5 Self-Care Tips For The Holidays
The holiday season, the festive season or what some like to call the busy season. I get it. It’s the end of another year, and you should be celebrating. You should be celebrating if that is what you want to do. If you want to sit home and Netflix and chill, after this year, then you deserve it. You should do what YOU feel you need to do so that you are taking care of yourself.
My Story
It may seem selfish to say that especially when you say, but my family expects me to be there because it’s the holidays. Yup, I get it. I went through it with my family too. For a year and a half now I’ve told my family I will be in New York City for Christmas and New Year’s this year. We fly out in about a week… eak. We purchased our flights back in June and guess what - since June we have been asked to change our plans to meet the family’s request. I get it, it could be helpful but to who? If it is too expensive for them to travel to New York City who wouldn’t it be too expensive for us to travel to them when we already travelled from Cairns, Australia to New York? Even my sister wanted to ditch NYC plans. I get it, they don’t serve her year after year, and that’s fine. If she couldn’t make it, I get it, but then there is less time for us to catch up. For saying sticking my ground to where we will be, I was the bad guy. It’s ok. My decisions which are the decisions of my chats with Mark about our holiday are already a compromise. A family trip isn’t necessarily an amazing realising holiday like Mark dreams of and deserves after the work he has put in the last two years. These decisions were a compromise family time and our time. Another realisation was I can’t please everyone and the busy season is not the best to go home at and try and see everyone because well everything is expensive and everyone is well, BUSY.
The holidays are a stressful time even when you don’t include a holiday getaway. A lot is going on at this time of year like work celebrations, family celebrations, leave from work and school. Therefore, routines are out of control which in turn means you can get stressed easier, you may not keep as clear of a head, and you can get out of whack quickly.
You guess it, from my story above, I have already been out of whack. To get on track and to plan to stay on track I am focusing on these five self-care tips for the holidays.
Five Self-care tips for the holidays
1. Stick To A Budget
This time of year, it is great when we set a budget with the best of intentions and then end up spending way more than we planned because of everything going on. Gift giving and buying presents for others and yourself (yes, and that part is usually never factored into the budget, but we all do it) becomes something you brush of as you tap your plastic to the machine and see the approved tick. You tell yourself its ok to splurge, and it’s not that much, but you don’t allow yourself to check your budget because you know you are better off getting through the season first and dealing with the aftermath later.
If you don’t hold yourself accountable when it comes to your holiday budget – presents, food, drinks and social engagements then it can have a flow-on effect with your mood and mindset going into the new year.
Sometimes you feel pressured by family or friends even though the pressure is usually made up in our heads. It is ok not to give a gift or spend quality time with people instead of buying a material item. You need to be ok with what you have to work with. Determine your budget, be realistic, do add in a little extra and review it daily or weekly to hold yourself accountable.
2. Only Say Yes To Celebrations That You Want To Attend
Family obligations, work commitments and social engagements with friends don’t leave a lot of downtime during this time of year. Socialising happens more around the holidays, and this is ok as long as you are doing the socialising that fills you up with joy and doesn’t leave you sitting somewhere wishing you were home in bed.
Accept invites to the celebrations that you genuinely want to go to because you know you will enjoy them. If something is going on that you are dreading, don’t feel obligated to go or don’t feel obligated to stay for the whole time. Go and do what serves you.
3. YOU TIME
This time of year, we are doing more. Finalising work commitments, more socialising and that in turns leaves our routines out of whack, and this is when stress can creep in. Make sure you are still enjoying your time, the time that serves you and brings you happiness.
This is the time of year that I try and keep to my morning routines as much as possible. There might be some late nights here and there, but I still love my morning walks and making sure I get in a good breakfast to start my day. If I were to sleep in, I know I could easily miss this part of my day that kicks my day into a high gear filled with motivation and productivity.
What is something that you love to do and often do that you don’t want to give up during the holidays? How can you make that happen and commit to it?
4. Eat Well
Eating more is a part of the holidays. There is more to do, more choices and more festive food around us all the time. Morning teas at work, work lunches to celebrate with your besties at work followed up by drinks with friends after work to discuss all the madness going on in your lives this holiday season.
It is your choice what you eat and what you don’t eat. Try and be mindful to choose the foods that will keep you energised, give you a clear head and don’t forget to be ok with indulging a little. Fill up on the good and treat yourself to a bite or two of something that catches your eye.
If you are out and about a lot, having a little of something a lot will be better in the long run than indulging because ‘it’s the holidays’ – yes, the quotes because I honestly believe this is the worst excuse in the book. It is the holidays and to get through feeling happy and fulfilled you have to give yourself the foods and nutrition that will help get you through it.
5. Focus On Quality Sleep
If you are out spending more, socialising more, having less quality you time and eating whatever is around, then your sleep will be impacted. Stress can keep you up at night. You can wait all day thinking that you cannot wait to get through this day and event at night to be home sleeping in your nice comfortable bed only to find yourself laying there awake at an unruly hour of the wee morning. There is nothing worse.
If you can focus on the first four tips, then your sleep shouldn’t be impacted too much. Keeping your sleep routine is important. Quality sleep helps your bodies recover from the day before and energise yourself for the next day.
Going to bed later and sleeping later is not always a great option. If sleeping in will disrupt your morning routine, I suggest you be mindful and try and stick to your morning routine and make sure you can get an earlier night’s sleep on a not so busy day during the holidays. This can be a bit difficult, but by doing the things you like to do in the morning can help you stay energised throughout the day. Sleeping in when your body knows and feels like you should be doing something else is not always restful quality sleep.
There could be a lot more tips to take on board, but I believe these five are key. I have been planning my holiday since June and making sure I stick to this while the stress of the holidays creeps up, I have an easier time keeping the stress at bay.
Another thought that popped into my head, I’m not stressed about my holiday per se. I’m stressed about planning my holiday. Once we are in New York, we will be fine. We will be present in the moment and enjoy the holidays for what they are – a break from work and celebrations with family and friends. It’s the planning and the assumptions about the things and stuff that we are going to be doing that keep us busy this time of year which leads us off course. By keeping these tips in mind, you will stick to a better plan for you to gracefully float through the holidays and ring in the new year feeling energised, motivated and on track to kick your 2019 goals out of the park.
Want to talk about the holiday season? Book in for a free Weight Loss Breakthrough Session now and we will chat. I look forward to getting to know you.
