It’s the holiday season. Lights twinkle, gifts get wrapped, and plans are in flux. You’re doing your best to keep up with your daily commitments and the extra effort it takes to navigate this season of celebration, gatherings, and giving. It can be a lot, both wonderful and overwhelming.

On one hand, you have extra time to be with your loved ones and take a break from your normal routines. However, there can also be pressure to say “yes” to all invitations, buy gifts beyond your budget, or overindulge in holiday treats. There are more delicious cookies around than usual. Oh, no!

While the holiday season can be joyful, it can also be stressful, making you feel anxious and out of balance. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way.

Recently, I discovered some wonderful grounding practices in “Are You Made at Me? – How to Stop Focusing on What Others Think and Start Living for You” by Meg Josephson, LSCW. These strategies help break the cycle of chronic stress, which negatively affects the mind and body.

Stress: “A Flirty Little Loop”

What is the stress cycle all about? Josephson explains, “The body naturally responds to stress – whether it’s real, remembered, or perceived– with tension, and this response keeps stress and tension going in a flirty little loop.” She describes the four-step cycle:

• Stressful Happening – This could be internal or external, such as “an anxious thought spiral or someone doing something to make you feel unsafe, whether or not you actually are.”

• Body Reacts – Your body responds by tensing up.

• Message Perceived – Tensed muscles send signals to the body indicating that “Something bad is happening! This is stressful.”

• Cycle Continues – “The tense muscles cue more anxious thoughts, more muscular tension, and more panic.” These reactions perpetuate the stress-and-tension loop.

Josephson says, “When the mind is tense, so is the body. When the body is tense, so is the mind. By first noticing that we’re tensing up, feeling stressed, we can immediately insert a pause into this automatic process and begin to soften our bodies. Being aware of the stress is what allows us to start to break the cycle.”

I will highlight my top five favorite grounding practices from the 14 that Josephson shared. These will help you reduce stress, feel more balanced, present, and calm.

“When the mind is tense, so is the body. When the body is tense, so is the mind. ”

— Meg Josephson, LCSW

5 Simple Grounding Practices to Reduce Stress and Nurture Balance

These techniques can be used at any time during your day when you feel stressed. It all starts with awareness—paying attention to body signals like tense muscles.

1. Increasing Exhale

Elongate your exhale by doing a few cycles where you exhale longer than you inhale. For example, inhale for a count of 4 and exhale for a count of 6. This technique stimulates the vagus nerve, which immediately activates the parasympathetic nervous system, or “rest and digest” mode.

2. Humming

Keep your mouth closed, relax your jaw, and breathe in and out through your nose while making a sound with your vocal cords. The gentle buzzing sound creates vibrations that stimulate your vagus nerve. Singing or chanting can also work because the larynx (the voice box) is connected to the vagus nerve.

3. Sensing with 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Use your senses to ground yourself by noticing the environment around you right now. Observe what’s nearby, and “Name five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.”

4. Using Your Hands

Research shows that “effective touch” is a stress reliever. This can include self-touch. Notice where you feel tension. Place your hand or palm on that area and breathe deeply. For example, if you’re feeling tension in your chest, put your hand there and breathe several times. This practice is calming and reduces stress.

5. Dancing

This practice feels especially fun during the holiday season. Of course, you can do it anytime. Dancing helps integrate movement and breath. It connects you to your body and takes you out of your head. Play your favorite tune and dance away.

How Do You Manage Stress and Invite More Balance?

It’s the season for joy and delight. But when you’re feeling stressed and off balance, accessing that joy can be difficult. Which of these five grounding practices resonates most with you? What else helps you feel grounded, calm, and balanced?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

How Can I Help?

Do you feel overwhelmed, disorganized, stressed, or out of balance? Would you like to make progress? I’m here to help! Virtual organizing is an extraordinary path forward – Local feel with a global reach.

Let’s connect! I’m easy to reach.

• Schedule a Discovery Call

• Fill out the Contact form

• Email me at linda@ohsorganized.com or

• Call 914-271-5673

Getting organized is possible, especially with support.

We constantly receive internal and external messages. Do they help or hurt you? Have you heard of the 5:1 magic ratio? Research suggests that to counteract the sticky Velcro-like negativity bias, it takes approximately five positive encounters, thoughts, or experiences for every negative one.

Consider fortifying your Personal Positivity Bank by making regular deposits. Here are a few ways to build your reserves:

• Create a “Feel Good” file with positive emails, notes, or letters you received from family, friends, clients, or colleagues:

• Keep an ongoing gratitude list

• Connect with nature

• Prioritize self-care

• Spend time with people who energize and uplift rather than drain you

• Display positive reminders in your environment

Today, I am focusing on that last one, the visible messages you see every day. I’m sharing several of my favorites below. I’ve written before about the fidget bowl on my desk. This fun collection of miniature objects combines word reminders, trinkets from places visited, old toys, and visual and tactile delights. Playing with the tiny pieces while I’m in meetings helps me focus. Having uplifting messages front and center enhances my well-being. What encouraging messages will you surround yourself with?

7 Ways the Reminders You Display Will Help You Each Day

1. Bloom Where You’re Planted

Bloom where you’re planted encourages me to embrace the growth mindset anywhere, anytime. Every encounter, action, observation, experience, success, and failure are opportunities to learn, expand, and blossom.

2. Head & Heart

Navigating life’s hiccups and choices can be stressful. “Head & Heart” reminds me to use my cognitive and sensing gifts to support positive decisions and outcomes. While not included in this purple pin, my gut is another guiding element. When I listen, it leads me with a distinct “yes” or “no.”

3. Nourish

My Word of the Year is nourish. This essential encourages me to feed my heart, mind, and body so they feel nurtured, positive, and supported to thrive. My heart wants connection. My mind needs stimulation, and my body wants loving care.

4. You Are Here

While these words are often found to locate yourself on a map, to me, they embody presence. Especially when my mind is racing, and even when it’s not, this message prompts me to pause, notice, and ground myself with where I am, what I’m doing, what I’m feeling, and what I’m experiencing. When distracted, I use these words to gently bring me back, reset, and move on.

“Fortify your Personal Positivity Bank by making regular deposits.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

5. Oy Vey!

Years ago, I gave my dad this blue “Oy Vey!” computer key. It became a favorite inside joke between us, and one of the many things that connected us was our shared sense of humor. This message reminds me that things in life have the potential to go sideways. However, my sense of humor can bring a brighter perspective and allow me to laugh at myself during difficult situations.

6. Radiate Positivity

According to the CliftonStrengths assessment, one of my top strengths is Positivity. Seeing the “Radiate Positivity” button helps me with several things:

• It reminds me to continuously develop and live from my strengths.

• My natural inclination towards positivity helps me be resilient and growth-oriented.

• Positivity is ‘catching,’ so my mood can have an encouraging effect on others.

7. Exhale the Bullshit

This new pin has quickly become a favorite. We all experience life ‘stuff’ (aka difficult situations, conflicts, threats, bullshit). During those challenging encounters, you can experience emotional hijacking. Stress triggers are sent to the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for emotional processing. Your automatic warning system goes on high alert, and your body wants to protect you. Your heart races, your palms sweat, your face flushes, and your breathing turns rapid or shallow.

“Exhale the Bullshit” reminds me to take a deep breath through my nose and a longer exhale through my mouth. Repeating that several times, I soothe my system, access the rational part of my brain, and am better equipped to respond calmly to the circumstance.

How does having positive visual reminders help and influence your day? What helpful messages are in your view? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

Clutter appears in different forms like physical clutter, which shows up in our possessions and space. There is also clutter that appears in the mind, body, and soul. Each type of clutter looks and feels different. Effective decluttering requires various strategies depending on where you are focused. There are no rules here. Sometimes when we organize our physical clutter first, the positive emotional benefits we receive make it easier to care for other aspects of our well-being. At other times, it’s essential to nurture our mind or body first so that we can manage the physical clutter in our lives. There is no right, wrong, or singular way. It might be easier if there were one way, but since you are unique, your needs and process will be too. How will you declutter your life in a way that feels authentic?

To spark your thoughts about decluttering, I’m sharing five ideas with you for decluttering stuff, space, mind, body, and soul. As you read them, notice if any resonate with you. Or do other ideas come to mind?

5 Authentic Ways to Declutter Your Life 

1. Declutter Stuff by Shredding

There is something cathartic about shredding old papers. It’s a physical and visceral experience to feed outdated documents into the machine. As you watch and hear them rip to pieces, you are physically letting go. Recently, I edited and shredded two years of old tax back-up documents. They were ready to go because they were older than the seven years from the date of the filing requirement. I also thinned out and shredded some additional business and personal documents. Seeing the big bags of shredded papers exit the house on recycling day was incredibly satisfying. I felt lighter and less burdened by the past. The positive sense made me want to do more, and I know I will.

2. Declutter Space By Releasing

As you know, for the last few months, I’ve been offering virtual organizing only because of the pandemic. If this is something you are interested in trying, let me know, and we can set-up a VO session. With one VO client, I’ve been helping her regain space in her bedroom. For a variety of reasons, her clothing was overwhelming her room. Instead of having a peaceful, calm place, the piles, bags, and boxes were dominating the space. It’s a work in progress that’s going beautifully. I support her as she makes decisions about what to keep, donate, or discard. Each time we work together, we see the progress, as she lets go, declutters, and gets her space closer to what she envisions.

3. Declutter Mind By Conversing

We all have mind clutter. Our thoughts can be filled with worry, self-doubt, fear, and sadness. When those thoughts overtake us, it’s hard to focus on anything positive. One of the things that help is releasing those ideas by talking with trusted friends or loved ones. I have a standing weekly Zoom call with a small group of girlfriends. We go around the room and share parts of our week. We talk about our successes, challenges, worries, concerns, and observations. We support one another as we navigate this unprecedented time of change and uncertainty. After our calls, my mind feels clearer (yes, decluttered), calmer, and darn grateful for this generous group of women.

“One of the ways I declutter my being is by soaking in nature’s beauty.”

— Linda Samuels

4. Declutter Body by Honoring

It’s easy to hold tension in our bodies. We are often unaware that we’re doing it until our shoulders, jaws, or backs begin aching, crying out in pain. Perhaps we forget to move away from our screens and are sitting too long without a break. Worry, stress or fear can manifest itself physically in our bodies. This happens to me. However, I have four regular habits that help me return and attend to my body in a caring way. They are my body decluttering practices- mindfulness meditation, yoga, walking, and showering. Each of these encourages awareness of physical conditions and sensations. They remind me to soften, adjust, and attend.

5. Declutter Soul By Engaging

One of the ways I declutter my being is by soaking in nature’s beauty. Each season is magnificent, but there is something downright magical about spring. If you followed me on one of my walks, you’d catch me sneaking up on some flowers. You would see me lower my mask and stick my nose in the lilacs, viburnum, and other blooms to take in their sweet scents. You would find me outside digging in the dirt and planting colorful flowers in our ceramic pots. If you followed me on a walk, you’d find me meandering in the woods, walking along the river, or being still as I listened to the birds singing or watched the water flow. Engaging with nature declutters the deepest corners of my soul. I am enveloped by lightness and calm after spending time outdoors.

There are many ways to declutter your stuff, space, mind, body, and soul. Are there any areas that want your attention? What is one of your go-to decluttering strategies? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.