Managing Your Stress During the Holidays and Beyond: Tip #30 – Get in Touch with Your Inner Child

Remember playing as a child so hard that you literally fell asleep when your head hit the pillow? Remember the games you would play – board games, video games, interactive games, games that you and your friends or family made up? Take some time to play this holiday season. It doesn’t matter what. What matters is that you smile, laugh, and get back in touch with your inner child no matter how old (or young) you are. It’s so easy to let fun go when stress takes over, but that’s when we need it the most.

Photo: Run Forestine ! © by YLegrand

Managing Your Stress During the Holidays and Beyond: Tip #29 – Be Consistent

During this time many of us have time off from work and the regular routines we practice most days of the year. While getting a break from the mundane day-to-day of our lives can be a blessing, it can also upset some sort of balance we’ve already put in place. By all means, enjoy some less structured time, but be mindful of how straying too far from things like regular sleep times, meal times, and household routines can affect getting back to those routines when the time comes. Be as consistent as possible while also giving yourself a well-deserved break.

Photo: Charming Your Chores: Scrub That Floor! © by queercatkitten

Managing Your Stress During the Holidays and Beyond: Tip #28 – Practice Forgiveness

Some people believe that forgiveness is about what someone else did, but really, it’s about us. When we hang on to the wrongs of others, it affects us far greater than the other person. We can harbor painful feelings, negative thoughts, and spend a lot of energy thinking about something that’s in the past. The holidays are prime time to practice forgiveness, as we are often reminded of our past and the ways we think things should have been. As the ultimate gift to yourself, find something or someone you can forgive and then let it go.

Managing Your Stress During the Holidays and Beyond: Tip #27 – Think Before You Speak

When others say and do things that “push your buttons” you may find yourself going on auto-pilot and just blurting out what you really think. But when emotions are running high, what comes out of our mouths is rarely what we really mean to say. Do yourself a favor and take some time to think before you speak. If needed, leave the situation, go into another room, hang up the phone, or summon every bit of self control you have to keep yourself from saying something you may regret later.

Photo: (Too much) Thinking © by the Italian voice

Managing Your Stress During the Holidays and Beyond: Tip #26 – Embrace the Let Down

It’s inevitable. All the weeks of building up to your holiday celebration, preparing, getting things ready, talking about it, and then in a flash, it’s over. It’s okay to allow yourself to feel the let down that often comes after a long-awaited event. It’s your body and mind’s way of letting go of the tension and build up that’s occurred. And it’s a natural and necessary part of the process. A time for you to re-energize and get ready for what’s next.

Managing Your Stress During the Holidays and Beyond: Tip #25 – Believe in Magic

You only have to look at a young child enjoying the holidays to get in touch with the magic of the season. The magic of anticipation, of wonder, of believing in that which we cannot see. As we grow up, we often lose sight of this type of “knowing” and some of us spend a great deal of effort trying to recapture it as adults.

On this day, stop and take a moment to remember the magic. Get in touch with your inner child if you have to. But try to look at what’s in front of you through innocent, trusting, and believing eyes. And see what kind of a difference that makes in how you experience not only this day, but tomorrow, and the day after that, and so on.

How would your life be different if you believed in something without seeing it first?