Maintaining positive mental health is an uphill battle for many people. With the holiday season quickly approaching, added stress can become overwhelming. Becca Williams, an emotions therapist, educator, and alternative medicine advocate, shares three at-home wellness practices to mitigate holiday stress and anxiety.
The process begins with finding an ideal/ right style of meditation. Meditation is a broad term for reflective thinking and can mean many different things. Not everyone’s style of meditation involves sitting silently in a dark room. Rather, an active form of expressive movement, sound and breathwork can direct the mind to gain control of internal negative emotions.
Next, start witnessing what specific actions increase stress and anxiety. Be aware when someone says or does something and negative emotions begin to swarm. Reflect on what happened, what emotion arose, and the reaction to that emotion. Recognizing behaviors during specific stressful and anxiety packed encounters helps create the ability to change them. The goal is to understand it is impossible to be happy all the time, and even harder when it is expected, but to always remain in control of one’s emotions.
Begin noticing the good things. Williams refers to this as “abundance juice,” because in this process she encourages her students in her Emotional Liberation® master-class series to “drink in the beauty of your environment on a walk, hike, bike ride, or while sitting in an inspiring place.” Being in awareness can also include sincerely acknowledging someone’s kind and positive action. Alternatively, she invites people to notice the feelings that arise when acknowledgements and compliments come their way.
“My practice incorporates the judicious use of cannabis and psilocybin-microdosing but I understand that is not a reality for everyone — and that’s ok,” said Williams. “Regardless, the goal of my program and teachings is to give people the tools to confront their stresses and anxieties head on, enabling them to not let their negative emotions consume them.”
To learn more about emotional therapy, overcoming holiday stress, and how to register for Williams master-class series, visit https://beccawilliams.org/.
