I love the holiday season! I love the delicious feasts, the beautiful lights and the time spent with loved ones. I even love the snow, if I’m lucky enough to get a white Christmas.
But, let’s face it: the holidays can be stressful. There’s the shopping, if you’re lucky enough to find a parking spot, the crowds, the excessive perfumes everywhere and the holiday bills. Then there’s the time spent baking, cooking and wrapping presents, all in anticipation of the big event. And, let’s not forget the family gatherings with the know-it-all uncle or the over-the-top aunt, if you’re lucky enough to have supportive family. I’m getting stressed just thinking about it.
What’s an overworked and holiday-strained person to do? Here are some of my favorite stress survival strategies to help you cope with the holidays:
Reduce Your Consumerism
Let your friends and family know that you’re trying to reduce your consumer footprint and ask them to join you in foregoing gifts in favor of experiences. Perhaps a dinner together or a Christmas café experience could replace gift-giving? Many people will probably feel relieved, knowing they don’t have to stress out trying to decide what to buy you.
Opt for Homemade
If you just can’t do gift-free holidays, perhaps you could opt for homemade gifts. While it takes some time and effort, it is usually more enjoyable than hitting the malls. Consider tins full of homemade cookies or chocolates, or a basket full of artisan bread, or some bath products made with your favorite essential oils.
Add a Multivitamin to Your Day
Stress quickly depletes our supplies of vitamins like B-complex and C. These vitamins cannot be stored in the body and therefore must be replenished on a daily basis to get adequate supplies. And, most people simply do not get all the fruits and vegetables they need during the holidays to replenish their ever-growing needs. Take a multivitamin or a B-complex vitamin with vitamin C to help ensure your body can handle the stress load this season. Choose one that is free of artificial ingredients, fillers, colors and preservatives. Follow package directions on the product you choose.
Enjoy a Fruit Smoothie
It’s too easy to skip breakfast this time of year, but we need more nutrition than ever to deal with the high stress levels and to ward off viruses spread by sick people at all the parties. Instead, make yourself a fruit smoothie with almond milk, your favorite greens and fruit to boost your nutrition during the holidays and to help keep your immune system strong.
Diffuse Essential Oils
Place a few drops of lavender or vetiver essential oils or add them to a hot bath to help you relax and deal with the stress or sleepless nights during the season. Both of these oils have been proven to reduce anxiety and feelings of stress, helping you to feel at your best throughout the holidays.
Watch Your Sugar Intake
I know it can be difficult to resist all the sweets during the holidays, but you don’t have to. Simply snack on high fiber and protein nuts during the day and you’ll experience fewer cravings or hunger, making it easier to enjoy a cookie or two but not gorge on the whole stack. Sugar not only causes mood-altering blood sugar fluctuations, it can deplete your immune system, making you more vulnerable to colds and flu.
Don’t Be Alone
If you’re on your own and won’t have any loved ones around, don’t try to go it alone. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or visit some elderly people at a local care home. For many people the holidays are lonely and sad, but just sharing them with someone else in a similar situation may help to make them easier.
Just Say No
You don’t have to go to every party or accept every goodie that’s offered to you. You can just say “no.” Whether it’s to your in-law’s request for you to cook dinner or to go to one more holiday party, you can simply say no. You deserve peaceful and quality holidays, too.
Ask for Help
Don’t try to do everything yourself. Ask your partner, kids, friends or family to help. Some people agree to a cookie exchange where they make a couple of kinds and a friend makes another couple of cookie types and they share them so each person has four different types of cookies for those holiday platters. However you decide to split the workload, it can even be more fun when it is done with a loved one.
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