214 Yoga Snack | Mindfulness at the Holidays Episode By Chris McDonald

Chris McDonald: The holiday season is here, a time of joy, connection, and stress? In the midst of the hustle, how can we stay grounded as therapists and truly savor the season? In this Yoga Snack episode, I'm sharing simple yet powerful mindfulness practices to help you and your clients navigate the holidays with more peace and intention.

From gratitude rituals to sensory walks. These tools are perfect for cultivating presence in a season that often pulls us in every direction. Listen for actionable tips to bring more mindfulness into your holidays and your therapy sessions. Grab your favorite warm beverage, put on a warm blanket, let's get cozy and get started.

Welcome to Yoga in the Therapy Room, the nontraditional therapist's guide to integrating yoga into your therapy practice. I'm Chris McDonald, licensed therapist and registered yoga teacher. This podcast is here to empower therapists like you with the knowledge and confidence to bring yoga into their practice safely and ethically.

So whether you're here to expand your skills, enhance your self care or both, you're in the right place. Join me on this journey. to help you be one step closer to bringing yoga into your therapy room.

Welcome to another episode of the Yoga in the Therapy Room podcast, the place for non traditional therapists to come to learn how to integrate yoga into sessions safely and ethically. As of the recording today, this is yet the start of another holiday season. I honestly forgot how overwhelming it can be and how much is going on, but it is easy to be swept away in the chaos of the hustle and bustle.

Keeping up with gift giving, social calendars are increased, expectations from family can be overwhelming, and of course so much on our to do list that adds in with our already busy schedules. But this is also a good time, if we look at the flip side, as an opportunity to pause, reflect, reconnect with ourselves and our values, what truly matters for us.

So today's episode is a yoga snack. For those that don't know, I bring in small bite sized yoga practices you can integrate into your daily life. This one's going to be a little different because we're going to be just talking about mindfulness. Which to me is part of yoga. So I'm going to give you not just one practice but just some different ideas to be thinking about as you go through this holiday season and hopefully maybe into the new year as well that some of these things can definitely be taken and brought into your regular life as well.

So hopefully this can help you to stay grounded no matter the chaos that's going on for you. And of course, as always, I love to make them simple, easy to integrate, and effective so that you can feel more present and more peace during this festive season. Really enjoy yourself, even if there is some stress.

So we have to be able to pause. with mindfulness, take a moment for ourselves throughout the hecticness of our days. But let's start first with expectations. I know as someone who's been married for 27 years that when I was initially married, expectations from family was really strong and I got so stressed out.

Even with the holiday season coming, whose house are we going to for Christmas? Where are we going Christmas Eve? What are we going to do for Thanksgiving? It got to be a lot and I remember just getting this like pit in my stomach every time there'd be the holiday discussions and one family would be upset, my husband's family, oh you're spending too much time with your family and not us and it just got to be a lot and I'm sure a lot of you can understand that and reflect with that.

There can be a lot of expectations of what needs to be done, what other people think the holidays should be like, who you should spend it with, what you should be doing. Let's take a breath. I know I need that now too. Just bringing this stuff up can feel tense. I'm sure you can relate. But how do we keep realistic expectations?

I think that's the key. And one thing I've reflected over the years is to really pause, step back, and think about Well, what are my expectations for the holiday season? What do I want to cultivate and bring in? Do I want to bring in that stressful energy? How can I find more calm? And these might be questions that you've thought about as well.

And I think it starts before the holiday season because we know it's coming every year. And it starts sooner than later, I think, because then questions get asked like, so what are you going to do for this holiday? Where are you going? What's happening? And maybe coming up with a mantra for yourself could be a yoga practice.

How do you want to be in the world? What's important most to you? Is it spending time with certain family members and not others? No judgment. So figuring out what is most important for you. So starting first with a mantra, maybe an intention practice can be a good way to start. And then when you get off track, which I know I have derailed probably the past few days of getting a little bit too overwhelmed with things, coming back to that without judgment, without judging ourselves for getting overwhelmed, because we're human, we need to bring that self compassion to ourselves.

And it can be a lot, especially as we keep busy practices and trying to manage client needs, marketing with our practices, connecting with other professionals, all the things we juggle daily, it can be a lot. And then once we add in something else that can tip us over. at times if we're not careful. I think the other thing we got to think about is keeping up with our yoga practices even when our schedule is full.

This is the biggest challenge because what do we do when we're most stressed out and short on time? We cut those practices right down or not at all. Oh, I'll get to it after the holidays. I don't have time for yoga right now. But my question to you, can you make this a priority? to continue these practices, even if it's just shorter.

So keeping those consistent habits is what helps with neuroplasticity in the brain, so that you can open your window of tolerance to be less reactive to stress. and be able to build that inner resilience. So, as of this recording, I scheduled my yoga class I'm going to tonight, even though I feel a little stressed because I do have a lot of things I still need to get done.

But you know what? I'm putting that aside, the to do list, and I'm going because this yoga class really helps me. Making it a priority. Figuring out the best way in your schedule that you can do this. You owe this to yourself, and that'll make you a better therapist you For the clients that you do see, are you a mental health therapist interested in bringing yoga into your therapy room, but feel uncertain where to start?

Maybe you're worried about staying ethical or want to feel more confident in what you're offering. I've got just the thing for you. I'm excited to share my free resource, how to build confidence and competence with yoga and therapy sessions. This downloadable checklist includes best practices for integrating yoga, plus reflection questions to help you refine your approach and feel empowered.

It's the perfect tool for anyone wanting to blend yoga into therapy in a safe and impactful way. Step into the therapy room with confidence and transform your sessions today. Go to hcpodcast. org forward slash build confidence. That's hcpodcast. org forward slash build confidence. So. What are some other things?

I think gratitude is another thing to continue those practices, but maybe making it more specific towards the holiday season. So thinking about, in writing down, what are things that you could be grateful for this holiday season? And even just the small moments. I know I just observed my cat laying under the Christmas tree and just watching her and she's just looking up at the light, so sweet.

Those small moments, maybe your child opening up a gift, laughter of your kids, really just noticing what those are and just being with that moment and just checking in with your body. How does it feel? Do you feel that ease in your nervous system? Maybe your breath slowing down as you connect. What are the things you're most grateful for that you can most appreciate?

I know for me hanging out with friends too is important the holiday season, but also doing creative things. This past Saturday I had a friend over, we did some diamond art. For those that don't know, diamond painting or diamond art is similar to paint by numbers, but you use tiny little resin diamonds instead of paint, and you apply those to a sticky canvas that's pre printed with a color coded chart.

So it's very simple, easy to use, but it's also very relaxing, especially as therapists, because we got to use our brains a lot, a lot of our thinking in sessions. So being able to give ourselves the gifts of creating creativity and art, I think can be so helpful. Another thing to remember is to keep up with the breath practice, practicing not just when you're anxious, but doing as a preventative to practice each day.

Even if you're doing it for four or five rounds, that still is going to help you to stay calmer throughout the day. And sometimes using an anchor likes inhaling peace and exhaling stress. Let's try that. So, so sit in a comfortable spot with your feet on the ground. Spine straight. You can roll the shoulders if you'd like.

And we're just going to be breathing in and out through the nose. So inhale through the nose, inhale peace. Exhale through the nose, stress. Now if you want to bring some visualization, picture what kind of color peace is on the inhale and what color stress would look like. So inhale peace. Imagine that color filling you up within, and exhale, stress that color coming out, evaporating into the air.

We'll do that a few more times. Inhale, peace.

Exhale, stress.

Inhale, peace. Feeling that color within, going into every cell. Exhaling stress.

One last time. Inhale peace. Exhale stress. Letting it go.

And if your eyes are closed, just opening up your eyes. Now just notice how you feel after that breath practice. So we did probably, what, five rounds? So use this, and you can use it as a preventative, but also when stress comes, you're feeling more anxious, take a moment, even go to the bathroom to do your breathing, go outside, if you're at a holiday gathering that's stressful, with stressful relatives, do your breath practice more, and find that inner peace in whatever way you can.

You can, and it can be hard when our schedules are full, but you matter, and it's important to connect to yourself to keep yourself more grounded, so that you're not in that fight or flight response through the whole holiday season. Another thing I wanted to mention too is with to do lists, when we have so many things to do, we have to have a stopping point each day.

I know last night, by the end of the evening, it was Sunday night, and I had so much going on, and I wrapped some gifts, and. I had some stuff I had to get ready for my work day and by seven I'm like that's it. I can't do anymore. I just felt exhausted. I felt drained. So make a stopping point because it's easy just to keep going right until bed and then next thing you know you can't get to sleep because your mind's still going.

Find a stopping point and then engage in some relaxation. in the evening, do something fun, take your mind off it. So important. We have to lower our expectations of what we can get done as well. I think this is always a challenge for me as well. What are my expectations of what I can get done in one day?

Or am I trying to overdo, which automatically leads to overwhelm, when we are unrealistic in our expectations of what we can accomplish in a day? I recently learned a, of a Buddhist mantra to remember with overwhelm. I've been using that more. It's called just saying to yourself, what is the next needed thing?

Unfortunately for me, I have to keep repeating it over and over during the day because it just seems like then the next needed thing comes and it's just, oh my gosh, they're still there. But narrowing down your focus, the next needed thing I need to work on is. And then maybe reminding yourself this is what I'm working on now if thoughts of future things comes into play.

But I still need to do this, that anxious mind speaking. I got you, but we're working on this now. So bringing that reassurance to yourself and trying to get your focus back. And then once you're done, the next needed thing is, and staying with that thing, that's mindfulness. Staying in the present moment, noticing that the mind may be reaching above for the next thing.

I see you, but I'm going to bring you back without judgment. That is true mindfulness. Another thing you can try is a sensory awareness or awe walk. So taking a short walk, even if it's cold outside, just trying to bundle up. I've been doing that more and more. I feel like that can be an excuse. Oh, it's too cold or it's raining.

We need to get outside. We need that fresh air and that mindful movement. So going a little slower on the walk, really engaging your senses, maybe noticing the crispness in the air, the sound of the leaves as you crunch them, walking, noticing holiday lights, sparkling, seeing what's around you, hearing the sounds of the birds, do whatever you need to do to get yourself in the present moment.

And we can also mindful walk, going at a normal pace, we don't have to go super slow, just checking in with the feel of your foot as it hits the ground, noticing as your heel strikes the earth, or noticing the sensation of your hip moving as you're walking. So we can use those internal anchors as well as external, noticing what's around you.

You can check in with breath as you're walking, maybe noticing something you never saw before. If you go on the same way you're walking, a display someone has on their yard that wasn't there before, or maybe one of the trees lost more leaves. Seeing what is there that's different, or taking a different route for your walks.

And even doing shorter walks, if you don't have a lot of time, 10 minutes still matters, it still counts. That is giving yourself the gift of movement and mindfulness, if you can make it more a mindful walk, awareness or awe walk. And I want to leave you with one last reflection that I think would be helpful for you to think about the evening time.

So at the end of each day, to take five minutes just to sit quietly and reflect on what brought you joy or peace in that day, especially as the holiday season, that we want to make sure that we're on the path of mindful awareness and we're not getting too caught up in the negative or rumination in our mind on things that aren't going well.

Where did you find joy or peace? And just reflect. And the cool part is if you do this each night, you're going to be looking for those moments during the day. And if you don't have time to journal, then just really think about them. Picture those moments, giving appreciation, even placing hand on heart, and breathing, and bringing appreciation to those moments of joy and peace.

I hope this yoga snack was helpful for you. And I appreciate you coming along for today's episode, and I wish you and your family a healthy, happy holiday season. Are you a mental health therapist interested in bringing yoga into your therapy room, but are uncertain where to start? Maybe you're worried about staying ethical or wanting to feel more confident in what you're offering.

I've got something just for you. My free resource, How to Build Confidence and Competence with Yoga in Your Therapy Sessions. This downloadable checklist includes best practices for integrating yoga, plus reflection questions to help you refine your approach and feel empowered. It's the perfect tool for anyone wanting to blend yoga into therapy in a safe and impactful way.

Step into the therapy room with confidence and transform your sessions today. Go to hcpodcast. org forward slash build confidence. That's hcpodcast. org forward slash build confidence. And once again, this is Chris McDonald sending each one of you much light and love till next time. Take care. Thanks for listening to today's episode.

The information in this podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are giving legal notice. Medical, psychological, or any other kind of professional advice, we are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast.

Yoga is not recommended for everyone and is not safe under certain medical conditions. Always check with your doctor to see if it's safe for you. If you need a professional, please find the right one for you. The Yoga in the Therapy Room podcast is proudly part of the Psychcraft Network.