Focusing on Peace, Love, and Family on Christmas Eve + Intuitive Eating Tips

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care…

Simon and I have quite the holiday movie repertoire that we love to watch every year. Most of the classics: Elf, A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Love Actually, and It’s A Wonderful Life are always on the list.

I love the moment of calm in Christmas Vacation when Chevy Chase’s Dad hands over the tradition of reading the classic Clement Clarke Moore poem A Visit from St. Nicholas. Even with all of the family drama and chaos, they take a break, have the kids snuggle in, and open their hearts to love, joy, and peace.

My holidays are often like that: some chaos, some stress, shopping, sometimes travel, meal planning, cooking, entertaining, but also moments of pure love and peace. For us, that often comes with Christmas music or snuggling on the couch for one of our classic Christmas movies. We map out the perfect time to watch each one. It has become a fun tradition for us.

In those moments, my heart is open and full and I feel calm and peace in my life. I will talk more about cultivating peace for this week’s mindset tip.

When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was always spent with the Newmans (my Mom’s side of the family). Grandpa Newman was a Lutheran minister and we went to candlelight service at his church in tiny little Sanford, Michigan. I loved when it was snowy. I loved the lighting of candles and singing Silent Night. All is calm, all is bright.

After church, we would go to our Grandparents’ cabin deep in the woods and enjoy music, snacks, drinks, and opening gifts. When I was really little, when we got back home we could open just ONE gift from our parents on Christmas Eve and save the rest for the morning.

I love the excitement of little kids on Christmas morning, just like Ralphie and Randy in A Christmas Story. (I visited the actual house from that movie in Cleveland a few months ago when I was there for a wedding. You can see the leg lamp in the window if you look closely.) After all of the chaos of presents, the parents were able to cozy up on the couch and enjoy a few moments of peace before the dinner adventure began.

My wish for all of you on Christmas Eve is to enjoy some cozy, calm time with a peaceful, loving heart no matter where you are or what you celebrate. Bring a few moments of love and peace into your day. It is good for the body, mind, and soul.

This Week’s Shot of MINDSET

I have been doing a lot of work this year to bring more PEACE into my life. I read a great book, The Map of Consciousness Explained: A Proven Energy Scale to Actualize Your Ultimate Potential by David Hawkins M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Hawkins did a lot of work to create a Map of Consciousness which has a logarithmic scale and descriptions of consciousness levels from Shame, Guilt, Apathy, and Grief at the bottom all the way to Love, Joy, Peace, and Enlightenment at the top.

His own description of what he created:

On a single chart, you see the entire world. It shows a path out of the pits of despair all the way to the state of Enlightenment.

I love Hawkins’ work for a lot of reasons, but his scientific scale and use of applied kinesiology lines right up with the techniques I use as a PSYCH-K® facilitator to help people work with their beliefs at the subconscious level.

When you look at the scale, you flip from negative states of consciousness to positive at some point. Above the state of Reason, you go all the way up to states of the heart which are the highest levels. Being a chronic overachiever, I want to go for the highest states in my life.

After reading this book over a year ago, I have focused on the consciousness, feelings, vibration, and essence of Love, Joy, and Peace in my morning meditations. I bring myself back to Love, Joy, and Peace whenever I get pulled to lower states throughout the day. Another great quote from the book:

Love is so powerful that one loving thought in a day cancels out all the negative ones.

Joy and Peace are even higher on the scale than Love. Enlightenment is at the very top, but I am cool with aiming for a few rungs below. I don’t need to reach enlightenment, but bringing a lot more Love, Joy, and Peace into my life every day feels good. Calming, soothing, healing.

I think there is a reason that so many holiday songs are about Love, Joy, and Peace. Peace on the Earth, Good Will Toward Others. Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Joy to the World.

I believe meditating on these positive states that I want to bring into my life has indeed brought more Love, Joy, and Peace into my every day life. It’s a Law of Attraction sort of thing where I get more of what I focus on. Give it a try with whatever positive state you want to bring into your life.

Calm and peaceful states are shown to calm the body and the mind and promote mental and physical health as an added bonus.

This Week’s Shot of HEALTH

Intuitive Eating has been a big focus for me at the end of 2024. I plan to incorporate a lot of the concepts from Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach into my own life and my work with clients as we move into 2025.

For this week’s health tip as we celebrate Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and maybe some time off work at the end of the year, see if you can focus on SATISFACTION with eating. Principle #5 of Intuitive Eating is to Discover the Satisfaction Factor.

When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content.

Or an even briefer summary:

If you don’t love it, don’t eat it, and if you love it, savor it!

I love the Intuitive Eating approach because no food is off limits and it is all about tuning in and listening to our body’s innate wisdom. There is a lot of science backing it all up, which I love . We will dive into all of that in the New Year.

For now, enjoy a Christmas week full of love, joy, and peace. Including making peace with your body and your food choices. Choose to savor the foods you love and enjoy amounts that leave your body feeling satisfied and content.

That’s all, nothing to stress about. Less stress. More peace. In all areas of life. We will dive into more details about this beautiful, freeing way of eating in the New Year.

If you are interested in using the power of the mind to uplevel your life, I share mindset expertise every week, along with fun & insightful stories from my own life path from 80s hair band superfan to chemical engineer to health & mindset coach (what a journey!).

You will also see plenty of health promoting tips and recipes because I am blown away by the power of intermittent fasting + a healthy diet to prevent & reverse just about any health concern Mindset plays a big part in health and healing too, the power of the Mind Body connection is pretty mind blowing.