Holiday Stress and Anxiety
As the holiday season approaches slowly, many of us have begun prepping. We have created lists for gifts we need to purchase or create, called our friends and family to see if they can come over for the holidays, looked at our bank accounts to see if we have enough to financial make our purchases, cleaned our homes to prepare for get-togethers. As we have prepped for the holidays, we may have another thing looming over us: holiday stress and anxiety.
It’s difficult to deal with stress and anxiety during this season, especially a season marked for joyous celebrations, fresh starts, and warm wishes. Luckily, there are many ways to manage our stress and anxiety. We’ve also mentioned these techniques before on Finding Tranquility.
We can also approach the holiday season with a different mindset. For example, we can make it our intention to enjoy the holidays as much as we can. It might sound a little outlandish, but our intentions can alter our perception on how our experiences were. If we want to have the best party, even though things might not go smoothly during the party, we are more likely to focus on the things that did work out and in turn believe that it was a wonderful time. We can practice taking in the moment and the good. Positive experiences strengthen our positive response to them.
It’s also important to take a break in order to regain our focus. If prepping is really weighing you down, it’s okay to step back for a moment to treat yourself to a cup of coffee or tea. You can take a moment to have a nice meal to charge up. You can do some yoga or exercise. Whatever taking a break looks like for you, it’s okay to step back. Once you return from your break, you will be more energized and focused on your task at hand.
The most important, however, is to remember to have fun and enjoy ourselves during this season. It’s nice to have the best presents, best meal, best decorations, best drinks, etc., but if we get caught up in all of those things, we night lose sight of the things that bring us joy and happiness.
Wishing you a warm holiday season!