How to Overcome the Overwhelm of the Holiday Season (And Reduce Holiday Stress)

The Holiday Season can be a wonderful time of year, filled with lovely decorations, gift exchanges, visits with friends and family and delicious meals. But for many of us, the Holiday Season can also be quite overwhelming with all the added activities such as decorating our homes, selecting, buying, wrapping and exchanging gifts and hosting friends and family while we prepare multi-course elaborate meals! The question is, "What can we do to Overcome Overwhelm during the Holidays?"
1. Simplify Your Life
Holidays that are full of complexity are neither fun nor comfortable. Complexity can easily contribute to feeling overwhelmed. We can be invited to numerous events and want to host others ourselves. These activities can be very wonderful experiences, but there can also be too many to prepare for and attend in a short time. You may also have to consider selecting, wrapping and delivering gifts, decorating the house, and, potentially, traveling to visit friends and family across the country. Keeping the holidays simple with a manageable number of events to attend and/or host, can greatly contribute to Overcoming Overwhelm during the Holidays.
2. Practice Extreme Self-Care
In our fast paced world, often our physical bodies become the last priority. We drag our bodies around nonstop and we can be indifferent to signs of exhaustion. When we practice extreme self-care, our mind, body and spirit are much more likely to assist us in our other efforts by providing strong support including energy, enthusiasm and presence. With extreme self-care our energy is up, our confidence is high and we feel much more positive. Some examples of self-care activities include sufficient sleep, quiet time, exercise, healthy food, and joyful recreation. Often during the holidays, some of our self-care activities are put on hold with all the hustle and bustle of the season. Taking proper care of ourselves during the Holiday Season can contribute greatly to Overcoming Overwhelm during the Holidays.
3. Celebrate the Unique You
Sometimes there are "should" or "must" dos on our to-do list that we really don't enjoy doing or don't leverage our best skills. We can end up delaying or not completing these activities. Or if we take these items on, they can contribute to frustration or overwhelm. Instead, we can consider whether there is someone else who can take care of the item for us or determine if the activity really needs to be done now.
There are many events and activities that we can participate in during the holidays on top of regular life activities. If we don't know what we really want during the Holiday Season, then it will be much harder to say no to invitations that do not align with our desires. A great place to start is to clearly define our preferences in writing. By sharing our vision of the ideal Holiday Season with our life partner, asking him or her what their desired Holiday Season looks like and integrating these two collaboratively, you have a plan the two of you can action and support together for the Holiday Season. Celebrating the Unique You, by respecting and celebrating your desired Holiday Season, can greatly contribute to Overcoming Overwhelm and experiencing more power, serenity and joy during the Holiday Season.