The Holidays Can Be Demanding!
Holiday demands vary from person to person but in general they may involve the following:
- Entertaining
- Shopping & over spending
- Cleaning & clean up, increased chaos around you
- Parties, both large and small and from a few to way to many
- Travel & travel delays
- More 1:1 time than usual, both joyous and challenging
- Cooking, Increased volume and variety
- Loss of alone time, too much we time
- Pressure to say yes when you want to say no
- Over eating and drinking and abandoning your usual healthy routines and patterns
- Creating new holiday traditions and loss of time worn ones
- Incorporating new people into the holiday mix and missing those no longer with us
So if those are the challenges both positive and challenging what are some fixes to get us all through the season?
Some Techniques To Help Survive The Holidays
Try some of these mindset suggestions:
- Prepare as much in advance as possible and share the load
- Be realistic about spending, we all have more stuff than we really need as evidenced by the success of books on clutter clearing and downsizing
- Divide the load of both cleaning and clean up. Give you OCD a holiday too
- Be really selective on accepting invites, events are supposed to be fun not taxing
- Take an extra day or two off before and after. Don’t be a slave to the holiday events
- Avoid if at all possible unresolved family issues
- Make time for you to recharge & give yourself an out at social and family gatherings
- Get people to help or bring food and stick to as simple menus as possible that you enjoy making. It’s not the time to try a complicated experimental menu.
- Don’t get pressured into saying yes when you really want to say no. Plan the “no’s” in advance if possible.
- Try to keep to your health routines as much as possible. Those routines can also be an “out” when you need one.
- Times change, people come and go in our lives. Trying to push back change only creates more stress.
- Be open to new people and enjoy the memories of times with those who have gone on. Reach out and acknowledge sadness that holidays can bring.
Some Practices To Stay Sane During The Holiday Season
Activities to get you through the season:
- Give a personal or self made gift or the gift of time to share or time to do a project
- Use Bach Flower Essence (used to de stress women in labor)
- Do 1 gesture of paying it forward. Do a volunteer activity or give a gift that keeps on giving such as Heifer International or Doctors Without Borders.
- Set realistic expectations with kids
- Meditate, start or increase what you all ready do
- Keep two To Do” lists, one “ to do for me “ and one “to do for you” and alternate doing them
- Adopt the attitude of wearing rose colored glasses, better yet wear a pair and share why you are wearing them. It will make people think twice before starting a ruckus
- When it comes to managing challenging personalities, be prepared that the leopard won’t change it’s spots, nor will your mother or Uncle Henry change either
- Citrus fragrance boosts feelings of well being. Try lemon or orange essential oil.
- Go for a walk, the motion has a tranquilizing effect on the brain
- Sleep better with the plant extract 5-HTP (found in most drug stores). Work with a Homeopathic or Naturopathic practitioner for alternative remedies.
- Activate the Hoku spot on your hand with firm pressure for 30 sec, reduces stress in upper body, located in the fleshy area between thumb and index finger
- Watch comedies on TV. Laughing reduces stress hormones.
- Consider abandoning old customs, especially good if lonely or grieving
- Leave you cell phone a home and be REALLY present
- Have more sex, it’s a big stress slayer
- Take turns as “Parent of the day” or send the kids to grandparents for a few days
- Be mindful of negative thinking which triggers the body’s stress response
- Sponsor a needy family. There are many more in need than you think. This act alone when coming from your heart will not only positively impact your health and outlook but will make not just one but two families grateful and bring true joy and meaning back to the holiday season.
A Look Back At Some Of Our Leaps & Bounds During 2017
A quick look back at 2017 and advances we can be grateful for that will impact people’s lives:
- 2017 Top Medical Breakthroughs
- Hero’s were created during the numerous natural disasters in 2017- most unsung
- Groundbreaking began for Brooklyn Dodger’s, #42, Jackie Robinson Museum who broke the color barrier in 1947
- Australia legalized same sex marriages
- High School students in Florida, started a club to ensure no one ate lunch alone
- Women in Saudi Arabia will be allowed to drive
- Honey Bee numbers are improving approx. 25%
- South West Airlines flew a plane of puppies away from Hurricane Harvey’s path
- Stem cell spray gun allows burn victims to regrow their skin without scars-HUGE advancement
- The Cell Atlas-A sophisticated new model of biology- Mark Zuckerberg donated 3 Billion to this Medical research
- One finding is a new immune cell that produces a steroid that suppresses immune function in the cataloging of over 37 Trillion cells
- The road to Quantum computing gets nearer
- The 360 degree selfie camera- 1 step away from VR
- Hot Solar Cells- Increased efficiency at much lower cost
- Luxturna- FDA approved gene treatment for Retinal eye disease
- Crisper-Cas9 Emerging technology to genetically disable or delete the gene responsible for ALS
- Neurostimmulation devices for epilepsy and future applicationtions
- A twitter analyzing tool in the works to detect signs of depression, 100-200 days before symptoms develop
- Saliva test in the works to detect concussion on the playing field
- A wearable, in ring form to track sleep patterns, body temp (god for fertility monitoring ) and stress….Pricey @ $299
- Top 10 changes in policy and action in Integrative health and medicine
- Non-Pharmacologic approaches to chronic pain, summary
- CBD oil- A Non Psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant- clinically used for it’s anti-inflammatory properties, anxiety, pain, insomnia, anti seizure properties, treatment of Schizophrenia, anti cancer agent, PTSD, general and social anxiety disorders, OCD, acne and in early stages of Alzheimer’s to keep from loosing facial recognition skill
May your next Holiday have a lot more Joy and a lot Less Bah Humbug! ET
If You Enjoyed This Blog
Subscribe to my mailing list
* indicates required
