Enjoy Your Holidays More In 3 Easy Steps

Now that December is here, everyone is in full-fledged holiday prep mode. There is so much to do, and it often feels overwhelming and stressful. Fortunately, there are things you can do to enjoy the holidays more, and they don’t include hiding, cancelling all plans, or buying out the liquor store. Read on:

Step 1 – Set the mood for your planning

Half of the holidays is planning. Parties, Christmas concerts, Santa parades, gift lists, cookie exchanges. There’s a lot to do. And if we aren’t going to 100% lose our minds, we have to plan and schedule. This type of task is often done while pulling socks on with one hand and gulping coffee with the other, hastily typing out to-do’s on our phones as we race out of the house.

But what if we set the mood for planning instead? My go-to this season has been a few minutes before the kids wake up, in front of our pretty tree with its fairy lights, coffee beside me on the sofa.

Its’ here I look at my calendar and input dates for events. In the semi-darkness I plan what groceries I need. I think about details of decorations. It’s here I remember that oops, I actually forgot to put butter on my list, and I’m not in a panic while doing so.

If we’re going to spend much of this season in plan-and-prep mode, I say let’s set the stage to enjoy it.

Step 2 – Give from the heart, not the wallet

I’ve seen a lot of posts this year about gifting less, re-gifting, buying local. I love this. Part of the planning process in step 1 can be thinking about gifts that really matter for the people we love. That’s the reason we buy gifts, isn’t it? It’s easy to shift into I-have-to mode for work politic reasons and to not hurt your mother in law’s feelings, but if we stand firm on gifting for the feeling we get when someone opens that perfect present, it feels a lot better. 

With the heart in mind, it’s a lot easier to drop the per-gift price and focus on the result. What would make the person you’re giving to, smile? Much of the time, an expensive something can be reduced to some time spent instead. Making a homemade pop-up card. Movie tickets. Ballet lessons. A massage. 

Shifting from wallet-mindset to heart-mindset lifts so much of the stress away from this season.

Step 3 – Ask your brain the right questions

Oh, psychology. It’s so powerful and we know it. But when stress is high, you have to remind yourself of the right things at the right time in order to relax. Most people wait until they’re at the levels of highest stress to try and calm themselves down, and then they spin and catastrophize instead of bringing themselves down a level.

Your brain will go where you guide it. So if you’re stressing and saying to yourself, “Can the holidays just be over now?!”, your brain will be like, “Right? This sucks, doesn’t it? Here’s a list of all the stressful things going on so you can focus on them.”

On the other hand, if you ask yourself questions like, How can I enjoy this season more? Your brain will start to come up with answers for you. Here are a few that I use. I actually write these down in my phone so I can access them before my thoughts get out of hand:

• How can I make the most out of this busy day without being overwhelmed?
• What boundaries can I set for myself here?
• What if nothing has gone wrong here?
• Where can I find a quiet moment to reset today?
• How can I bring my best self to this scenario?

I wish you all a beautiful holiday season with less stress :)