We all want a peaceful holiday season, but it’s no secret that the holidays are often stressful. Most of us live a lifestyle that is already overstuffed with busyness and stress. Typically, none of our normal stresses disappear during December, we just add decorating, gift-giving, entertaining, family visits, and holiday events on top of an already full schedule. It’s not a recipe for a season of peace!
As a plant-lover, you already have some built-in stress-busters you can harness for creating peace in the midst of your holidays. Caring for plants is naturally healthy for your mind and emotions. But there are many ways that you can intentionally craft mindful moments with your plants this season to create pockets of peace in your days.
Let’s explore 10 ways you can use your love of plants to encourage a more peaceful holiday season.
Plant-focused Eye Breaks
It’s always a great idea to take eye breaks for those of us who are looking at screens most of the day. Mayo Clinic suggests using the 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. You can use two choruses of Jingle Bells or Feliz Navidad to time your twenty-second ritual. And in keeping with our planty mindful moments, take that 20 seconds to look at plants across the room.
Sensory Moments
Choose a spot where you’re among a group of your plants. Take a few minutes to notice all the things your senses tell you about that location. Focus on cycling through all your senses or just one. What do you see? How many shades of green do you notice? What new signs of growth do you see? How does the appearance of your plants enhance your day? Ask the same kinds of questions for your other senses: what can you hear, smell, and touch in this space? I wouldn’t try tasting your plants, but you could eat a snack with them!
Green Walk
Weather permitting, take a short walk outdoors. Notice the trees and all the plants along your path. How are they reacting to the season? Instead of looking at Christmas lights, try noticing all the natural decorations. The wreaths, the trees, and berries. But if the weather’s ugly, or you’re just not in the mood, take a walk around your indoor garden. Walk through all your rooms slowly, mindfully, with intention. Notice every plant, even the ones you often overlook. Take a slow journey through your own indoor oasis.
Windowsill Moments
If you have plants, odds are that you have at least some of them clustered near a window. Stop for a few moments near one of these windows and spend a few moments, like your plants, soaking up the available light.
Notice how it looks on each leaf. How does it feel on your skin? What is it like at different times of the day? What do you notice about the color of the light? The intensity? The way it falls on your plants?
Drink Up
Whether your warm beverage of choice is coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or something else, you can use it to carve out moments of peace in your day. Take your favorite drink and enjoy it with your plants.
Maybe you’re sipping tea as you wander among your plants and just soak in the green colors. Maybe you snuggle a comfy chair into a jungle corner and wrap your hands around an evening mug of hot chocolate. Or, maybe you place some plants where you prep your coffee each morning that you can use as a focal point while brewing your coffee.
Deep Breathing
Deep breathing is one of the simplest and most powerful ways to bring a moment of peacefulness into your day. It is both surprisingly powerful and beneficial. Here’s how to practice deep breathing anywhere. Breathe in and out through your nose, if possible. Exhale longer than you inhale. And work up to an inhale of 7 seconds and an exhale of 11 seconds.
Now, how can you incorporate your plants into this practice? During each inhale and exhale cycle, focus on a single leaf. Each time you shift to a new inhale, move your gaze to a new leaf.
Mindful Plant Care
We all have weekly chores to do to care for our indoor plants. Instead of rushing through that time worrying about all the things on your holiday to-do list, think of your plant care time as self-care. Pay attention to your senses as you perform each task, using these sensations to ground you in the present moment.
Consider how caring for your plants is a nurturing experience for you as well as your green companions. Perform each task slowly and deliberately, choosing to take the time to focus on something other than the holiday rush. Consider it an appointment with yourself as well as with your plants.
Green Thought Triggers
Certainly this season sees us breaking out all the traditional ornaments and decorations we’ve collected over the years. And often we feel as if we have to move our plants to another space to make room for our holiday sparkle-up. But, what if, instead, we took a more natural approach this year? What if we incorporated our plants into our decorating in ways that remind us to care for ourselves in the midst of the holiday hustle?
Use your plants to prompt healthy thoughts. Each time you notice one of your plants among your festive decorations, let it remind you of the value of caring, nurturing, and growing yourself and your relationships. Let each time your eyes fall on your natural greenery remind you that the best things about the holiday don’t come in wrapping paper.
A Green Sanctuary
The holidays can get a little intense. They can be noisy, glittery, exciting, and full of activity and action. If you have plants, you have the perfect prescription to balance the intensity of the holidays with peace and calm. If you don’t already have a corner or special green spot in your home, create one. Add plants, a grow light if needed, and a pillow, stool, chair, ottoman, or simply a rug. This corner can be anywhere in your home, but if you don’t have a lot of alone time, it will help to create it somewhere out of the busiest living spaces.
No extra money or space? I feel you! Repurpose things you already own in a new way. Or simply declare yourself that a spot in front of a specific plant is your sanctuary for the season. Make a practice of escaping there whenever the season becomes stressful.
Green And Counting
This is going to sound simplistic, but it’s a great way to clear your mind, calm your nerves, and help you focus. Stand in front of one of your plants, relax, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Open your eyes and begin slowly counting parts of your plants. Leaves are certainly the easiest. Slowly and methodically count all the leaves on a single plant, a single stem, or in a plant grouping. pay attention to each leaf as you count it.
And there you have it, plant friends! Ten ways you can capitalize on your love of plants to help you find mindful moment and create a peaceful holiday season!
