Post 16 | Holiday Stress
As the holidays grow nearer, stress levels always rise. A time of year that should be celebratory and relaxing can quickly turn into a season of dread, obligation, financial stress, and time stretched so thin you cannot even see it anymore. However, we can change this will a few simple steps.
Prioritize your gatherings.
This is more applicable this year than any other. With business Christmas parties likely (hopefully) cancelled, we can check that one off the list already. But with families also likely trying to have smaller gatherings, we can soon find ourselves invited to more smaller gatherings. This is important to avoid. Do not become your family’s super spreader. Whose party or dinner cannot wait until next year.
Make time for yourself.
What holiday traditions bring you the most joy? So often we sacrifice what we want to do in favor of what everyone else is used to, or what they elect to do. Driving around to look at holiday lights, making cookies, caroling, decorating, watching movies with hot chocolate and blondies (mine), going on a sleigh ride (also mine), or just hanging in front of the fire with your pets (also mine) are great pastimes this year especially. Save the exhausting parties and mingling events for a year when you and the world are better suited for it.
Eat well.
This does not mean not eating, dieting, or restricting. Nor does it mean overeating or over indulging. Do a small amount of planning to make sure that you are balancing your intake over the days leading up Thanksgiving and throughout the season past New Years. Make sure you are consuming whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, healthy fats, and good quality proteins. That way you are well set up to handle deviations in your diet/nutrition for a couple of days at a time (Thanksgiving and the day after; Christmas Eve and Christmas and Boxing Day; New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day).
Do not drink.
I know holidays are traditional times for imbibing - and maybe a little drink would be fine - but it gets hard to stop at one drink amidst the social anxiety, exhaustion, jubilation, tradition, and stress. If you drink on a regular basis, limit yourself on these holidays to give your digestion, hormones, and metabolism a break.
Engage in self care.
Do you like a bath? To paint? Hanging with the pets? Shopping? Reading? Dancing in the kitchen with your music on full blast? All of these things are stress-relieving self health activities. Make time for them.. Maybe make them a present to yourself.
Remember to tell your loved ones how you feel about them.