The holiday season can be a wonderful time to practice your various personal leadership skills.

Holidays can be stressful and filled with chaos  for some folks.  I know that always been true in my life.   Being a highly sensitive person, I am often sensory overwhelmed by the increase in people, colors, smells and energy of the season.  If you are like me – you are always looking for a little bit more ease in your Christmas instead of Christmas stress.

Here are my favorite personal leadership tips for creating a little less stress and a lot more ease this season:

1.  Be in the moment. Try to keep yourself present as much as possible.  No – I don’t mean wrapping yourself up – just keep aware of what is going on in the moment.  How are you feeling?  Are you full?  Do you need to breathe a little bit more?   Use your body as a measure of your level of personal presence; it’s your best resource.

2.  Express gratitude for today.  It’s a wonderful life. Relish it.   Relish too those that are around you – for they or you  may not always be there.

3. See the pure essential nature of everyone around you.   Seeing the very best, of what you hope for someone in front of you – and interacting  with that person – as if they are already there – creates a container for them to expand into.

4. Look for the positives today.  What ever you focus on – is what you will notice. There will be other days to notice what is not working with the stove, your relatives, the decorations or the weather.  Today – notice the best of what is.

5. See what is beautiful. Noticing beauty is another way to create a little more calm in your day.   Seeing  the graceful bend of a bow,  beauty of how rain dances on the pavement or the windshield wipers  or the warm, bright, beautiful faces of children – creates an ease all in itself. See yourself as beautiful today too.  You deserve that.

6. Be just a little more allowing today. Misplaced control often creates more problems than easing them.  Practice being allowing today – you can head off a lot of chaos before it even starts that way.

7. See the perfection in everything. Now, this is different than making things perfect.  It’s about how ever it is – it is perfect.

8. Under indulge. Your body could use a little less stress today too.