Greetings all,
I hope this finds you well! I've been off in Facebook land, starting a Facebook group and at long last actually getting 'social' on social media. (if you care to connect with me there, I'll post all the links at the bottom of this page.
I've been posting about Holiday stress. Why it's the same as regular stress, but different too. At the holidays we can experience a lot of stress about money, too much to do and too little time, and difficult family interactions to name a few. There is of course the too much food and drink, travel, expectations or pressure about gift giving added into the mix. Then throw in a snow storm and upset travel plans and everything can go sideways in a hurry. Or keep you spinning your wheels for hours or days. HO, HO, HO!
For some people the holidays are mildly stressful, for others it's a minefield. Wherever you are on the spectrum there are methods to reduce your stress and manage the holidays more smoothly. These work best if you already have them in place: a meditation schedule and/or exercise routine. Things you can learn quickly might be anti - arousal breathing (a good explanation can be found here: anti arousal breathing exercise
One of the biggest stressors for many people is around family interactions. Is there someone who always creates a scene? Does going "home' make you feel like a kid again, and not in the fun way? Are there too many expectations about hosting, traditions, and gifting that make you feel more like you're in a straight jacket than a warm fuzzy throw? One of the reasons for that is much of our "programming," if you will, around our family dynamic was established when we were young and our brains were primarily in 'theta' waves. This is highly creative in adults, but in children it allows everything to flow in unfiltered, and as fact. This can create neural pathways or "beliefs' that don't serve us as well as adults and can add a great deal of stress.
But the big thing about HOLIDAY STRESS is, it's all our regular stress COMPRESSED into a short amount of time so it seems BIGGER. When our stressors come at us well spaced out each one doesn't use up all our resources so we can manage them better. But the holidays use up so much bandwidth, with everything coming at us at once, that we are more easily overwhelmed.
What if you could brush off that stress with ease?
Well you could just suffer through it. That's the usual plan. I've another idea though. Let's tap! You can go to my page here: Less Holiday Stress and see what I've got cooking. I've put together a package with a great discount and if you want to schedule you sessions after the holidays, that's fine too.
And/or you could get a massage!
My newsletter service disappeared on me, (talk about holiday stress!) so for now the Rising Sun Massage holiday gift giving packages are listed at my Facebook page: Rising Sun Massage
Managing the Holidays
In one of my videos I suggested that since, as we all know, the holidays do disrupt our regular self care schedules, you pick one thing that you will not compromise on. Whether it is a short daily walk, writing in your gratitude journal, a five minute meditation or drinking lots of water, you pick one thing to hang your self care on for the holidays. And be really mindful when you're doing it, that you are taking care of yourself.
I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.
Oh, here are some links if you want to see some of what I've been doing on Facebook (you need more groups to participate in and pages to follow, right! Well, I'd love to see you there.
this is my personal page: Facebook page
my EFT page is where most of the action is these days: EFT with Penny
Happy Holidays
Penny
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