“If you can’t always get what you want,

try sometime and you find you get what you need.”

– Rolling Stones

This is the year of the COVID holidays. It will be hard to have “normal” Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza, or New Year’s Eve celebrations this year.

Public health experts ask us to celebrate the holidays with in-person gatherings limited to the people who are living under the same roof. For some people, this is a relief, a chance to avoid the boring pontificating relative or a houseful of screaming over-stimulated kids. For others, this loss of family connection increases feelings of isolation and boredom.

How to make the holidays feel like more than an ordinary-COVID-day

Start with the menu

You can recreate your traditional holiday dinners, modify them, or do something completely different. To avoid a hoard of leftovers,down-size your menu with a roast turkey breast instead of a whole bird. If your traditional menu doesn’t feel right this year or you are bored with the same-old dishes, this is the year to try something new. Personally, I believe Thanksgiving turkey is flavored with nostalgia. When the best compliment you can give to an entree is “it’s so moist!” something is missing. Skip the turkey and have a meal of all of your favorite side dishes. Or do lobster, BBQ, or a slow-cooked Bolognese sauce. I’m planning on making an herbed butterflied chicken with my favorite roasted vegetables (1-1 1/4 hours cooking time), an apple galette (lazy apple pie), and a nice wine.

Music, music, music

Start the day by turning off the computer and television. Fill your house with the music you love.

Setting the Table

Whatever you decide to serve, set your table with your best dinnerware and some candles. You deserve it. If empty places at your dining table are too depressing for you, enjoy your holiday meal in a sunroom or in front of the fireplace.

After Dinner…Walk

Once dinner is over and you have cleared the dishes, instead of watching a football game (which is an excuse to sink into a post-prandial stupor), go for a walk. Please realize this walk recommendation comes from someone whose happy-place is curled up on the sofa with a good book, tea, and some homemade cookies. Bundle up so you are warm and dry. Being in Nature has been documented to calm nerves, lift spirits, and aid digestion.

If you are lucky and family and friends are a walk or brief drive away consider an outdoor masked and socially-distanced front lawn or sidewalk visit (you know the drill). If family or friends can’t see you, do a Zoom-type visit or consider the more intimate connection of a simple phone call.

Reward

The reward for your brisk walk: the warm beverage of your choice and perhaps a sliver more of dessert. And the start of some new traditions.

While this year we can’t be with the ones we love, we can be grateful for the people we love and who love us.

We are isolating this year so all of us can celebrate together next year.

Be safe, be happy!

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Share your own ideas and successes in the comments below

Forest Bathing? What does that have to do with Feng Shui? While Feng Shui is often thought of as just arranging furniture. Feng Shui is essentially about balancing and connecting your personal energy to the restorative energy to your environment, including Nature.

The average American spends 90% of their time indoors with 2-5 times the air pollution as outdoors, states the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Meanwhile “Forest Bathing”, the Japanese tradition of Shinrin-yoku, has recently been proven by Dr. Qing Li to increase helpful immune responses and decrease stress hormones.

What is Forest Bathing?

Forest Bathing is the Japanese tradition of spending time walking in a forest and consciously tuning-in to what you are experiencing. The goal is refreshing and reviving your mind and body. This is different from a hike in the woods with your focus on reaching a goal; or a jog or bike ride with the woods as a backdrop for a cardio work-out. Forest Bathing is time in a wooded area to be alive to the restorative power of Nature – especially trees. (I love the term “Forest Bathing”, it suggests total immersion.)

In his book Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness, Dr Li described how time in forested areas decreases stress, anxiety, depression and anger. Benefits include energy levels increased by 30% and sleep improved by 15% after a 2-hour forest walk. Subjects also experience a boost to their immune system.

Sounds too good to be true?

In an NIH (National Institutes of Health) peer-reviewed article (the gold standard for medical research), Dr Li documents how time in wooded areas measurably decreases stress hormones (adrenaline and noradrenaline) and increases the body’s “Natural Killer” cells which have anti-cancer and anti-viral functions. Note: These effects do not occur under identical conditions while subjects walked in a city. It is not the walking alone, but environment and awareness that has this impact.

Don’t have a large forest nearby to wander around in? Or two hours to spend there? Dr Qing Li has some suggestions:

Simple Ways to Get a Taste of Forest Bathing

• A short walk in a wooded area or simply out in Nature
• Aromatherapy with essential tree oils – especially pine tree and cypress
• Placing plants in your home or office will benefit everyone
• Spend time outdoors, even if simply on your porch or patio.

Intuitively you know that time in Nature is restorative; now science is proving you right!

How do you use Nature to revive yourself? Let us know in the comments below.

Want to see more about how to make the most of the restorative energy of Nature?

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