How to Invite MORE Holiday Stress (Wink, Wink!)

Your Performance Breakthrough

Just when you thought you were being pushed past your limits, along come the winter holidays to add an extra layer of complexity.

You have more events to manage, more things to buy, more people to see. The extra strain on your time and your pocketbook from your longer “to do” list causes you more stress that you certainly do not need.

Rather than allowing yourself to enjoy the real reasons we celebrate the holidays, the last thing on your list is you or doing anything to make things easier on yourself.

With a tongue-in-cheek approach, a wink of my eye, and just for a little fun, I’m here to remind you of what doesn’t work. So, take a look through my Top 7 Ways How to Invite MORE Holiday Stress and enjoy a little laugh at yourself. You are human, after all!

(Or, if you’d rather be reminded of how to actually melt holiday stress—and be inspired by some of my Eastern-influenced ideas—then join me for one my upcoming events! Details below…)

Top 7 Ways to Invite MORE Holiday Stress

1. Keep piling on MORE. That’s right. Say YES to every request to bake more, donate more, take on the office holiday fund drive, and attend more parties (especially the ones hosted by people you don’t really know or like that much). Be sure to include all members of your family in every gathering—especially those individuals you complain about up until the minute they arrive, then curse the moment they walk out the door. And, whatever you do, don’t say NO.

2. RESIST nature’s call to slow down and go inward. IGNORE the fact that the days are getting shorter and the temperatures (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) are getting colder. Turn those lights on longer, heat the office and home more hours, and keep burning that midnight oil! Bless these modern inventions that allow us to do more and more and more.

3. Tell yourself “I CAN MAKE IT through New Year’s”. Just because you broke down last year with a horrible string of colds does not mean it will happen again. This year will be different—and you don’t need to do anything different. Just keep plugging along and promising yourself you’ll make it through midnight on New Year’s eve. You can do it!

4. Use Caffeine to STAY AWAKE and Sleep Aids to FALL ASLEEP. When your energy wanes or you struggle to get out of bed, add another shot of espresso in your coffee—and be sure to have more caffeine mid-morning and again after lunch when you begin to nod off. Then, about an hour before you realize you’d better get to bed so you can get at least 4 or 5 hours of sleep before your alarm goes off, enjoy a drink or two or take your latest sleeping medication of choice. And be sure you say a prayer before bed to thank god for inventing these sleep aids!

[Remember, I’m writing this tongue-in-cheek! Are you laughing at yourself yet?]

5. Keep it to yourself. The holidays are a time to follow tradition and to do exactly what your parents or spouse/partner or spouse/partner’s family did before you. For goodness sake, do NOT express your honest opinion about ANYTHING. The last thing anyone wants to hear is what you think should be done differently, and your agonizing and suffering is for the greater good. So, keep it to yourself!

6. Whatever you do: don’t give yourself a break! The sacrifices you make and the hardships you take on are an example to us all. You are a role model to your employees, your colleagues, your children. You must single handedly take on the burdens of the extra holiday activities, without even a thought to your own physical or mental well-being. In fact, don’t even think about scheduling a massage or taking off an afternoon, let alone sneaking in a nap on the weekend. You are super wo/man!

7. Wait until 2013 to start making improvements. Whatever it is that is bugging you, it can wait. That pain in your side, those extra pounds, the headaches, the leak in the roof, the nagging feeling you should make a change… Wait, wait, wait. It can’t possibly get worse before it gets better, and it can always wait. Just weave it into your New Year’s resolution and I’m sure you’ll make those positive changes in 2013.

I hope you found at least a few things to chuckle about. Even though I’ve made tremendously positive changes over the decades, I know I still see glimmers of myself in all of these ideas!

But, if you’re NOT actually interested in continuing to burn the candle at both ends or suffer silently through another aggravating winter season, I INVITE YOU to take a deep breath (ahhhh….) and step forward into a new way of being.

Top 3 Ways to MELT Holiday Stress

I’ll be sharing my simple, Eastern-inspired ways to MELT holiday stress and everyday stress at these upcoming events. Please join me to learn about a new way of living and working that is sustainable and enjoyable!

Tomorrow (Wednesday), November 28 at 7 pm

In-person at The Spiral Bookcase, a sweet independent bookstore in Manayunk.