12/09/2025
The holiday season has officially begun! We’re entering that end-of-year stretch — Christmas,
Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and soon New Year’s Eve. This time of year can be challenging for so
many reasons. Many of us are traveling by car or plane, some staying home and preparing to host
family and friends. There are holiday parties, shopping, wrapping, planning — and layered on
top of all that, navigating family dynamics… or perhaps facing the holidays alone. It can be
stressful, overwhelming, and exhausting.
Fortunately, as yoga practitioners, we have tools to help us not only survive this season but also
experience it with more ease and joy. It begins with our attitude and our expectations about what lies ahead. Stress is inevitable — but if we watch our minds and cultivate a more positive, open attitude, we can move through this next month with greater grace.
In yoga, we talk often about attachments and aversions. Letting go of rigid expectations about
how the holidays “should” be can make a tremendous difference. Notice when you’re holding onto an attachment — an idea of how events should unfold. Recognize that life doesn’t always follow our script. Softening those expectations allows the days to unfold more peacefully.
Likewise, noticing our aversions can be just as powerful. Do you feel tension around travel?
Around family gatherings? Around the pace of the season? See if you can gently shift your
perspective. Ask yourself whether the discomfort is truly inevitable, or whether a change in mindset might create more ease.
The Bhagavad Gita reminds us:
“The wise man (or woman) lets go of all results, whether good or bad, and is focused on the
action alone. Yoga is skill in action.”
So as we enter this season, go forth with a smile.
Mind your mind.
And may your holidays be filled with peace, presence, and joy.
