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Survival self-care check list for the Holiday season
While the holiday is a time meant for joy, family and love it is also a time which brings extra stress, anxiety and emotional triggers for many of us.
Here are some survival tips to ensure that you get the most out of the holiday season and remain in a good self-loving mindful place throughout.
Time out
Our stress levels tend to rise in the lead up to Christmas. Beyond all the thoughtful presents that needs to be bought, most of us will be busy to finish off all the work and tasks for the year while at the same time attending all Christmas parties, lunches and coffees that managed to sneak its way into our calendar. To put in simply, TIME just doesn’t seem to be enough.
In order to not let stress, get the best of us it’s important that we schedule some time out in our day and weeks leading up to Christmas where we allow ourselves to just relax, mediate and/or just practice long deep breath to calm our busy mind!
I would recommend to at least allocate a minimum of 5 min a day where you lock yourself away from disruption and listen to calming music, while focus on your breathing. I created a de-stressing playlist which you can access below
In terms of breathing techniques I have put together some options below:
Basic
1) Breathe in through your nose, counting to 4
2)Hold for a couple of seconds
3)Breathe out counting to 8
Advanced
The 4 7 8 breathing technique
1) Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
2) Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.
3) Hold your breath for a count of seven.
4) Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
5) This is one breath.
Lose it or list it
Another trick to ensure things don’t get on top of you is to write lists instead of trying to keep everything in your head. This will imminently reduce your stress levels, declutter your thought and make you feel more organised. I love “to do” and I find great satisfaction of ticking each task off as they been completed.
Saying no it totally OK
To practice our skills of saying no is not just necessary but essential in order for us to manage our time effectively. There is only so many hours in the day and in the end of the day we need to focus on what’s important to us not just to others. By being assertive when it comes to communicating what we can and cannot do we will free ourselves up for the things that matter the most.
All our healthy eating does not need to go out the window
Practicing healthy eating during the Christmas period will rewards us in the long term. We can obviously still enjoy more treats but if we go all out and blow all the effort, we made during the year it will only leave us feeling sad, lethargic and de-motivated at the start of the new year. Find balance for yourself by enjoying special holiday food, while also paying attention to your body’s cues of hunger, fullness and satiation. Check in with yourself from time to time to ask whether you are eating because your body is hungry or whether you are eating out reaction to some form of stress.
Focus on the things that matters
I mentioned this before but in this context, it’s about doing less of the “should” and more of the wants. We all been brain washed at one point or another that a perfect Christmas is a Christmas jammed packed with delicious home-made cooking, a tree filled with presents and a spot less Christmas decorated house. Instead of trying to live up to the idea of what a perfect Christmas “should” be focus on the things that matters to you, ask for help and outsources tasks that you simply don’t have time for. This will ensure a much more stress less Christmas where we can focus on just hanging out with the people that matter the most whether that is friends, family or just our pets:)
Keeping a strong sense of self during the holiday season will give us a sense of consistency and security during the ups and downs of the holiday season.
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**More resources to be added shortly
Wishing you all a Merry self-loving Christmas!
Love Sandra