How are we all doing in this run up to crazy month?
How far on are you with your Christmas preparations? Perhaps you’re ignoring Christmas all together and have no intention of getting caught up in the madness?
If you are starting to feel the overwhelm creep in or if you’re feeling anxious about all you need to do, here are a few tips to ease the Christmas stress and get you back on track.
- Take a moment: Find some space in your diary, even if it’s just half an hour and sit down to do some planning.
- Check in with yourself: Are you are you already over committing? Highlight in your diary where you can grab back some time or where you need to keep some sacred space.
- What is on your to do list? Rather than look at a ridiculously long list, break it down into bite size chunks. What needs doing this week? What could be done next week? What are the priorities? Have smaller lists for each week rather than one long list.
- Be honest with yourself: What is on the list that doesn’t need to be there? Are you giving yourself more to do than you need to? Don’t be too proud to outsource certain tasks – no one really cares whether you’ve made the mince pies, or you bought them in!
- Ask for help: Believe it or not, you don’t have to do it all yourself. What tasks could you delegate?
- Don’t forget to breathe! Take a moment, consider your priorities and then take one baby step at a time. Christmas does NOT need to be perfect, in fact it will be the imperfections that we will remember, that we will tell stories about.
Christmas is ONE day and as much we have been conditioned for it to be a family extravaganza, it does not need to consume us, cause us anxiety and overwhelm unless we let it.
Maybe this year you could do it differently or maybe not even at all – your choice.
