12 Tips for Taming Your Holiday Vices

Reclaim the Spiritual Meaning of the Season

Write down affirmations or guidelines on what you want this holiday season to be about. Use a post-it note or sheet of paper that you put in your wallet so you can look at it daily. Is it about being of service and bringing light into the darkest time of the year, or is it about keeping up with the gift-giving excesses of your neighbors and relatives? Is it about spending quality moments with a few precious loved ones, gathering with those you don't get to see often enough, or is it about over-packing your schedule with obligatory parties, events, and excessive eating and drinking that leave you feeling wasted? Is it about going deeper in your quest for sacred values, or is it about getting numbed out by the focus on materialism?