Holiday Stress Management
Reducing Holiday Stress
Holiday Stress Tips
Holiday stress management can help you have a stress free holiday. Most of us just approach the holidays as we always have done: Christmas cards, baking cookies, Christmas parties, Christmas shopping, holiday dinners and decorating your home and your Christmas tree. While all the hustle and bustle can be fun, it isn’t fun for everyone. If you are among the many people who will be spending your holiday with a dysfunctional family or alone, you may well be looking forward to the holidays with dread!
Hypnosis can help you have a relaxing stress-free holiday!
Coping with holiday stress can be difficult, but with these holiday stress tips, you will be able to avoid many of the holiday stressors that you usually experience.
An empty room, even decorated, can be lonely.
Prepare for a relaxed and happy Christmas.
Stress Free Holidays
Dealing with Your Dysfunctional Family
Talking to friends, neighbors and co-workers, you would think that everyone else has a model family, where everyone gets along—and there is never a disagreement!However, the truth is that every single family (Despite what people say) has its own level of dysfunction. There is no perfect family. I’ll say that again, because it really is important…There is no perfect family. When I worked on a mental health unit, the doctors, nurses and therapists exchanged honest stories about their family holidays. And the picture was not pretty. These mental health professionals have dysfunctional families, just like yours—with divorces, trouble maker family members, and argumentative or judgmental family members. The difference is that many of us were able to use holiday stress management techniques and handle the difficult family situations better than the general public--because of our training and our experience on the unit.
The Birth of Christ is the true reason for Christmas.
Going to church can help you keep things in perspective.
Holiday Stress Tips
For a Stress Free Christmas
So what are some of the ways that you can reduce holiday stress? Here are some of the tips that we taught people on our mental health unit. The mental health professionals on our unit used these holiday stress management techniques, as well.Church - Make a point of going to church. If you don’t usually go, you’ll find that you have lots of company on Christmas eve and Christmas day. Many people only go to church on Christmas and Easter—and members of most churches will welcome you, and they won’t think seeing you in church is unusual. If you’re not familiar with the service, you can usually find what’s coming next, listed in the church bulletin. If you can’t find something, just listen quietly, and don’t worry about it. It’s OK. - Family conflict - If you will be spending time with family, you need to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally. Learn to relax and to let negative comments roll off your back. Here’s a program that can help you get ready.
- Loneliness - If you will be spending the holidays alone, invite someone to spend time with you on Christmas eve. Or find another way to be with others. For example, if you volunteer to serve food at a soup kitchen, you will bring happiness to others and you will be spending your day with others.
- Lower your expectations - I have a friend, Jill, who went through a divorce over 20 years ago. Even though I believe that she was not responsible for everything that went wrong in her marriage, her children believe that she was.
For years after the divorce, Jill spent a stressful Christmas eve with her children (at her parents) and hoped that the children would forgive her, and everything would be as it had been. Every year she was disappointed, anxious and ended up being depressed. About 5 years ago, Jill just decided that the situation would never change. She accepted that decision, and, miraculously, that Christmas, she had a more relaxed Christmas eve with her children. And she didn’t end up disappointed and depressed. She chose to be more realistic and lowered her expectations—and it ended up helping her!
Treat yourself to something nice.
And learn to relax to
reduce holiday stress.
- Treat yourself - Make yourself feel special. Treat yourself to a Christmas theatre ticket or to a simple food item that you only buy for special occasions.
If you enjoy candles, light a few candles or sit in the light of your lighted Christmas tree. Make the holidays special, using things and events that you enjoy. To do this, though, you need to think ahead. You may need to do a little research to find out what’s going on in your community. You may need to purchase a ticket ahead of time. Or you may need to do a little shopping for your holiday stress management. - Assert yourself - If your anxiety about Christmas is heightened by being near certain people, learn to be more assertive. You don’t need to argue with people, but you do need to stand up for your rights.
I’m hoping that these holiday stress management tips will help you get through the holidays with flying colors. If you’d like some help preparing, you will want to look into Hypnosis Download’s
Stressful Christmas self-hypnosis download.
Holiday Stress Management to Stress Management Activity
Holiday Stress Management to Easy Stress Management
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