While the holiday season is certainly full of fun and memory-making goodness, it can also be incredibly stress inducing! Between shopping trips, elaborate family dinners, traveling to visit friends and family, and keeping your social calendar organized, the holiday season is often a stressful time for many people.
While you’re busy making the magic of the holidays happen, it’s important to give yourself time to de-stress. While things might be busy and chaotic, it’s important to rest and recharge – consider the following methods for squeezing in some de-stressing time during the busy holiday season!
Mindful Tip 1 – Give yourself permission to enjoy the present moment.
When you find yourself consumed with having “the perfect moment,” it can be easy to forget to actually enjoy that moment! Instead of fretting over every single detail of your family’s holiday dinner, for example, let go of things that aren’t going exactly right and let yourself enjoy the actual moment with your family.
Ultimately, your family won’t care that you forgot to light those extra candles or didn’t serve the turkey on that special platter – they will care that you were in the moment with them, laughing and making memories.
Mindful Tip 2 – Make some room each day for “me time.”
The holidays tend to be a time where you’re surrounding yourself with other people. This can be a huge blessing – it’s great to see all your family and friends come together to celebrate, be thankful, and catch up with each other – but it can also be emotionally exhausting!
When you’re spending all that extra time around other people, give yourself some “me time” each day to spend alone. Take a refreshing nap, read, or participate in some other solo activity you enjoy. This alone time lets you recharge your personal batteries, making the time you spend with others later even better.
Mindful Tip 3 – Let yourself say “no” if you want to or need to do so.
At the end of the year, you likely notice your social calendar filling up quickly! Between holiday get-togethers with family and friends, fun seasonal outings, and other social activities, you might find yourself pretty booked up!
An excellent way to be mindful and de-stress during the holidays is to allow yourself to say “no” to invitations if they’re going to be too much for you to handle. Often, these social events can become a lot less fun when you’re going to them constantly and can’t enjoy any personal time to let yourself de-stress and unwind. Letting yourself say “no” to an invitation isn’t an insult to the person who invited you – it’s being kind to yourself and protecting your sanity.
Mindful Tip 4 – Delegate tasks to helpers.
If you’re the primary “magic maker” in your family or household around the holiday season, allow yourself to let go of some control by delegating tasks to people who can help you get the job done!
This can be tough if you normally like to maintain control and do it all yourself, but it’s a great method to ensure you aren’t stretching yourself too thin. Even if you’re only delegating some simple tasks, remember that you’re still taking some weight off your shoulders. It’s also important to realize that the true magic of the holidays lies within spending time together with your loved ones rather than having every single detail of your décor or food executed to perfection. Enlist some help from friends or family members and give yourself the opportunity to actually enjoy the holidays with everyone.
