Keys To A Stress Free Holiday Season
As exciting as the holiday season is, let’s be real, it can be extremely stressful! Continuously worrying about purchasing gifts, scheduling holiday festivities, maintaining a work schedule, taking care of the family and lots of other factors. If you feel stress during the holiday months, know that you are not alone. There are many different people that experience this stress during this time. However, despite all the factors that can cause this stress, there are things that we can do to reduce it.
I think it is unrealistic to say that the holidays can be completely stress free because for some that may be impossible. You may have some stressful factors in your life that are unavoidable. However, there are ways that you can reduce you stress and in this week’s blog we mention four ways that you can ensure to have a less stressful holiday.
Practice Self Care
Self care is an essential part of maintaining health. Without practicing self care, our mental and physical health may slip. Self care is easy to do and can be anything to anyone. Your version of self care can be reading a chapter of a book each night, while someone else may enjoy a forty-five minute yoga flow in the morning. Whatever the case may be, the important thing is that your method of self care helps to calm your mind and relieve your stress. A good recipe for creating self care habits is to do one for your mind, one for your body, and one for your soul. For example, one for your mind can be mediation, one for the body can be a 30 minute walk outside, and one for the soul can be doing any hobby that brings you joy, like painting or reading. Creating self care habits for the mind, body, and soul ensure that all aspects of your health are being cared for and focused on independently. You can not just focus on your physical body and neglect your mind. Each aspect of yourself works in harmony and when one is out of balance, all are affected.
Don’t Over Book Yourself
During the holiday season, it is easy for our schedules to book up rather quickly. In fact, our schedules become so booked that it feels like the month of December just flys by in a flash. Due to this, it can be hard for some people to really step back and enjoy the holiday season. So try not to overbook yourself. Stop being afraid to tell people no. If you are offered to go to a holiday party that requires you to bend your schedule in ways that you don’t want to, don’t be afraid to say no. Saying no can be empowering. It allows someone to practice their confidence and hold their ground. It also sets boundaries. It is understandable that saying no can feel uncomfortable for some people, but just like anything with practice it will become easier. It is so unrealistic for someone to constantly say yes to everyone and everything. Doing this can be physical and mentally draining. So start practicing saying no and focus on doing things that you want to do.
Stick To Your Budget
It can be easy to spend a significant amount of money during the holidays. It’s easy to walk into a store with the intentions of grabbing one thing, but then managing to leave with everything but that one thing. So one of the easiest ways to avoid overspending during the holiday season is to create a budget prior to shopping. Limits are important to set because they will help keep you accountable and reduce your risk for over spending on things that you did not plan for. If you have difficulty sticking to a plan, try only bringing in a certain amount of money into the store, that way you only have that amount to spend and nothing more. It can be easy to throw countless items on a credit card and ignore the damage until January, but by paying in cash you can help stop the cycle from happening.
Remember The Reason For The Holiday Season
The holiday season can easily feel overwhelming. However, we should not forget what it is all about. Regardless of religion, the holidays are about giving to others unconditionally. It is also a time to gather and create memories with the ones you love by spending time watching holiday movies, baking cookies, decorating gingerbread houses, reading stories, and more. If you can’t be with the ones you love, honor and remember them with warm memories. The holidays are not joyous for everyone, so reach out to those in need.
This year make less time for the things that cause you stress and allow yourself time to enjoy those more positive things that come with the holiday season. We wish you all a wonderful holiday season full of good health, peace, love and prosperity.
