Avoid Holiday Stress, Enjoy Christmas!!!

Christmas is fast approaching and that means eating too much, fighting traffic, looking for parking places within a mile of the store, trying to get through the aisles of the stores along with the hundreds of other people in the mall, maxing out your credit cards, entertaining relatives, parties, family gatherings and a lot of other expected activities that add to your already busy schedule. In short that means stress and anxiety.

To relieve your stress try not to worry about Christmas being perfect. Think of it this way; it is the funny obscure things that happen that we remember, laugh and reminisce about, but we forget about the times where everything was perfect. Memories are made when something happens out of the ordinary--otherwise it's just another holiday that we forget about.

Give yourself a break, cut yourself some slack and learn to say "NO". You don't have to attend every party that you are invited to; you don't have to buy the perfect gift (gift cards are an easy way to finish your shopping quickly); you don't have to do all the cooking--a honey baked ham, some frozen vegetables, and store bought rolls and pies from the grocery store could be a great meal or invite people to bring their favorite dish so you are not responsible for everything. It always amazes me how long it takes to put a meal together, but in only fifteen minutes the food has been eaten and you are ready to put the dishes in the dish washer. Far too much prep time for the amount of time that is spent eating.

It is inevitable that you will get stressed out and frustrated during the holiday season and it is okay, but just remember an important tip and that is to breath. Breathing is an ideal way to relieve stress and it is simple and free and can be performed any where and at any time. Another way to relieve stress is to ask yourself at the end of the day, "What did I do well, and what could I do better next time?" That way instead of criticizing yourself, you are praising yourself, realizing that you are doing the best you can and in a loving way looking for a better way to do something next time.

Ask yourself "What is really important?" If you don't have the funds to buy your child the toy they said they just can't live without, if you go ahead and buy it, is it worth getting in debt over and worrying about how you are going to pay the upcoming bills? Sit your children down and explain to them that times are tough right now and hopefully next year you will be able to make it up to them. If you are late for the bosses party, if the sales person is rude, if someone takes the parking space you have been waiting for, is it really important enough to stress about? Life is too short and those things could be forgotten about, but if you hold onto them you will create stress, lose sleep and won't be in a good state of mind. You need to try and maintain your own sense of well-being and let go of the things you have no control over. And most of the things we fret about are really quite small in the grand scheme of things.

Most importantly remember the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate it. Perhaps if you keep that in mind your stress of wanting to have a perfect Christmas will become secondary to your ability to appreciate the birth of Christ, the love of your family and you'll have a stress free holiday season.