Reclaim your serenity, one minute at a time...

Taking one minute breaks throughout the day to focus your spirit can restore joy and serenity in this hectic season.

For Your Mind

Open your eyes. Really look at someone you love, as if for the first time. Tell them how much you appreciate them.
Have an attitude of gratitude. Start small: think of ONE thing you are glad for this year. Smile over it! Feel the heart open with gratitude. Make a point to notice your gratitude every day.
Infuse your home with calm. Simmer a small amount of cloves, cinnamon, and orange peel in 2 cups of water on top of the stove for a soothing, calming fragrance.

For Your Body

Tame the beast. Try the lion pose, a tension relieving yoga position: Sit quietly, eyes closed, and inhale through the nose. Open the mouth wide and stick out the tongue. Stretch it down toward the chin (sorry, we're not kidding). Open the eyes wide, look up, and let out a roar as you loudly exhale. Close your mouth and relax your eyes. Repeat.
Shrug away tension. Don't carry the weight of the world; shrug it off. To release upper body tension: Inhale and tighten the shoulders, pulling them up toward the ears. Exhale and gently release. Repeat three times.
Laugh. A good laugh is a tranquilizer with no side effects. Laughing reduces stress hormone levels, decreases blood pressure, and relieves muscle tension. Rent a funny movie or share amusing past holiday stories with friends and family.

For Your Spirit

Connect with people. Really notice sales clerks when shopping. See them as people with families and a life outside of helping you. Practice the art of kindness.
Accentuate the positive. Meditate on the virtues of someone you love. Next, meditate on the virtues of someone you are angry with.
Let go and let God. Meditation teaches us to quiet our overactive brains and experience a sense of serenity. Turn off the TV and find a quite place. Breathe deeply five times. Lift your cares up to God. Express your deepest concern. Do this for 30 seconds. Spend the next 30 seconds letting go of it, watching it float up to the heavens. Then let Someone qualified worry about it for you.

Relax and enjoy the holidays. Accept yourself and your limitations. Find joy in the moment.

Joy is not in the past or in the future. The opportunity for joy is now.

Straight From the Horse's Mouth

Warren Says...

Party Hardy Early

At this point no one is looking for another Christmas party to fit into an already tightly packed schedule of egg nog and holiday cheer. Even New Year's Eve plans are set in stone, or maybe quicksand.

Come check out Dallas's own, Old 97's, at the Gypsy Tea Room the day before the big party to bring in the New Year. On December 30, 2005 Rhett and the boys come just off of recording their sixth album, Drag It Up. The first for their new label, New West Records. After tinkering with their limits on the previous five releases, they have settled in with what they do best on Drag It Up: solid writing and performances, with enough bells and whistles to make things interesting. It bring back their earlier recordings, mixing bluegrass, surf, country, rock, folk and some good old-fashioned psychedelia. Tickets on sale now at CD World and Good Records.

Visit LifeWorks Counseling Associates or EMAIL us for more information.

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