As a Type A personality, I'm prone to all-or-nothing thinking. It's a mindset that becomes especially dangerous around the holidays, when we're not only allowed but encouraged to indulge to excess. For me this tendency takes the form of overeating and over-spending. And perhaps just as bad, I also get caught in the obsession with making the holiday season perfect. Since perfection is impossible, my efforts ultimately lead to that dastardly duo of overload and letdown. So this year I'm approaching the season differently, starting with these five ways to prevent holiday stress from getting the best of me.
Make a Game Plan: Don’t just sit back and hope this year will be different; that gives history permission to repeat itself. Instead, identify your danger zones and plot the specific actions you’ll take to avoid them. If travel days see you succumbing to the lure of the airport food court, pack healthy meals for the plane. If a week at your in-laws’ leaves your workouts by the wayside, find a nearby gym or exercise studio with guest rates and sign up for classes in advance. Perhaps even get into the nitty gritty of what you will or won’t eat at specific meals; for example on Thanksgiving I’ve decided I’ll eschew turkey and gravy in favor of my beloved stuffing with a scoop of cranberry sauce. The path to change consists of clear, committed steps—and even if you take only half of them, you’re still farther along than you were before!
Make Movement Part of Every Day: As the circuit of parties and gatherings grows increasingly hectic, it becomes harder to commit time to your regular fitness regime. Ironically this challenge presents itself exactly when you need the heart-pumping, stress-relieving benefits of exercise the most! Accept that your routine might take a backseat but find other ways to get moving. Gather the family and go sledding. Take a post-dinner walk to help that pie digest. Do your shopping at the mall instead of online; an afternoon schlepping around and dodging crowds can be a serious workout! And as per above, schedule your physical activity in advance to ensure that it actually happens.
Make Time for Quiet: The holidays are a time for giving, but if cooking, cleaning, shopping, and socializing has depleted your internal reserves, you’ll feel more Scrooge than Santa! Set aside time to replenish your energy stores. I love daily guided meditation podcasts, but a home spa treatment, an hour of reading, or an escape to the theatre to see that holiday blockbuster works just as well. Consider it a gift to yourself—as well as to the people for whom you’ll have plenty of patience and good cheer!
Make Time for Service: It’s easy to feel caught in our personal obligations this time of year, but nothing gets you out of your head and into the world better than service to those in need. Find an organization that can use the gift of your time and energy: the food bank, a women’s shelter, your church group. Not only will you be putting the shine on someone else’s day, you’ll be getting a valuable reminder of all you have to be grateful for. Plus you’re giving yourself something to respect yourself for, making it more likely that you’ll take care of yourself in other ways this season.
Make ‘Enough’ Your Mantra: Gratitude means feeling thankful for what you have now, not what you had in the past or hope for in the future. In other words, gratitude is the recognition that what exists in this moment is exactly enough. Ask yourself how you can live from a place of enough. You may choose to prepare only two side dishes for Thanksgiving instead of your usual four, because really two is enough. You might decide to buy the kids only one gift instead of the yearly present overload, because really one is enough. Put aside the expectation that it’s your job to make the holidays a time of bounty, and you’ll realize that you already have more than you’ll ever need.
P.S. Do you have tips for staying sane around the holidays? I'd love to hear them! Images via the lovely Instagram feed of Janine Tollady.