5 Tips To Staying Stress Free During The Crazy Season
This holiday season are you more:
“Holiday season is coming up with all the fun and togetherness of meeting with friends and family. It’s going to be such a great time.”
Or holiday season is coming up..
“I feel so stressed out for all the things that I must do. I just don’t like it. I can almost say I hate it.”
Which scenario do you prefer?
Christmas season is a very hectic time for most people and for you lady business leaders it can be a double up, because you have your job to do plus looking after your employees. Of course you want them to have a nice time and that everything will be good for Christmas, but you also have to make sure all the work is completed so that all your customers are OK before the holidays start. And then you also you have your home life where you are supposed to be serving other people and usually take on all the responsibilities there. Because even in these days of supposed “equality” it is still usually the woman in the family that has the responsibility of organizing the holiday celebrations.
You want everyone to be happy because that’s how you were brought up. But you feel lonely, you feel that it’s not fun and you think “OK I’ll take things one day at a time and I will survive because soon enough it’ll be over”. Because for you it’s just survival.
But now is the time to change that.
A few years ago I was in the same situation so I know exactly how it is. Christmas time was no fun at all because it was just so much work, it was SO MUCH WORK. I thought everyone was expecting me to do everything and so I did it, and I got so stressed out until one day when I decided to get help.
So I did something; I asked the people I celebrate with, my family. friends and colleagues to help, and to my surprise they happily agreed to start doing things together. We spoke about it and it was just beautiful because everyone stepped up. I would not have believed it. But that’s how it was. So now is the time to start making this Christmas and holiday season perfect for everyone including you. And the earlier you start the better because you need the time.
It’s miscommunications and unrealistic expectations that makes the stress at this time of the year. You kind of have to start talking about it because it’s not only your own expectations but it’s everybody else’s expectations of what you’re supposed to do, and what they are supposed to do.
So it’s time to start talking just like I did.
I want to give you five tips today that you can start using on this journey:
- Gather all the people that you’re going to spend your holiday season with and discuss what you want and what you don’t want. What your expectations are and ask what their expectations are because usually people have different expectations and sometimes everyone is miserable but they will pretend that they’re happy because it’s expected. If you talk about it you can do the things that you all really want.
And if there’s a lot of things that you decide then you can write it down so everyone knows afterwards who’s going to do what. So start talking.
2. The second thing that is usually an issue in the holiday season is the food, there’s SO MUCH FOOD! If you are a few people at every meal then you have to go shopping and you have to prepare. I know I’ve been doing a lot of that myself over the years.
But if you instead do a potluck where when you invite people you tell them to bring something to eat for the meal. So instead of having a hostess gift like the chocolate, or wine, or flowers etc, they come with with a dish instead. If you are scared or you think they will all come with the same thing then you can tell them what kind of food you want them to bring. Not exactly what they should bring but what “kind” of dish they should bring so that you don’t sit there with 10 desserts and no real food so but that’s easy.
And then also you get to taste stuff that you haven’t had before. So it’s really a very nice thing.
3. The third thing that is the big issue at this time of the year is the gifts. I know there is this surprise moment with giving gifts and you want to make people happy. But there is also too often surprises of receiving gifts that you don’t want and you have to sit there and say: “OK I love this. This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” But you kind of hate it and you don’t know what to do with it afterwards because you know you can’t throw it the way or you can’t give it the way because the person will come back and they have to see you with it or wearing it, because you don’t want to hurt their feelings.
So if you discuss with the ones that you give gifts to what you want or what you don’t want then you can make this process a lot less stressful.
If everyone puts it on the table what you have or want then you can decide on giving things that people really want or maybe you decide not to give gifts at all. Maybe to do something different. It’s up to you. The thing is to be together with your friends and family and you’re supposed to be on the same level and that’s what I’m trying to say.
4. The fourth thing I want to give you as a tip today is a tip to de-stress and my tip is the breathing anchor which is my favorite de-stress tip (you hear me talk about it all the time).
You take a deep breath in through your nose. Hold it for a few seconds and then breathe out slowly through your mouth and you let your shoulders down.
You can do that a couple of times and you will find that you get more relaxed.Use this technique every time you feel the stress is creeping up on you.
5. And then the fifth thing I want to give you today is to tell you to do something with your friends.It’s called a walk and talk. You take someone with you or a couple of people and you walk for 30 to 60 Minutes. You walk briskly and you discuss something, because when you are walking you’re moving your body, your nerve cells are working better and your thoughts are going to be more open. You get all the good answers when you walk like that. And also walking eats the stress hormones, and it eats the calories that you’ve taken in from all the good food that you have had. And if you think it sounds boring to do it like this then make it fun because you can decide to make it fun too.
With these tips I hope that you will get a much more relaxed Christmas and New Year’s, or holiday season. I wish you all the luck and a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2018. Have a great holiday season.
To Your Success.
-Dr. Annika
