One Mantra to Get You Through the Holiday Season

A couple weeks ago—when Christmas seemed a distant threat and when there was still time to shop online—I went to a yoga class. Nobody really had any holiday stress yet, but the instructor encouraged us to come up with a mantra that would see us through the holiday season.

Being naturally indecisive, the time for picking mantras normally ends before I can decide upon one. But this time, one came straight to my mind. The lyrics to a song that I had heard the night before in concert:

Ring the bells that still can ring/

Forget your perfect offering/

There is a crack in everything/

That's how the light gets in/

The song is "Anthem" by Leonard Cohen, and it makes quite the long mantra. Nonetheless, throughout the trials of this month, I have been surprised that the mantra worked. Or helped, at least.

Right now, I'm writing this from the airport. My flight was delayed by an hour and a half. And to make matters worse, I (needlessly) missed my office holiday party to make my flight on time. And I really wanted to go to my office party.

Being several weeks separated from that wonderful class, I let myself get carried away in impatience, disappointment, stress and frustration. But then the mantra returned to me, and I have an odd sense of peace.

video: My Grown Up Christmas List

We like to think of the holiday season as a universal celebration to bring people closer to each other and to remind us of our humanity. We always felt this song conveyed that beautifully.

The Story of the Raccoon Trap

This afternoon, I walked into the yoga studio wearing the weight of the world in my neck. I had so much stress about so many things that I was fighting the relaxation that comes with each yoga pose. I wouldn't accept the release because that meant letting go of my anxiety. And I wanted to keep all my anxieties tightly wadded in a toxic ball in my chest, where I knew they were safe.

Obviously, this is counterproductive. But it did remind me of a nice and unlikely little metaphor from the children's book, "Where the Red Fern Grows." I remember the teacher reading this aloud to us in 3rd grade, and I never forgot it.

In the book they tell of a no-fail way to catch a raccoon: You dig a little hole that's just a tad larger than a raccoon's paw and you throw a few shiny things at the bottom. Seeing the shiny things, the raccoon easily slips his paw in the hole to retrieve them. But when his paw is clutching the shiny things it is now bigger than the size of the hole, and he is trapped. All he has to do is let go and he is free. But the raccoon refuses to let go of the useless items and is trapped there until the hunter comes.

OK, so the metaphor may be a little less obvious to 8-year-olds. But it's good to know that the hunters tried never to use that trap because they considered it unfair to the raccoons. So let's not be too hard on ourselves. It's hard to let go of shiny, useless things that trap us. (In my case, dark useless anxieties.) But yoga does help. And by the end of the class, I had loosened my own grip on worry just a little.

"If It Hurts You're Doing It Wrong"

"If it hurts, you are doing it wrong." That's one of the first things you'll hear from the legendary Ashtanga teacher David Williams. Why does David stress this? Because he realizes that's the only way anyone will practice yoga their entire life. Gain more insights into this remarkable yogi in this wonderful online article. (David Williams will lead four workshops at Yoga Sanctuary's west Las Vegas studio January 13-16, 2011. For details and to reserve space, see this flyer.)