Christmas spirit?

For me, christmas could be all year around. I can't never get enough of christmas lights, songs, presents, movies and of course food. Despite the fact that I'm an atheist I love Christmas! I love this commercial confusion around the holidays (which obviously is sometimes very shoddy and overdone), this family atmosphere, even if we fight half of the holidays, and that I just let go of all negative emotions. But this year I can't feel the christmas atmosphere like I felt it few years ago. To my mind, it is because I'm getting older and I see everything in a different way than when I was a kid, Fortunately, I have some proven ways to feel more festive. Here's my top 5 tips to feel christmas atmosphere in the air even if there's no snow outside! (Probably all these tips are on the Internet :D)

1. Bake gingerbreads! Lovely smell of cinnamon, sweet frosting, the heat radiating from the oven and cookie cutters in the shape of christmas trees. "Last Christmas" in the background and slow sips of hot chocolate. There's nothing that feels more cosy than baking gingerbreads, especially with your friends or family. In general, I love helping my mom in the kitchen while she's cooking christmas meals.

2. Watch christmas movies. Personally, I recommend "Holidays". If I had to choose the best movie I would definitely choose this one. But there's many more films I like, for example "A Christmas Carol", "The Polar Express" and of course "Home Alone". It's a great opportunity to make a movie marathon!

3. Sincere wishes. Yesterday I was on the last yoga class before Christmas and afterwards we had a christmas meeting. A lot of cakes, cookies (of course delicious ones), tea, coffee and the festive atmosphere. I could never forget it. First time in my life I felt so moved because all those honest, beautiful wishes. Not only is it a wonderful feeling when people are so kind to you but also when you see them smile because of your wishes,

4. Smell! Maybe I'm weird but I love to smell things, especially food. When I walk around the kitchen I always smell anything my mom is cooking, when I cook I do the same. And there's few christmas scents that remind me previous holidays and childhood. Today in the morning I was helping my mom to bake a cheesecake and before that she had started to prepare poppy-seed cake. The smell of poppy seed makes me feel the christmas spirit, just like the smell of dumplings with mushrooms and cabbage or croquettes.

5. Presents. Stop thinking about the gifts you'll get and start to enjoy giving them to your loved ones! Surprise them, make something special, not necessary expensive but something to show your love. We often forget how important it is to tell people we love them, we take it for granted but Christmas is the time when we have a great opportunity to let them see what we feel. How many times this year you told your family you love them?

So these are my top 5 things to feel the christmas spirit. I have one more tip for you: let go. Stop thinking and worrying about everything for these few days, slow down and enjoy holidays. Let go all your worries, forgive yourself all mistakes and eat a cake ;) I'll write more about letting before New Year's Eve, Now, turn off your computer and go help your mom in the kitchen. Merry Christmas! ;)
(Sorry, I just like making lists of things, like "5 things..." or "7 ways to..." :D)

           

5 things yoga has taught me.

I haven't been here for a while (okey, I know, I completely forgot about this blog) but I was writing new post for the past few weeks. I just couldn't finish it so now I'm writing another one. Because, why not? So the topic of my scribble, as you can see in the title is: 5 things yoga has taught me. Of course yoga has taught and is still teaching me many more things but at this point of my yoga journey I want to present you 5 the most significant.

Let me start with my short yoga story. I'm doing yoga 2 times a week (sometimes I practice at yoga studio, sometimes at home and in the end it turns out that I do asanas everyday ;) for over a year. It's not a long period of time but with regular practice I'm getting better and better. Remember: practice makes perfect. 

1. It has taught me to be more patient. Yeah, patience is something I've always had problem with. All my life I wanted everything at once, without waiting or doing anything, the only thing I was interested in was result. One fail was enough for me to stop what I was doing. Now I'm aware that to see results I have to come to this and be determined to finish what I started. Twelve months ago I couldn't even reach the floor with my fingers and straight legs and now I can lay my head on knees.

2. I'm looking in a different way at my body and my workout routine. Before I started doing yoga I had worked out a lot because I wanted to make my body fit and I hadn't felt comfortable with it. Now I work out to have strenght and power, because it makes me happy and I simply love it (especially yoga). And I realised that perfect body just doesn't exist. Everybody is different so we shouldn't try to look like somebody else. I work out because I love my body not because I hate it, it's one of the biggest progress for me. 

3. It has taught me how to breathe. Yes, something as simple as breathing is usually underestimate. I was simply forgetting to breathe, maybe not literally but more figuratively. Yoga taught me how to breathe properly. When I'm stressed, nervous, furious, cheerless or in any other mood I just breathe, it brings back balance and peace to my mind. And believe me or not, breathing in some kind of situations is difficult.

4. Listening to my body (and mind). To its desires or needs. If I feel like reading a book I just leave everything and start to read. If I want to drink some red wine, I will because my body wants this. And also if my mind need to rest i'll let it not to think for a while. Be kind to yourself, you deserve it.

5. Falls and mistakes are okay. When something seems impossible don't give up on this because you can fail. If you do, you'll try again. And again, and again until you achieve your goal. I believe that mistakes are needed because we learn from them. Failures too because they give us priceless lessons we never learn from other people. So keep trying and gain knowledge and skills from your own experiences.

So these are my five most important lessons that yoga has taught me. Summarizing, I've learnt how to live a happy life.

          
                                              Tara Stiles and Laura Sykora