One: Use your nose
It remembers more than your eyes and is ready to evoke emotion. Coffee, pumpkin pie, the perfume your Aunt has worn for the past 40 years. (Okay. They’re not all that good.) Close your eyes and breathe it all in. Transport yourself to childhood or other significant life moments.
Two: Tap your Taste-buds
Those little guys work overtime on these holidays. From the comforting flavors of turkey and dressing to the tantalizing tastes of homemade desserts (and maybe a sip of something bubbly!), savor the tastes and textures of your holiday feast and the memories they awaken.
Three: Feel the beat (of your own heart).
Take the family on a brisk after-dinner walk. Look at your legs! Your strong and powerful legs. Whisper a little thank-you for letting them move you. Blood pumping in your veins is tangible vitality!
Four: Your heart is not just physically keeping you alive
Your heart represents infinite capacity to experience vivid emotions and feelings. Not just positive ones like elation and love but also the more bittersweet sensations that show up during the holidays: nostalgia, grief, and awareness of the passage of time and life’s brevity.
Five: Readjust your perspective on family time
Take, for example, your little nephew’s temper tantrum. Even the meltdown of an overtired toddler can remind us how quickly it all goes, how fragile we all are, how profound love can be, and how normal it is to fully embrace our feelings (even the difficult ones).
Six: Listen to that story Grandpa is telling (for the hundredth time)
Spending time with older generations and finding the truth and wisdom in their words is a gift. This isn’t about morbidity, nobody knows how much time they have. Memorize your elders’ mannerisms, the sound of their voices, and the twinkle in their eyes. They know things. Listen. Learn.
Seven: Sit down and let the stillness take you
It was a glorious, shimmering day of living. Whether or not everything went as planned (spoiler alert: it didn’t!), you now get to collapse on the couch, wrapped in a cozy blanket. You can feel thankful for the many moments—the mundane and the extraordinary—you were lucky enough to experience.
CAPTION: The White Company Whitewashed Rattan Serving Tray, thewhitecompany.com
This original article first appeared in the FALL 2025 issue of City Style and Living Magazine.
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