The holidays have arrived. This time of year is filled with family, friends and social functions, and while the festive period is generally fun, it can be busy, overwhelming and triggering. Managing holiday stress is important over this time.
If you find your anxiety levels spiking around the festive season, you may be dealing with holiday stress. The holidays are stressful. This is a hectic period when we are bombarded by family members and plans. If you tend to get overwhelmed during the festive season, you need a strategy for managing holiday stress.
I’ll share my top tips and recommendations for managing holiday stress in this post. If every year you find yourself thinking, “Christmas stresses me out!” then this post is for you!
How Stressful Holidays Can Affect Us Negatively
The holidays can be a joyful and exciting time, and they can also bring added stress. Yet, because many activities are added to an already busy life, it is easy to become overwhelmed, anxious, tired, and worried. This season is a time to gather with friends and family, build happy memories together, and enjoy traditions.
Our calendars always end in the holiday season as the wheel of time turns. Since it happens every year, you would think we would have the routine down pretty well by now. Yet, for many of us, the festive season sneaks up and takes us off guard just as surely as a well-kept secret!
It is exciting to get into the holiday spirit, busily filling our calendars with parties, events, celebrations, visiting relatives, shopping, and decorating the house. Meanwhile, those very activities can cause our nerves to unravel and our tempers to flare.
While we scurry between destinations and try to remember all that needs to be done, we tend to overeat, drink more than usual, skip our workouts, and teeter near the edge of losing our minds!
If you are ready to break old patterns and shake things up to get a different result than you have experienced in the past, here are a few holiday stress management suggestions to consider.
Tips for Stress-Free Holiday Seasons
1. Remember what is valuable to you
Create a list entitled “My Goals for this Holiday Season.” If you have a spouse or children, you may suggest that they, too, make a list. Each person’s list is personal and may not be the same as anyone else’s list.
It may include entries such as “create positive memories with extended family members” or “find opportunities to open communication with my mother.” Your goals may include working out no fewer than three times a week or refraining from indulging in too much alcohol.
Keep the list close. Read it daily as you start your day. Then, when you begin to feel as if the holiday stress feelings start to rise, if you are being rushed or overwhelmed, or if a relative becomes irritating or starts an argument, it will be easier to be clear about your personal goals at that moment.
You can stop, take a breath, and ask yourself which response is aligned with your values––to win an argument or to love your family.
2. Honor yourself and your closest loved ones
Create boundaries for yourself and allow your spouse and children to create their own as well.
Communicate with each other about this so everyone is clear and can provide support and cooperation.
If attending an event will create undue holiday and strain or is counter to your values, be clear about it and take steps to maintain the joy in your life and in your memories of the season. Also, be sure to block off time in your schedule to rest and regroup your energies and thoughts. Setting aside time for yourself is a great way to cope with holiday stress.
3. Be present
The best holiday gift is to be present. Focus on creating positive memories, a community of friends and family, and the spirit of the season rather than on whether things are perfect or other distractions. Give attention to your loved ones, experiences, the spirit of who you are, and the reason you are celebrating this holiday.
4. Recite a mantra
It is helpful to have a mantra to return to when you need to realign your energy. I suggest writing the mantra down on the same paper as your values and goals. This way, you can always refer to your mantra whenever you start to feel stressed during the holidays.
Here are a few mantras that you can use to manage holiday stress. Please repeat after me.
- I can let go of the need to be perfect. I will do my best and enjoy the quirkiness of however that turns out. I am a work in progress, just like everyone else. I can see that no one around me is perfect, and I love plenty of them just the same. They will love me even better when I can relax more.
- I can let go of undue stress. I can move with grace and ease through each activity, knowing this is my life and every moment can create a memory to cherish. When I relax, I am more pleasant, creative, energized, and fun to be around (even for myself).
- I can let go of guilt. Guilt merely reminds me that I may not be living up to my own standards. If so, I can make corrections immediately and let go of any guilt. I never have to feel guilty for not living up to someone else’s standards. That is their issue to deal with. If someone tries to make me feel guilty, I will simply smile and hug them because they must need it.
- I can let go of needing to control everything all the time. This will empower others by allowing them to take responsibility and contribute all they can. They will love me for allowing them to feel good about themselves. It will be entertaining to see how things turn out from the collaboration.
- I can let go of pleasing everyone all the time. It is a thankless job that disavows who I really am and only fills me with resentment. I will be kind, considerate, and true to myself.
- I can let go of changing others. I know how it feels when someone tries to convince me to change my habits, beliefs, or behaviors. I resist until I am ready, and so will they. I can serve as a role model only. When they see how happy, relaxed, self-confident, and successful I am, they will want to be more like me…in their own time. If I am not all those things, I will work on myself before I work on them.
- I can let go of worries. Worrying is a negative imagination that robs me of my energy and creativity. I will give myself permission to write down my to-do list, move through it as best I can, and then give myself long periods of time to bask in my “worry-free” zone. I will smile, relax, and be in the moment, enjoying the true meaning of the holidays.
I hope these mantras have given you the gift of the ability to smile, relax, and let go.
Case Study: How Dean Had a Stress-Free Christmas
Here is a story about Dean, a client of mine, who spent the holidays with his family.
While the family is generally loving and easy-going, a week of travel stress, coordinating schedules and activities of many people, lingering work stress, and the like can take a toll on nerves and patience and lead to regrettable disruptions. As much as anyone may love their family, concentrated time together can bring warm feelings to the “flashpoint” without much warning!
While working with Dean, he realized he needed to take a moment to catch his breath, hold his tongue, and remember his true values to circumvent an event that may cause hurt feelings, embarrassment, and lingering regret.
Working with an individual’s personal value system is an integral part of my work and techniques and an activity frequently used in private sessions in my office. Dean was familiar with this process and his own personal list of values. After his visit with his family, he reported that on more than one occasion, he took a few minutes out of his activities to reassess his list and compare his typical “knee-jerk” reactions in family situations to what he really wanted to gain as an outcome.
Instead of participating in an escalating battle of wills or engaging in complaints, gossip, or impatience, he focused on his desire to be the change that he always wanted to experience in his family dynamics. He kept his sights set on achieving a supportive, loving, peaceful group experience that would create fond memories for everyone while encouraging the development of positive goals for the younger members of the family.
Dean reported that the results were better than he had hoped. While clashes and tempers were occasionally evident, the situations were typically resolved much more quickly, with little or no lasting damage sustained to the relationships.
He realized a shift was possible, with the influence of only one person turning potentially harmful energy into an agreeable result. Like an unsung hero, Dean could be internally proud and satisfied that he had taken the initiative to be the change that he wished for in his family.
Final Holiday Tips for Managing Holiday Stress
As the wheel of time spins around, it doesn’t have to be in a circle that returns to the same old patterns and results that have been experienced in the past. We can spiral upward to a fresh perspective and achieve a new, improved outcome.
As you can see, with the right preparation, you can manage holiday stress and have a stress-free holiday. If you follow the recommendations in this post, let me know how your holiday season turned out!
Wishing you joy, health, and the formation of exquisite memories during this holiday season!
