the morning or before I go to bed at night. It really helps me remember what is important. Thank you reminding me of this task this time of year.
The morning is such a sacred time Sabrina. I love journaling in the morning too! Thanks for sharing.
I miss my journal. I am away from home and needing my journal time and it seems a bit hit and miss right now. I can feel it. I too am feeling my way into the new year ‘word’…last year I had 2 words. Let Go. Thanks for the nice insights.
I know Teresa. Once you have established a journaling process, it is difficult to not have your journal!
I love your suggestions here, especially the one about choosing a word theme for the year. A few of my friends have mentioned how wonderful journaling is, but I can’t imagine adding one more writing-related task to my day!
We stopped exchanging gifts at Christmas, which has made the holiday much less stressful and more focused on gathering together to spend time making memories unrelated to material things. So there’s definitely some time for self-reflection. Happy holidays!
Have a Merry Christmas Meghan. I am sure you have other ways to reflect and create inner peace.
A great reminder to take time for ourselves amid all the rush rush. So often the rush rush is self-created. We all have a moment to stop, breathe, and maybe even do some journaling. Great post!
This is such a great time of year to journal. We can overlook the last year and write in the New Year!
Candess, I love this! Of course writing is where I sort through everything, so this works so well for me. And we usually focus so much on what’s wrong, we forget to appreciate ourselves for what we DID accomplish.
For me, I finished a new novel. Just last week. Nothing of course is more gratifying for me!
I’m going to take your questions and play with them next week, which I’m actually taking off. Ah, heaven!
Congratulations on the completion of your novel. Now you can write for fun! Unless of course, like me, writing a novel is fun!
YES! I have my new Leonie Dawson journals and allow myself 20 minutes to get lost in them when i need a breather.
I can’t wait to switch off on Christmas Eve for 3 days.
Me too! Ready to switch off and play for the holiday. Happy writing!
Through my social art group we use a process of reflecting, writing and creating art to walk through the 12 Holy NIghts. This is not religious, but more a way to reflect each day with a planetary impetus. For example, December 24th-25th, we work with Aries: Who am I now? Who do I want to become? I’m looking forward to spending time with myself to journey through this process and to see what shows up for me. I love your suggestions and as someone who always writes as well, I agree that journalling with some directive like your questions, really can be so insightful. I also turn off and tune inside and look forward to it as well. Happy and Joyful holidays to you and yours, Candess!
That sounds beautiful Beverley. What a powerful group experience!
Love the soul stems! How thought provoking! I also love the idea of choosing one word – I will have to ponder that one word, as I think it is a very good idea. Can be my balancing center as I waiver off center. Blessings to you and yours!
I love Soul Stems too! Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Hi Candess,
setting that time for just “me” is so important especially this time of year 
Wonderful suggestions, thank you!
I have never heard of “soul stems” I love journaling so will have to look more into this ……I need to do more of it
Joan hope you do get some “me” time this holiday. I coined the term “Soul Stem” when I was teaching a group around this writing process. You can find the process on the link in this article. It’s so fun to journal with others and share too! Merry Christmas!
Happy Holidays! Yes, this season can be too overwhelming. I find myself in this situation all the time as I travel every end of the year to go to my mother-in-law together with my husband to Puerto Rico. This also marks the time that I have to finish everything that I have complete and pre-schedule those that I cannot do physically among other things.
I too have to take a time by myself to ground myself by taking time to do some concentration and meditation exercises.
This is great… I know journaling has come and go for me and various times I pick it back up when I feel the need… but I know the value of it for me and many.. and this is a great reflection. Merry Christmas Candess
You’re knocking on my door, Candess. The idea of having a word to focus on for the new year has crossed my path several times but with no action on my part. So, here is the suggestion again starring me in the face and the light bulb has gone on. The word that comes to mind is “forward.” Thanks for your inspiring post and getting me to commit to my motivational word for 2017,
Fantastic word Joyce. Happy you joined me in choosing a word. Through journaling I came up with my word for 2017 which is Abundance!
A good point to take time for ourselves during the holidays. And I am not very into resolutions either, it just seems like a waste of time. A word to follow seems much better.
I have learned to slow down and relax–consciously performing tasks in slow motion. This just means that I consciously decide sometimes to slow whatever I am doing at the moment down by 25%. But I do find myself scurrying around sometimes.