Smart Ways to Avoid Stressin' During the Holiday
While the holidays have the power to bring some of the most joyful times in your life, they can also be the cause of a great deal of stress. The stress can stem from many different situations such as potential or actual family disagreements, gift-giving pressure, scheduling conflicts and overwhelm, or financial stress.
No matter what situation your stress is coming from, it's important to take a step back from the stress to declare that you are going hold onto your sanity.
Try following some or all of the following tips:
1. Get Your Shopping Done Early. When you get your shopping out of the way early, you can save yourself stress on a number of levels. You won't be battling other shoppers during peak shopping times. You won't have to worry about making split-second decisions on gifts. You'll also have the time to craft a budget to help make your money stretch to the best of your ability. If you really want to stress less, stop running to the malls and work with Amazon Prime right from your computer in the bedroom.
2. Take Time to Yourself. We often take the time to think of others during the holidays. While that's very important to maintain, you can't forget about yourself in the process. Remember to schedule "me" time and concentrate on relaxing and recharging. In order to take good care of others, you first have to take care of your own health and well being.
3. Keep a Cool Head. While it may not be a problem with every family, sometimes the togetherness causes conflicts, clashing and difficult conversations. Before you enter a family holiday event, tell yourself that you'll take the high road. You don't want an argument to ruin your chance at fun during the holidays.
4. Keep Up Your Exercise Routine. Sometimes the thrill and busyness of the holiday season can disrupt your daily routines. While a little break from exercise might not make a big difference in your physique, it might make a difference when it comes to your stress level. Try to keep up some form of exercise, as it will provide you with a release from stress.
5. Watch your Diet and Behave...At Least a Little!. It's not fair to yourself to completely avoid indulging around the holidays, but at the same time you should always remain in control. Watch what you're putting into your body, because large amounts of certain foods can definitely affect how you feel. The two big ones to regulate are caffeine and sweets.
6. Buy Yourself a Present - Celebrate and Be Grateful!. While you've been budgeting money for everyone else, there's no reason why you can't buy yourself a little something. After all, you're sure to be getting something that you want. You can even schedule yourself a massage, which is an excellent way to maintain a healthy stress level. Don’t forget to celebrate and be grateful for your gift! Your grateful feeling will add something special to the season!
7. Get Enough Rest. The excitement can definitely kick in during the holidays. Sometimes you'll lose sleep because of stress, and sometimes you'll lose sleep because of excitement. Either way, you'll be doing yourself a favor by concentrating on relaxation and getting to bed at a good hour. If you start a pattern of getting less sleep than you are accustomed to (which is I hope at least 7 hours of sleep per night good people), you could be setting yourself up for stress without even really knowing it.
8. Learn to Delegate. If you come to the realization that you've been put in charge of too many things, don't pile on the stress - instead, delegate the tasks. Be wise enough to know when you need some help and ask for it. You can even get the kids involved with certain preparations.
9. Be Flexible With Your Plans. Of course you have an image in your head of how you'd like certain holiday events to play out. You also know that things don't always go according to plan. Realize that certain things will not be perfect, and you won't feel so much stress if things do go wrong. Go with the flow and have back up plans if necessary.
There you have it...a great strategy for making the holiday even more special for a very important person - you! Take a moment to imagine a stress free holiday season full of great connections, fabulous food and heart-felt giving. You can have that if you keep true to yourself and employ some of these tactics. Review them a couple of times and see how you might fit one or two into your calendar.
I hope that your holiday season is filled with love and joy!
Joe Mitchell, is a High Performance Coach, who has logged over 35 years of in-depth study of personal and spiritual development. In his studies, he has done hundreds of self development courses, spiritual retreats and health related workshops. Coach Joe is a certified yoga teacher, meditation teacher, EFT Practitioner, NLP Practitioner and a graduate of three coaching academies. He was also a member of a religious order for 5 years. In 2016, after a 20 year career as a criminal and personal injury attorney, he decided to turn his heart's passion into a career as a Success Coach, Motivational Speaker and Trainer. For information on Coach Joe’s programs, high performance videos and to apply for a Free High Performance Session click the following link http://www.activateyourgreatness.com/free-session