This Is Your Brain On The Holidays

The holidays can be overwhelming... we are bombarded with too much of a good thing: work, play, kids, relatives, parties, wine, chocolate, candy, shopping, cloying music, fattening food, holiday spirits - and that's just online.Your truculent toddler isn't the only one who needs a quiet time out in a dark corner! Your brain needs a time out, too. Pity your poor besieged brain cells. Why not pamper them with a mini-meditation break?Think of MEDITATION as a well-deserved respite for you and your 50 shades of gray matter - only you don't have to lock yourself in the bathroom with a jug of cheap chardonnay.

MEDITATION is not missile surgery. Here are a few points to keep in mind as you, um, clear your mind.

BE POSITIVE

Your negative thoughts are involved in a conspiracy of cognitive mischief to make you sick as a lactose-intolerant cat on a hot tin roof.Has the bank foreclosed on your home? Wife skip out on you? Kids delete your texts? Can't get that image of a twerking Miley Cyrus off your eyeballs? Just slap a simpering smiley on your heartbreak.

MEDITATION IS SERIOUS BUSINESS

No matter how foolish you feel, there is absolutely NO giggling, NO chuckling, NO snorting, and especially NO guffawing in meditation. Also, NO crying. That's even harder to pull off.

BE KIND TO YOURSELF

Relax your body. Loosen that grip of tension that makes you want to choke your spouse. Focus on the muscles you are clenching… and release. Stop that squeezing!

REMEMBER TO BREATHE

When I’m despondent, I forget to breathe and I turn a peculiar shade of cyan. This makes me unduly twitchy and ruins many an intimate moment. Oddly enough, you need to breathe in and out.