Tips for Starting a Meditation Practice in the New Year

It’s the beginning of a new year, so lawyers may be thinking about new years goals and resolutions. For many people, this might include the goal of exploring mindfulness or starting a meditation practice.

If this is your intention for the year, I think it’s a great one. But all of us know that noble intentions in January sometimes fade by February. How can you start a meditation practice in January that has the hope of lasting the year and beyond?

That’s why I wrote this piece. In this post, I will share some tips intended to help you explore meditation and turn it into a real practice.

Establish Meditation as a Habit

My first advice for lawyers exploring meditation is to start small. That isn’t only because it’s kinder to yourself. It’s also much easier to do something repeatedly if it takes less time.

The biggest problem many lawyers and professional have with meditation is finding the time to practice. Given this, it is essential to not overwhelm yourself at the beginning.

I started my meditation practice over a decade ago at 1 minute per day because that is all I could handle. Though I was quickly able to add minutes on as the days went by, this small increment of time meant I had very few excuses to skip practice.

This meant that I quickly established a habit of meditating every day. If you want the benefits of meditation, making the practice regular is important. To do this, start with short sessions but aim for regular, ideally daily, practice. If you need any more help on brainstorming meditation as a habit, download this free worksheet.

Focus on Building Skills Instead of Being “Perfect” at Meditation

Now, you may be worried that even if you make meditation a habit, you still don’t know what you are doing. So you may be worried about doing the practice wrong or wasting your time.

I have shared basic meditation instructions on this blog and posts about a variety of different meditation practices, including breath practice, body scan, joy, and loving-kindness. At the beginning, though, I would not worry so much about being right in meditation.

Of course, no lawyer wants to waste their time. But the mistakes in meditation are often the best teachers. Meditation is not a thought exercise. It is an experiential practice. You learn how to do the practice by meditating.

At the beginning, then, the object is not to be perfect but instead to cultivate some basic skills. These include the following:

Patience with yourself;
Focus (including which focal point works for you);
Learning what calms and soothes you;
Connecting with bodily sensations;
Noticing when you are thinking;
Redirecting attention; and
Self-kindness.

Image of author Claire E. Parsons with quote from post "Of course, no lawyer wants to waste their time. But the mistakes in meditation are often the best teachers. Meditation is not a thought exercise. It is an experiential practice. You learn how to do the practice by meditating."

Don’t Expect to See Quick Progress in Meditation

Many lawyers start a meditation practice because they want the benefits they have read about in research studies. They want to feel less stress, they want to be able to focus on demand, and they want more happiness and kindness.

Then they sit down in meditation and they feel stressed because they can’t focus. They feel tired and bored. Their feet fall asleep, their knees and back hurt. All of this is bound to make any reasonable lawyer think the practice doesn’t work.

But here’s the thing: the benefits of meditation often don’t show up in the practice itself, at least not right away. After a while, practice should come to feel a bit more enjoyable and soothing in itself. At first, though, you are still building skills. Expecting to see mastery in your practice is like expecting not to struggle at all when you start a new exercise routine.

This means that you should give yourself some time (four to eight weeks) before you look for any benefits to emerge. And if those benefits emerge, they probably will show up outside of meditation first. These might include things like rushing less, a reduction in the physical signs of stress, or less reactivity.

Though benefits very likely will emerge with consistent meditation practice, be cautious about your expectations. Don’t expect immediate results and look for the benefits in life first before they show up in meditation practice.

Keep Your Practice Simple

One of the problems that knowledge seekers like lawyers may encounter at first is that they can’t decide which mindfulness practice to explore. The list of skills mentioned above may suggest that you must master all forms of meditation in order to gain benefits. Allow me to set the record straight.

While it is great to explore a variety of practices, ultimately simplicity is ideal. Keeping your practice simple will reduce decision fatigue. This means that there is less chance that your actual practice time will be delayed or derailed by too many planning questions.

Over the years, I have done a variety of practices with and without guiding. Eventually, though, I settled into a simple routine that consists mostly of breath focus practice, open awareness, and loving-kindness. I generally don’t do formal body scan practices, but I enjoy them on occasion if I have a special need to relax or calm my body.

Based on this, it is great to explore and shop around with practices at first. After a few days or weeks, though, it is best to settle on the practice that allows you to relax and focus the most. This will allow you time to build proficiency with the practice, so that you can experience benefits and build confidence.

As the months and years go on, you can always adjust your practice. In fact, you may need to do so to address specific issues like increased stress, sleepiness or spacing out, or just to refresh your practice.

Image sharing five tips for lawyers starting a meditation practice as shared in the blog post

Don’t Go It Alone

I offer my last bit of advice with a strong sense of humility. When I started meditating, I practiced totally on my own. I had no teacher or community and at first hid my practice from my family.

It was not until years later that I realized the error in this approach. When I attended my first retreat, I was amazed at how supportive it was to meditate with other people. I couldn’t believe how helpful a few minutes of chatting with a teacher was.

Though many lawyers pride ourselves for our independence, we do best when we remember that humans are social animals. When we humans want to make real habit change, social support is the way to go. If you want to make meditation a lasting part of your life, finding a teacher or community should be a priority.

Now, as I said above, time is often a challenge for lawyers. I am no stranger to this. To be sure, meditation can be learned and practiced on your own and you should not feel ashamed at all about that. If, however, you have any options to meditate in a group, learned from a trained mindfulness teacher, or go on retreat, it will support your practice.

For anyone in the legal profession looking for such a community, the Mindfulness in Law Society provides a highly accessible option.

Conclusion

These are my tips for starting a meditation practice in the new year. They are offered to help busy people like lawyers be kind to themselves while forming a habit that can last. Regardless of the goals you set, I wish you luck in the new year and hope you find whatever practices support you and your community best.

Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children’s book, Mommy Needs a Minute.

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How Lawyers Can Use Self-Compassion for Growth

December can be hit or miss for lawyers depending on how your year was. It can be a big celebration if you had a lot of growth. But it can be a struggle if the year did not quite go as you had hoped. In both cases, self-compassion is in order.

Now, you may think it’s odd that I say self-compassion is important if you achieved your goals. If so, jump down to point 2 below. Most of us understand innately why self-compassion might help when we fail to achieve our goals.

The struggle, of course, is in remembering to use employ it. That is why I am reminding you about it here (and trying to remind myself in the process). If self-compassion is a struggle for you, know that you aren’t alone. But keep reading because this post has some tips and a good resource to help you learn more.

Lawyers Should Be Cautious about Raising the Bar

One of the reasons that I am thinking about this now is that I did not achieve all my goals this year. It was a great year for me. I achieved many of the goals I had set for myself. Sadly, I did not achieve them all and one significant personal project fell by the wayside.

When you are a high achiever, like many lawyers are, it can be really easy to expect that you will achieve all your goals. This can cause you to forget that many of our goals are challenging and subject to conditions outside of our control. What this means is that accomplishing the goals we set for ourselves is not always something we can realistically expect.

How can we reflect on the year in a way that keeps our standards high, but doesn’t continuously raise the bar to unhealthy levels?

Assess Your Growth with Self-Compassion

Self-compassion is the tool that can help us find balance here. As I have written before, self-compassion has three simple steps: (a) mindfulness; (b) common humanity; and (c) self-kindness.

Contrary to popular belief, these steps are not about being “easy” on yourself. Instead, they are about being fair to yourself. Self-compassion is about not judging yourself more harshly than you would judge someone else.

Even if you struggle with self-compassion, using the three steps in your year-end reflection can help you take a balanced and accurate view.

Step 1: Mindfully Review the Data

The first step – mindfulness – does not require meditation though that can help. Instead, mindfulness here refers to awareness. To review your year with self-compassion, you would review the data of what transpired.

To do this, you might ask questions like these:

What did you accomplish this year?
How did you use your time?
How do you feel about the year?
What happened during the year that was unexpected or out of your control?

When you ask these questions, be as objective and neutral as you can be. It may help to review your calendar and any relevant data points to ensure your reflections are based on accurate data.

Step 2: Celebrate the Victories

In a normal year, the odds are that the questions above will elicit both positive and negative recollections. Though it may be easy to do, I encourage you to not gloss over the positive parts.

One part of self-compassion that lawyers easily forget is enjoying positive things. If you achieved goals or hit milestones, by all means, celebrate them.

If you struggle to even recognize the positive things you did, as some lawyers might, you can try to reflect on these questions:

What did you do well?
What personal or professional growth did you experience?
What goals did you achieve or what habits did you make last?
What makes you proud about the last year?

This is not an exercise of selfishness or arrogance. In fact, one benefit of reflecting on achievements is that it inevitably leads to reflection of the people and supports who helped you along the way. If these arise, share your celebration by expressing gratitude or praising the people who deserve it.

Step 3: Identify the Areas of Growth

Of course, the biggest struggle for many of us is with the goals we did not achieve. These dreaded “areas of growth” can easily make us feel defeated or hopeless. As people who come to expect high performance, lawyers often don’t know how to process failure when it comes.

This is where self-compassion is really essential. Mindfulness can help us get clear about the things that did not go as we had hoped. The second step, common humanity, is what can help us stay clear and avoid judging ourselves too harshly.

To identify the areas of growth from the year, we can ask ourselves these questions:

What projects did you not get to?
On what goals did you fall short?
What problems or struggles did you encounter?
What things or experiences are missing in your life and work?

After we identify these items, the key is to remember that we are human and that most humans are imperfect. Most humans do not always achieve 100% of their goals 100% of the time. Then, instead of beating ourselves up, we might reflect on the things that were struggles for us and consider what we need to recover or move forward.

Use Self-Compassion to Set New Year Goals

As I have written before, self-compassion is not just for reflecting at the end of the year. It can also help you apply more self-kindness when you set goals for the new year.

This may help you find motivation to start strong with a new habit. It could help you learn to stop procrastinating on one of those nagging projects that you’ve avoided for too long. It can even make sometimes heart-wrenching resolutions, like checking unhealthy habits or weight loss, feel less painful.

If you are looking to set high goals or form healthier habits in the new year, don’t forget about self-kindness and honoring your human needs.

Where Lawyers Can Learn More

Image for webinar event shared in the blog post that is called "recharge your legal mind: year end reflection for growth in the new year"

If you want to learn more about this topic, you are in luck. I will be presenting a webinar for CLE credit on this subject for the Knowledge Group on December 12, 2025 at 12 PM EST. The session will be available on-demand after that date as well.

I will be speaking about Self-Compassion for End of Year Self-Reflection and Goal-Setting. Fellow lawyers and mindfulness teachers, Ron Wilcox and Alexandra Echser-Rasmussen will offer session on mindfulness practices and self-care.

If you would like to join the session, you can connect with me on LinkedIn and send me a message for a 50% off code.

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Cultivating Motivation: A Mindful Approach for 2025

In case you didn’t notice, I took the last month off from the blog. This was actually a good thing. I had a great 2024 filled with many wonderful things, including finding my place at a new law firm, editing a legal treatise for LexisNexis, and many new opportunities. The only downside was that I was exhausted by December and, as a result, many of my normal habits fell away.

This means that I have been thinking a lot about motivation lately because I need to get back to my normal habits. As most of us know, January is the perfect time to refresh habits because it is the season of goal-setting and resolutions. I have already picked my word of the year for 2025, so now I just need the energy to execute my plan. This raises the question: how does one bring motivation back?

Motivation Starts with Intention

If I had to answer this question with one word, it would be “intention.” I used to think talk of intention was new age puffery. It made me roll my eyes and wonder what the heck it even meant. “Why did I need to think about intention?” I would think to myself. “I usually know what I am doing.”

Experience, and of course lots of meditation, has shown me that in many cases we do not know at all what we are doing. Sure, we know in the sense that we are generally aware of what is happening and have a vague idea about what we want. But, how often do you actually think about the direction of your life and where it is leading you? How often do you ask what your deep intentions are?

Mindfulness Can Help You Connect with Your Intention

More often, we are embroiled in habits and busy people, like lawyers, can get so distracted by life that we don’t think about how we want to live. For this practical reason, when we want to establish new habits or need to get back to old ones, it helps to reflect on our intention and ask what we want or are trying to achieve.

This is one of the reasons that meditation has become such an important part of my life. Not only does the practice give my nervous system a break, it also allows me some time and mental space to check in with myself, including what I need and what I really want. In fact, it is so important that I have made checking in with my intention the first step when I start meditating.

Image with quote that says "Motivation starts with intention and mindfulness practice can help you connect with your intention."

Motivation Requires a Connection Between Effort and Results

Identifying our intention may be enough to get us started with initial steps, but it won’t last for long by itself. It is commonly said that habits take weeks to form, so a burst of initial energy from a reflection on intention will only get you so far. The next essential step, I find, is often overlooked: we need to create a connection between our effort and the results we week.

In my experience, this connection requires two things:

a belief that our effort will lead to some kind of positive result; and
a plan to turn our belief into a reality.

In some cases, belief comes first but sometimes we may need to chart a course to inspire confidence. Last year, I succeeded in losing some weight in a few months. Of course, I had thought about starting for months before but put it off until I started imagining my plan of attack. Once I had a plan, I realized the feat was achievable and it gave me the energy to try.

Sustained Motivation Requires a Good System

Now, anyone who has tried to start a new habit or get back to your wholesome ones knows that energy fades. As you are creating your plan of attack, therefore, it only makes sense to factor in a system that will sustain your motivation.

To do this, you can’t rely on discipline and willpower alone because both of these things wear out quickly and may be heavily taxed by your existing lifestyle and work. If you are a lawyer or other busy professional, your schedule may not be your own. If you are a caregiver in addition to that, many people may depend on you too. This means, at some point, you are going to require support to stick to your good habits.

What Kind of System Supports Motivation?

So, what kind of system supports sustained motivation? For a deep dive on this issue, I highly recommend that you check out Atomic Habits by James Clear. He has a lot of practical tips for changing habits and making the change stick.

In general, though, what you want to do is create a system that offers you support on a practical level. It should reduce the friction and effort needed to overcome it in getting the relevant task accomplished. Ideally, if at all possible, your plan should support your intrinsic desire to do the task. That means increasing your personal enjoyment and satisfaction with the task.

An important way to do this is to track and check your progress and to regularly check in with your intention to remind yourself why you are investing the effort.

Image of a notebook with a quote that says "Willpower can’t sustain motivation, But a good support system can."

Self-Compassion Is Essential

Ideally, when you get back to your new habit, it will be smooth sailing with no major challenges. For most of us, though, challenges and struggles are bound to arise eventually. This is why self-compassion is one tool that is essential to sustaining or renewing motivation.

As I have written before, self-compassion is positively correlated with goal attainment because it supports persistence. When a challenge arises, it is self-compassion that helps us focus on what we need instead of how we failed to measure up. When our energy is depleted, self-compassion is what may help us take the time to rest so we can recover and get back on track.

Just like any other habit, self-compassion is a skill that can be trained over time and it is one that can support you in cultivating other positive habits. For this reason, as you set your intentions and craft plans to motivate yourself for the new year, be sure to include compassion for yourself.

Conclusion: Motivation Can Be Cultivated and Mindfulness Can Help.

This is a great time of year for refreshing habits but don’t fall into the trap of believing that motivation is an elusive energy that changes like the wind. Though motivation can be this way, it can also be something we cultivate with mindfulness and self-compassion. If we connect to our intention and craft a plan that supports our effort, we can cultivate motivation and sustain it over time.

If motivation to start or get back to meditation is what you are looking for this year, check out the downloads on our Resources page, including the Meditation Habit Worksheet based on the principles of Atomic Habits.

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How Mindfulness Helped Me Discover My Word of the Year

Cover image for blog post about how mindfulness can help you identify a word for the new year

Last week, I wrote about how much I enjoy reflection around the turn of the year. This year, I am especially reflective because I am also about to start a role at a new firm. When identity is shifting, it is normal to consider the past and reevaluate goals for the future.

Many of my friends have been sharing their “words of the year” or “in and out lists” on social media. Though I enjoyed seeing my friends’ thoughts , I felt a bit at a loss about what to make of this for myself. How do I pick a word or theme of the year when I am heading into something new and have no idea what the future would hold?

Step 1: Start Where You Are.

As I do in many other things, I decided to start exactly where I was. Over the last few weeks, I have been struggling a bit. Though I am ecstatic about the new opportunity, I was struggling to feel excited. Of course, any new role is bound to inspire nerves, but that wasn’t my problem.

My struggle was letting go of the past. I kept thinking of the past year, the ways in which it was hard, and the mistakes I had made. As a perfectionist overthinker, it occurred to me that this struggle often resulted from my patterned thinking.

I attended an event this week where I finally gave voice to this feeling. The group was sharing our word or theme of the year and I announced during my turn that I needed help selecting a word. I said “what’s the word for getting rid of the good girl voice in your head? That’s my word.”

Image with quote about picking a word for the new year and the value of reflection through mindfulness

Step 2: Look for Clues about What You Need.

Condolences and commiseration was offered and ideas where shared, but a single word did not reveal itself to me. I then posed the same question in a post on LinkedIn. Some people offered funny comments that made me smile. A few offered words like “liberation”, “fearless” and “empowerment.”

Those are good words but they felt too heavy and could lead back into the striving and perfectionism with which I had been struggling. But a few people suggested that being a good girl isn’t a bad thing and wondered about a less aggressive way of approaching the problem.

That is a fair point. Sure, I get frustrated with my “good girl” voice a lot because she judges and pushes me hard. But she has led me to some good things, like founding this blog and writing two books for instance. Moreover, I have learned that sitting with some “undesirable” tendencies, like anger, is actually the best way to prevent them from causing harm.

Asking for Help Is Good but Stay Focused on What You Need

Is there a middle way when it comes to the “good girl” voice that causes me so much suffering? To answer this question, I put on my “mom” hat. I am the mom of two little girls. I know for a fact that they want to be good but they sometimes get ornery, fight, argue, and get mean and nasty. As a mom, I have learned that this often happens because they have a need that’s not being met.

What if I applied this idea to my “good girl” voice who had been very ornery as of late? What could it be that my “good girl” in my head needs but isn’t getting?

Another thing I have seen some of my friends do around the New Year is go to vision board classes. They clip out pictures from magazines and arrange the ones that speak to them on a big board to reveal their longings and aspirations.

I have done these with friends but the exercise didn’t mean a lot to me. Why? Well, I am not a visual thinker. Images don’t do it for me in general. I am, however, a very auditory thinker. Applying the vision board concept to sound, I considered the “Year in Review” playlist on my music app.

Image with tips from mindfulness for picking a word for the new year

Step 3: Nonjudgmentally Evaluate Your Clues

It included songs like “Float” by Janelle Monae, “Chvrch Girl” and “Cuff It” by Beyonce, “Bejeweled” by Taylor Swift, “Trustfall” by Pink, and all of the Barbie soundtrack. Does this sound like the playlist of a “good girl”? Or does it sound like the playlist of a girl who wants to have fun?

Bingo. And there we have it. The word of the year for 2024 is “fun.” I don’t need to get rid of the “good girl” at all. Instead, I need to let her have some fun.

Why did it take me so long to get there? It seems obvious in retrospect. Lawyers, including me, don’t always trust fun. We trust hard work, clarity, and discipline a lot more. For this reason, proclaiming “fun” the word of the year is like announcing you are taking an indefinite vacation.

Keep Things in Perspective

But let’s remember the context here. Picking a word of the year doesn’t mean you’ll only get the word you picked. Life is not that simple. Instead, I see it more as a guidepost. I know life will not only be fun in 2024. Even so, I can be on the lookout for life getting too tense and I can be creative about bringing in more fun.

In addition, recall that the thing that prompted me to think about this was the “good girl voice” who is so hardworking, highly motivated, and relentless that she drives me nuts. Given that she has taken up residence inside my brain, will a little bit of fun really cause me to shirk all effort and discipline?

Doubtful. What it might do, however, is help me remember the ways in which discipline, work, and pursuing goals can also be fun. It might also remind me how to look for fun even when things seem bleak and how to bring more fun into my community.

Conclusion

That’s how I figured out my word of the year. First, I took stock of where I was. Then I looked for clues about what I needed, including from my community. Finally, I nonjudgmentally evaluated to identify the single word that could help me rebalance in the new year.

Do you pick a word of the year or do any other kind of new year’s reflection? If you want to think about this more, check out the video from our past event “A Vision for the New Year and Guided Meditation”. Whether you do or not, I hope that you have a “good” and “fun” year in 2024.

Image asking what is your word of the year to prompt mindfulness and reflection

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Don’t Let a Crappy Year Ruin Your Happy Holidays

Now is the time of year when I, a mindfulness teacher, am supposed to write a poetical and heartwarming post about the power of mindfulness. I’m supposed to tell you it can calm holiday stress and help you complete all work in a timely manner, leaving extra energy for creating holiday magic.

Sorry to disappoint you but that is not happening this year. You want to know why? Well, my 2023 was not the best. I am grateful to say no true calamities happened in my family or work life, but the year was not at all what I expected it to be. As a result, I haven’t been thinking about holiday magic. Instead, I’ve been pondering how to bring in some warm holiday spirit when the rest of the year left me cold.

I figure I am not alone in pondering this topic. Here are the things that have helped me avoid being too Grinchy this year, even though I can’t promise that they will turn you into Cindy Lou Who.

1. Redefine What It Means to Be Happy

I bet you have said “happy holidays” or something like it approximately 15 million times in the last few weeks. When have you ever asked yourself what that phrase means?

If you are a normal person, you probably never have. We all have visions and ideas and assumptions about what this means. “Happy holidays” is shorthand for that concept. It’s a vague wish of well-being to people we don’t really know.

The truth is, though, that happiness is not one-size-fits-all. There are certain essential ingredients for a base level of happiness, but that leaves a lot of control for you to decide what really matters to you. As you consider how to make happy holidays out of a less than ideal year, part of your control may be letting go of expectations about happiness that aren’t true for you.

2. Accentuate the Positive Parts of the Holidays

One reason mindfulness helps us is that it can balance out our experience. The default setting in most of our minds is negative, so we may have to consciously remember positivity. If you want to move past negativity in the last year, a way to start is to consciously refocus on the positive.

One important way to do this in year end reflection is to stop focusing on what you didn’t do, what you failed at, and what you got wrong. Instead, you can intentionally shift to what you did, what you learned, what successes you had, and the resilience you showed in the process.

This may feel like faking it at first, but I’m not telling you to pretend the bad things aren’t there. I am saying that perspective can shift how we view our lives. Taking a chance to shift perspective may be one way to open your mind up to the good that may still be there for you even after a hard year.

3. Show gratitude for those who helped you this year.

Giving gifts is a big part of the holidays. You know what makes gift-giving feel the best? In my experience, giving a gift means the most when there’s real emotion behind it.

In a hard year, it may be tough to get into the spirit of giving, so I usually have to first consider the gifts that I have received. I may not feel super bountiful so I usually have to lean into my negative mood. Sometimes I ask how things might have been worse or harder without the help or support of someone specific.

My mind is really good at coming with ways that things could get worse, so this is an easy task. This reflection helps me remember that even if my year was not ideal, it was not one I faced alone. When I have identified the people who made a difference for me, I show it with my holiday gift giving and make an effort to tell the person what their actions meant to me.

4. Notice your capacity to feel more than one thing at a time.

As you may have noticed, the strategies so far have been about adding context and balance to your negative moods. You can’t truly wish away personal pain or negative reactions about a hard year and I don’t encourage you to try.

At the same time, though, you may find that happiness may just show up when you least expect it. Perhaps you are in a terrible mood about your own life and then you see something kind or decent or joyful and you may feel something warm, light, and good creeping into your heart.

Does this sound like the closing lines of a Hallmark Christmas movie? Maybe so but people love those movies for a reason. And one reason is that our feelings don’t make sense. They are not logical. You can be in a negative state and still have positive feelings. It happens all the time.

After a hard year, this can be a godsend. When it happens, don’t block it; allow it. Let the kindness, warmth, and happiness float there right along with your negativity, resentment, anger, or hurt. Your brain may try to tell you this doesn’t make sense but learning to hold both at once is how we can make sense out of life.

5. Celebrate the year ending.

If all of these strategies fail, there is still one more thing that may help. This one is the most fundamental and essential of all lessons you may learn from mindfulness practice: change. Things are temporary. Time marches on.

After a hard year, the best thing about the holiday season may be that it is at the end of the year. A new year is coming. There’s a new day. You can let go of 2023 and may even forget some of it soon.

Change is a hard fact of life when things are sweet. When they are not so great, it can be a relief. If you are celebrating the end of 2023 this holiday season, at least you have something to celebrate. And you aren’t alone because I, for one, am right there with you.

Conclusion: A Hard Year Can Leave Space for Happy Holidays

If 2023 was a struggle for you, I hope these tips will help you feel at least a little bit merry and bright. If they don’t, here’s one final closing thought. I have had a few occasions in life where my worst years were followed promptly by some of my best. This is not a promise but it is a wish that I have for all of you. Happy holidays to all and well wishes for a wonderful 2024.

If you are looking for a meditation to get you more into the holiday spirit, check out our Holiday Stories Guided Meditation here:

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