26: Managing Challenging Holiday Emotions

Episode Overview:
During the holiday season there can be stress present related to finances, extra things that need to get done, hosting, traveling, or even just figuring out what you are going to do for the holidays. In addition, for many people, the holidays don’t come with excitement at all. In fact, for many they come with sadness, loneliness, tension, and/or disappointment. In this episode I dive into a topic that I think is relevant to so many this time of year, whether you enjoy the holidays or not, and that is managing challenging holiday emotions.

What I Cover:

• Provide ideas and strategies for dialing back holiday stress that comes from perfectionism, trying to do it all, and trying to please everyone at your own expense.

• Provide strategies for maintaining self-care including sleep, (mostly) healthy eating, and movement even when things are busy or there are changes to schedules.

• Provide suggestions for dialing in, or establishing boundaries related to finances, people, and overcommitting.

• Explore how to set an intention for how you want to feel during the holiday season so that you can take actions that support that feeling.

Let's Take Some Action:
What are the 1, 2, or more steps you can take to reduce your stress and/or to improve your overall emotional state. 

• Do you need to scale back a little? Do you need to dial back your cooking or baking? Do a little less decorating? Or maybe you need to scale back the amount of spending you are doing this holiday season.

• Do you need to dial up your self-care? What can you do to make sure you are getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep most nights? What can you do to be intentional and  stay on track with your eating, and still enjoy the special indulgences that come with this time of year? What can you do to stay active, even when the days feel shorter, darker, colder, and life in general feels busy? 

• Do you need to dial in, or establish healthy boundaries. Do you need to say no to participating in certain events? Do you need to say no to someone asking for help if you don’t feel you have the capacity to do so?  Do you need to say no to certain conversations?  Do you need to establish any exit strategies?

Useful Resources:

Do you worry too much, overthink, assume the worst-case scenarios, spend a lot of time focusing on negative things that have happened, or discredit positive things happening? If so, you are dealing with the human brain we have all been given and you are not alone.

The good news is, you can change this and it may not take as long as you may think! If you want a free resource that will help you examine your thinking patterns, and change those that are not serving you, grab my 5 Common Thought Distortions Guide HERE.

Let’s stay in touch:

Website: www.KarenVincentSolutions.com

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