I can be a highly stressed and anxious person. Handling stress over the holidays can be a challenge. A lot of the time, if you don’t see me daily, I can hide it, but those that know me well, see me often, know it and can read me easily. My husband is one of those people. He can read me, he won’t necessarily know what is wrong or bothering me but he always knows when something is. I will not claim that I’m any master at handling stress but these are tips I’m hoping to implement myself and hope they’ll help.
1. Acknowledge Your Feelings:
I really have a problem with this. I have always been one to avoid confrontation and in doing so I tend to just avoid the feelings all together. I cannot stop myself from feeling them, I still feel them, but I tend to lose why I’m feeling that way. I need to do more self-reflection. This is a big reason why I’ve been writing more.
2. Take a Break:
This is hard to do as a mother with two small children. How do I take breaks? I nap, I sit and just zone out with a TV show while the babies are playing, I try to go out with friends when I can, I try to go out with my husband when I can, and I plan to start reading again. None of these really happen as often as I’d like but I guess that kind of just goes with the territory. I’ll keep trying though. Never giving up on getting those chances for breaks are key.
3. Be Realistic:
I definitely have a problem with this. I envision these great Christmases for my children and I often get disappointed because my expectations are too high.
4. Set Aside Differences:
Sometimes this requires just putting on a happy face but it’s necessary to keep peace at family events often times. Enjoy the holiday and just be together. Keep away from touchy topics, no politics, no religious debates.
5. Last is to plan ahead:
No last minute shopping.
What are some things you do to relieve stress? During the holidays or all year long?
Sarah
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Knowing how to handle stress is one of the best things to learn.
We are streseed up at some point in our lives.
If we could learn to handle stress efficiently then we could be happier.
Thanks for the update
Planning ahead is the key to keeping stress down for me. Otherwise I just get overwhelmed.
It really helped me when I started to tell my family that dealing with their stress causes me stress. It has really helped me put off the need to please.
My stress comes from everyone else not planning, lol! I’m a planner, so I’m always prepared, but when you have procrastinators as family members, it’s really frustrating. We visit family for the holidays and don’t do any hosting, so it’s more so the stress of getting a place to stay and finding someone to watch the animals.
I am also a very anxious person. I definitely think taking a break and planning ahead are so important. I need to do this more!
This is great advice especially for this time of year! Thanks so much.
To be honest, during the holidays I am not stressed. But these are all great tips, especially not saving things for last minute.
I know number 5 is going to be the hardest for me this year because I normally go all out, but I won’t be able to this year! It’s going to be hard to let some things go. I know I need to though!
Festival seasons are always stressful regardless of what you do. I always to travel on a mini trip to clear my head in the middle of it all.
These are such great tips! I know the holidays can be a stressful time for many of us. Thank you for sharing!!
The holidays can be so stressful! Great ways to help make it through the holidays with a little less stress. Holidays should be relaxing and enjoyable, not stress inducing.
I definitely have a problem with numbers 1 & 2 I believe half of my stress is what I actually put on myself. Planning ahead helps though.
Love your tips. I think we all stress around the holidays. And it’s worse if we feel like we are the ones who have to make the magic happen. I think setting the right expectations can definitely lighten the load a lot. Kids will find magic in the holidays even without us, so we should let them.
It’s definitey hard to avoid stress around the holidays, but I’ll use these tips! Thank you
Love these ideas! Thank you for sharing
Probably the first two points are the ones that resonate the most with me as I usually engage with these whenever I can. Namely acknowledging my feelings and taking a break – both of which require time which I have to set aside. Doing this essentially helps me to ‘re-set’ and give me more energy to get going again feeling refreshed. I suppose each of us is different for what is more effective, but that is what works best for me.
It’s so important to recognize the extra stress the holidays bring. Love these tips to help people actually enjoy this time of year!
#3 and #5 are top-top-top of my list. It drives my hubby nuts sometimes how I plan holiday meals WEEKS ahead.
[…] 5 Tips for Handling Stress Over the Holidays […]
I’m very guarded with my family and our holiday season. I try my best not to overcommit or have us out of the house too much. I feel like it causes us to become overwhelmed.
These are such a great post. The holiday is definitely can be challenging. This will definitely help the holidays be less stressful.