It was New Year’s Eve.

I had gone through the motions of buying champagne and planning a dinner in the hopes that my husband and I would have a moment to watch The Dick Clark Special,  talk about the past year, and what’s to come for us.

Around 9pm I found myself scrolling through Facebook posts to find most of them reflective and intention based.

I was overcome by the sense that it just didn’t feel like New Years Eve to me because time had totally escaped my grasp.

I couldn’t hardly conjure time to sit under the Christmas tree and listen to Bing Crosby, let alone look back on an entire year and decide which new resolutions to set.

It was such an uncomfortable and disappointing feeling. For someone who  practices mindfulness, meditation, yoga and tries to be present as much as possible, I had somehow gotten swept up in the whirling durvish called ‘The Holidays as a parent’.

Suffice it to say, I knew some personal intervention was necessary.

My go-to grounding practice is meditation. I sat and breathed. I slowly started to feel my self again. Then I slowly started to feel my life again. What came to me was the observation that I had been over-doing for everyone else. I had been focusing on presents for the kids, decorations for the company, parties for the community, travel for the family.  I had created so much busy-ness that I wasn’t creating time to be.

Through this realization I decided that 2016 is my year for Presence & Prosperity.  Without the presence, the prosperity can often come in the form of drain, fatigue and overwhelm. Which is exactly how I felt on New Years Eve. In order for any type of prosperity to be of value to ME I’ve got to be present with it. And that often means doing LESS.

Easy practices to become present in any moment:

-3 deep breaths in your nose, out your mouth

-hold your body very still and observe

-bring the tips of all 10 fingers together in front of your stomach