6 Tips to Decrease Stress & Increase Joy This Season
How are the holidays treating you so far? More importantly, how are you treating yourself?I'm sharing this recipe for a dreamy Christmas that I concocted last year in case you missed it or could use the gentle reminder again this season.I invite you to use the recipe above with your choice of ingredients from the list below to create a dreamy Christmas of your own.
Click here to download your printable "Dream Christmas Ingredients" list.
Plus 6 tips and reminders that will help you decrease stress and increase joy this season: ~ Any project, plan or party can be broken down into small, doable steps ~ or as I like to call them this time of year, Merry Little Movements.Imagine my delight in realizing one Christmas project in particular could easily be divided into more than a dozen small steps. So long overwhelm ~ hello creative joy!~ Remember, enough really is enough. For example, I gave myself a decorating deadline. That meant any holiday decorating I intended to do needed to be finished by Sunday, even if that meant not putting out every single decoration I own. And you know what? It was not only enough...it was plenty!~ Creative joy can be experienced in small little burst of creative play. Five or ten minutes coloring in a holiday mandala, creating a Christmas card or digitally enhancing a photo sparks creative satisfaction that lasts for hours. Here's a pinterest project using rolled magazine pages I'm creating during some of my brief of Christmas Oasis Moments.
~ Give yourself permission to embrace what's most important and release the rest. Rather than show up to a holiday gathering feeling frazzled and fatigued because I felt the need to create some gourmet dish from scratch along with everything else I had going that day, I chose to show up rested and ready to party with a store bought appetizer and a smile.~ Good self-care is not optional ~ it's essential. With the social invitations rolling in, the pressure to finish shopping mounting, not to mention "end-of-year-everything," it's easy to tell ourselves we simply don't have time.That's why it's so nice to be part of a group that knows the value of taking good care of ourselves, especially during the time of year we're often running on too little sleep, too many treats while dodging the omnipresent cold and flu bugs.~ Good self-care is easier than you might think.Something has simple as using some nice, rich hand cream, taking a walk around the block or enjoying a few deep breaths and stretches can revitalize you and keep you going strong throughout the holidays.