Back to Back Issues Page
Nov/Dec Holistic Happenings - Spirtual gift giving and a meditation
November 10, 2015

*A special welcome to new members!

*Read Holistic Happenings on the Web for graphics and easier link navigation.

Table of Contents

1- Greetings from Val
2- Giving Spiritual Gifts
3- A Meditation to Ease Stress and Create Sacred Space

Greetings from Val

Happy November!

Thanksgiving is fast approaching in the U.S. and with it plans for traveling, feasting, and shopping. It is the busiest travel week of the year and now, thanks to black Friday, the most popular holiday for shopping.

Thanksgiving is just one of the holidays being celebrated worldwide in the next six weeks. Many will celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, the winter solstice, and other days of significance.

The holiday season is a time of festivities and celebration. It is a time for connecting to Source, friends and family. We give and receive gifts. Many of these gifts are material, making for the fun of opening presents.

As these holidays (holy days) also have a spiritual significance, I would like to suggest the giving of five spiritual gifts to yourself and others, as well. They are the giving of charity, love, forgiveness, gratitude, and peace.

Charitable Gifts

Consider giving gifts to your favorite charities, both local and national. Much fundraising and giving to the less fortunate happens around the holidays. If you are not sure which ones to give to, Charity Navigator will show you how many of them stack up.

In addition to financial gifts, gifts of your time are much appreciated. An "I Owe You" for volunteer hours, donations of clothing and goods, or making a commitment to signing on-line petitions are just a few ways to help those in need. On a more personal level, visit someone in a nursing home or invite a lonely neighbor to your home for a meal.

If you care about animal causes and want to learn how to help them right from your home, sign up for my free Be a Hero for Animals e-course. You get 6 short quick-start email lessons with video demos and a companion guide.

Give Thanks

Thanksgiving is the time to reflect on what we are grateful for and to thank those who have made our lives better in some way.

During this holiday season, show gratitude to yourself, the Divine, and others. Here are a few tips:
*Send a thank you note to someone who showed you a kindness or impacted your life.
*Say thank you often to people who do something for you, include your family members.
*For twenty days, make a list of 100 different things you are thankful for. Each day add 5 items to your list and reflect on those with gratitude. Consider people, goods, pets, the earth, your life, health, talents, and career. Here are five to get your started: I am thankful today the breath that goes in and out of my body, legs that carry me from place to place, the delicious apple I just ate, my dog curled up next to me, the pen I used to write myself a note.

Visit the Power of Expressing Gratitude to read about the benefits of thankfulness and a video gratitude meditation with Deepak Chopra. Want to share all or part of your gratitutde list or a story about someone or something you are grateful for? Please do so here.

Give Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself, the one you harbor unforgiveness toward, and others who may be affected by your hard feelings. Forgiveness creates the opportunity for peace and renewed kinship, if appropriate. It may not necessarily pardon the recipient from consequences, but it frees you from the health and happiness-destroying toxic grip of resentment, anger, and bitterness.

Forgiving yourself for wrong-doing and mistakes clears the path for better choices, better relationships and a brighter future.

Learn more about what forgiveness is and how to forgive here.

Give Peace

Want world peace? Peace in your home? Peace in your heart? It is up to you. This is where all peace begins and war ends-in our collective individual hearts.

This holiday season, be the one who refuses to start or engage in conflict. (Not self-righteously or that will fuel the fire!) Be the one who offers the olive branch of peace and harmony in your own heart, home, and neighborhood.

When someone triggers you, ignore it or offer a kind word. If you have to, remove yourself from the situation emotionally and/or physically. Say the ho'oponopono prayer repeatedly to yourself to neutralize the trigger within. I find it miraculously healing and transforming when I genuinely pray those words.

Who knows, you just may discover that So-and-so has a good side after all or you can enjoy a happy holiday together.

For more on inner peace, read here.

Give Love

One of the great blessings of the holidays is connecting with friends and family and spending time with those you love. It is a time for being more mindful of your religious and/or spiritual roots and your relationship with the Divine. For the religious, it is a reminder of the Divine's love for us.

Giving love takes many forms. It may look like time spent together over a meal, a compassionate hug, an invitation to someone alone, a half hour locked in the bathroom enjoying a bath. It may look like random acts of kindness-a smile for the busy store clerk, a wave-in for a waiting driver. It looks like charitable giving, thanksgiving, forgiving and fostering harmony.

Giving love, compassion, and kindness is magical, for as you give, you also receive. It warms your heart and opens you to receive from others.

Love is the great healer of the mind, spirit and sometimes the body.

A Meditation to Ease Stress and Create Sacred Space

For many, the holidays tend to be a time of stress and emotional turmoil. Whether you feel overwhelmed by extra duties, dread potential familial conflict, or grieve an absent loved one, you can redeem the moment and bring healing into your life and the life of others.

Short, focused meditations help you create sacred space to acknowledge your feelings and emotions while creating a pathway to release and transform them. The following process (adapted from a meditation by Jennifer McLean) helps deflect the energies of stress and fear. It gives your energy system a boost of positive frequencies to align your field with peace, harmony, joy and Divine connection.

Process:

1. Sit quietly with your eyes closed.
2. Allow your mind to be as peaceful as possible. It helps to place your awareness on the connection of your feet with the floor or where your body connects with the bed or chair. Then slow and quiet your breathing and to follow that breath until your mind relaxes.With practice, you will be able to make this shift within a few breaths.
3. Place and hold your awareness either in your body, near your body or someplace around your body, which incorporates a whole energy field.
4. Allow this sacred energy field to ignite, bringing in peace and harmony.
5. Breathe in these frequencies as you tap into silence and hold the space for about a minute or two. If you anticipate a negative or draining situation, imagine a glimmering bubble of protection surrounding your aura that blocks negative energies from entering.
6. Then, bring your attention back, take a deep breath and slowly open your eyes. Notice how you feel.

On Facebook? Like Holistic MindBody Healing with Val Silver for wellness tips and more.

Until next time,
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season filled with happiness and healing of mind, body and spirit.

Val Silver
holistic-mindbody-healing.com

NOTICE: I search out and recommend products I feel will be beneficial to my readers. You should assume I will be compensated when you purchase recommended goods and/or services. Always perform your own due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone. Thanks for supporting HMBH and being part of what we do. I appreciate you very much.

PO Box 182 Chaumont, NY 13622
Back to Back Issues Page