With the start of the holiday season, we wanted to offer some guidance to help you relax and enjoy the festivities. Everyone knows that holidays are supposed to bring joy, happiness and love into our lives. It is a time to catch up and celebrate with those we care about. The idea of the holidays can be exciting but once we start to think about everything we have to do and reality sets in, it can become exhausting and quite frankly, burdensome. No one wants to feel overwhelmed, burnt out and stressed during their time off, but we can get carried away with our lists of “to-dos” and people to see and lose sight of what’s most important. This year, do something different. Instead of trying to fit everything in and stressing about gifts and cards, trim your list down and add in “me time”. Do something that you want to do that will allow you to relax and feel as though you are on vacation (because you are).
Your Challenge: Take at least 3 things off your holiday to-do list and make sure you keep or replace one with time for you. Think of it as your gift to yourself, because you deserve to be treated the way you treat others.
In addition to minimizing the stress that comes with the holiday chaos, we invite you to try something that might be new to you when you are engaging with your family or friends. Even though everyone loves their friends and family, tension can build quickly at this time of year. To help you survive, we thought we would provide a few tips so you can keep calm and carry on.
1. Get some fresh air. Even if it is cold outside, grab a jacket and sneak outside for a breather. A short break away from all the noise and chaos can re-center your mind and help you stay smiling during the next course of the meal or hour of the event. Close your eyes and take some deep inhales and exhales to clear your thoughts before heading back inside.
2. Stay Hydrated. Remember to drink water all day long. With everything else that is happening around us, we often forget to have water and become dehydrated causing us to feel fatigued, and to be easily irritated.
3. Set boundaries. Most of us know that at some point during the holidays we will have to face a relative or friend who always knows how to push our buttons. Steam starts to come out of our ears just thinking about last year’s encounter. Although we love and value each other, we cannot agree on everything. Keeping in mind the love we share, set rules and boundaries for the topics you know will turn into heated discussions that can ruin the festivities. If you express yourself in a thoughtful and caring manner, the person will understand and your get-togethers will be much more enjoyable for everyone. Once you have set your boundaries, remember to stay firm and follow through. If you slip up and break them, no one will take them seriously.
4. Get in your Zzz’s. Sleep is the best thing for our mind, body and spirit. Holiday plans are fun, but you need to make sure you don’t burn out by waking up early and staying out too late. Try to make a point of getting a solid 8-9 hours of sleep a night. Having the proper amount of sleep will help you to be more productive when you are awake!
We hope you can benefit from some of our holiday survival tips!
Since we try to practice what we preach, we are taking the rest of the week off from posting on our blog so we can spend that time with our families and catch up on some much needed sleep.
Get Fit For It,
D & K
Photos from:
www.vividlife.com
www.paramita.typepad.com
