It’s that time of year again! Holiday celebrations, shopping, and cooking are starting, and both your to-do list and calendar are probably starting to look rather packed. For many of us, it’s a time full of loved ones (and being nice to the relations that drive us a bit crazy.)
Each year we start this wild ride before Thanksgiving (Late November here in the US at least), and it’s a giant swirl until after New Year’s. Amidst the parties, busyness, and holiday fun many of us struggle with good energy management and self-care. In other words, let’s talk about how not to crash and burn this holiday season.
Today, I want to offer five tips on how to manage the flurry of the season with some better self care built in.
1) Pick Your Parties
Many of us get a deluge of invitations to various holiday events: work parties, family parties, friends’ parties, community events, etc. While all the celebrations can be fun, if you’re running from one event to the next for 6 weeks it wouldn’t be surprising if you want to just curl up in a ball by the end.
So, set limits for yourself (and your family). Talk with your partner (and kids) about which events are most important to them, and focus on those. This decision means that you’ll choose to feel ok about saying “no” to other opportunities this year. Figure out what feels like “enough” celebrating, and eliminate the excess. This includes events that you’ve hosted in the past… maybe it’s time to let someone else be the host and take a break year?
Simply choose to turn the volume down on all the excess adventures and create some boundaries. It might help a lot to keep your energy more even keel.
2) Plan Ahead & Project Manage Your Holidays
Find an evening or afternoon this week to plan ahead. Take an hour or more to think through what’s coming in the next few weeks: Thanksgiving meal planning (shopping lists, recipe selection, & prep), holiday gift buying, sending out cards, decorating your home, holiday party plans, etc. Treat each of these like they are projects (because they are) and write out both the list of necessary tasks and any timelines/due dates that would allow you to not have a giant rush to the end.
What can you do ahead of time on a quiet evening? How can you space out things that have been really intense in the past? What were the last minute scrambles from years past? Make sure they get added to your written project plans now so that you really can have a “lesson learned” about remembering to pick up extra butter and sugar before your big cookie baking day.
If you take an hour for some advanced planning this holiday season that might save you dozens of hours in last minute errands and tons of drama over forgotten presents during the next few weeks.
3) Schedule in Down Time
You are still your top priority! So, while this is a season of love, play, and sharing with others, make sure that you still get the quiet time you need by putting it on your schedule. Big rocks go in first, as Stephen Covey always said, and self-care needs to be that important to you even during the holidays.
Plan an evening alone (or with your sweetheart) to just relax and watch holiday movies. Schedule a spa night with a bubble bath and cup of hot cocoa for the day after that big party. Give yourself a morning to sleep in! Whatever will help you rest and recharge during this intensely social period of time.
I would even suggest that you plan at least one self care activity each week during the holiday season so that you’re never too far away from some recharging time. When you plan this personal time into your holiday schedule in advance you give yourself a much better shot of not running on empty by January 2nd (or by December 19th).
4) Your daily question: What would bring me more joy today?
It’s the season of joy, giving, and gratitude. So, let’s start with a daily practice of pausing to ask “What would bring me more joy today?” Thread a pattern of small joyful moments through the whole season.
It might be:
- A peppermint latte at the coffee shop
- Toss a dollar into the street corner Santa’s collection kettle
- Sing along in the car to your favorite holiday songs
- A deep breath of gratitude a few times during the day
- Appreciating the shimmer of ice crystals on the trees as you drive
There are so many ways to experience joy throughout this season, but sometimes we have to remind ourselves to look for it intentionally. This daily practice of creating a more joyful experience for yourself during the season will help you recharge a little each day, and give you a more positive attitude if the intensity of the season starts dragging at you.
5) Spend Time in Nature
Mother Nature is the best healer. If you need an energy boost, then the best place to go is wherever nature can surround you. If you live in a city, then take a walk around the park. If you live in the country or suburbs, then a drive or hike through the countryside might help. Just go sit for a few minutes under a tree and breathe.
If you’re feeling rev’d up or overwrought, then allow all that excess energy to pour out of your body and into the ground. Mama Earth knows exactly how to recycle it, and she might even wrap you up in a blanket of her own loving, peaceful energy in return if you open yourself to it.
Whenever it gets to be too much, allow the peaceful strength of natural beauty to help bring you back to your center. Even just spending a few moments looking out the window at a bird or squirrel hopping around or the wind blowing through the trees might help you bring perspective to the moment. For this season too shall pass, and our lives will keep rolling forward. So, drink in the peace and joy. Allow them to recharge you for the new year.
With tremendous gratitude and joy, we wish you…
Happy Holidays and a Peaceful New Year!
