The Holidays, The New Year, and Mindfulness for Girls
Last year, we explored mindfulness during the holiday season. We know this time of year can be stressful for adults and children, so it’s an excellent time to take a step back and practice mindfulness. In 2021, we shared how to slow down, take time for yourself, go outdoors, and give back to the community. This year, we wanted to dive deeper into mindfulness and how you can re-center yourself and your girls. Here are our holiday mindfulness tips.
Cultivate Empathy
Empathy is a critical part of emotional intelligence that helps us navigate the world. It may be one of the most vital skills you and your girls can develop and continue to work on throughout your lives. Empathy is the ability to see yourself in someone else’s shoes, understand their perspective, and determine your reaction based on that information. During the holidays, when people are stressed, it can be easy to let yourself get caught up in that drama. Instead, try to see why they might be stressed, and if you can do anything to alleviate that, take steps to make it happen.
Practice Active Listening
Human nature makes us not great listeners. Some people are better at it than others, but we must work on our listening skills. The holidays are a good time to focus on this and teach your girls to follow suit. Rather than listening only long enough to determine what you will say in response, let yourself focus entirely on the speaker. Let them complete their thoughts and ask clarifying questions to ensure you understand. Then repeat what they’ve said back to them to reinforce that you heard them. That’s active listening.
Let Go of Old Habits
The New Year is a time for resolutions, which often means letting go of old habits that no longer serve you. It’s also always a good idea to teach your girls skills to help them leave old habits behind and develop new, healthier behaviors. Keep in mind the 3 Rs:
- Reminder: what triggers the behavior?
- Routine: how does the trigger create the habit association?
- Reward: what benefit do you get from continuing the habit?
The goal is to redirect these behaviors to something more positive to avoid harmful habits in the future.
Evaluate Obligations
Obligations feel like the name of the game in December. You have work, school, and family commitments throughout the season. But now is precisely the time to learn to draw boundaries. Evaluate obligations to help you alleviate stress and determine the most important events. It’s okay to bow out or send regrets to activities that conflict or actively make you feel negative before you even arrive. Stay mindful about the events you do attend to make them feel special and festive.
Avoid Judgement and Self-Criticism
Finally, use mindfulness to go easy on yourself. It’s okay not to be perfect, and it’s okay to let your girls see you as imperfect. When you judge yourself or engage in self-criticism, you’re teaching your daughters valuable lessons on how they should feel about themselves. For example, if you have too many sweet treats at a holiday party, don’t give in to the temptation to talk about your body negatively. This can cause your girls to feel the same way about their bodies because you’ve modeled that behavior.
How do you stay mindful this holiday season? Let us know in the comments.
The Ladybug for Girls team wants to wish you a very happy, safe, and mindful Holiday season.