7 Ways to Combat Feeling Overwhelmed This Holiday Season

The holidays are a joyful time of year for many but it can also be overwhelming. It’s the season of more. Many times that’s more love, more yummy food, more warmth, more family, more rest. But it’s also more money spent, more parties to attend, more cooking to be done, more conversations to be had, more expectations you want to meet. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and drained it doesn’t mean you’re a grinch, it means you’re human. It’s normal and it happens.

Overwhelm is sneaky. During the holidays it’s especially easy to get blindsided. It’s difficult to balance the holiday activities you want to participate in with completing the tasks necessary for leading the lives we would like to. Rest and relaxation are essential. Taking time away from obligations to enjoy time with yourself, friends, and family are the memories you will remember for years to come. Love, leaning into it, fostering it, making time for it, is a primary reason we are on this planet. But we are only human. There are only so many hours in a day. If we want to achieve the goals we have for ourselves we also need to create a balance between enjoying and getting things done.

If you are able to step away this holiday season without it having the adverse effect of making you more stressed once it’s time to step back in, that’s great. Keep doing that. But if you find your stepping away is creating more stress than perhaps it’s doing more harm than good. Here’s 7 tips to combat overwhelm this holiday season.

1. Live in the present. Whenever I find myself getting stressed it’s usually because I am living in the future and not the present. I’m thinking about how I’m going to make things work, how things are going to turn out. The what ifs, the maybes, the hows. Here is the truth. You do not need to have all the answers right now. We will never have all the answers. And when we think we have it all figured out, life usually has a funny way of showing us how wrong we are. Tell yourself that you do not need to have it all figured out today. That you are safe in this present moment. Do activities that will bring you into your body. Meditate while a pine candle burns, make cookies and take the time to notice how the dough feels in your hands, when buying presents think about the love and gratitude you have for the people in your life, workout with holiday music in the background, add peppermint to your morning coffee.

2. Make a list. Make a list of things you can do to get you from where you currently are to where you want to be. Determine what actions you can take, what right things you can do, and make a list of them. Do at least one thing each day to get you closer to your goals. Cross things off as you do them. Taking action and making progress towards your goals combats overwhelm. Trusting and surrendering are necessary, they enable you to enjoy the present moment despite all the things you want to do, but that doesn’t mean you do nothing.When things get overwhelming go back to focusing solely on that outlined next step.

3. Get up earlier. We want more time during the holidays to relax and hangout with loved ones. To watch Christmas movies, and drink hot chocolate while snuggled by the fire. If taking this time off however is going to make you feel more overwhelmed, then get up a little earlier. Use that extra half hour, or an hour to make progress towards your goals or to carve out time for yourself. This way you’re still doing thing for you while taking time off with family and loved ones.

4. keep up with your healthy habits. It’s easy to let our healthy habits fall to the wayside during the holidays. But remember we have implemented healthy habits because they leave us feeling our best. If you fall off of your normal routine, don’t beat yourself up just get back into it. They are especially important to implement at times when we feel like we don’t have the time to do them.

5. Everything doesn’t need to be perfect. There is this ideology that the holidays should look like a hallmark movie. They usually don’t and they shouldn’t. Hallmark movies and jolly Christmas songs aren’t what our lives always look like. Imperfection is a beautiful aspect of the human condition. Accept your holidays for what they are, don’t struggle to make them look like something someone else told you they should be. Some people hate the holidays and that’s okay. Some people love decorating and cooking for the holidays, that’s okay also. Take the pressure off by taking away any ideas about what your holidays should look like. If you want your holidays to be great, focus instead on what your holidays feels like not look like.

6. Stay around good energies. stay close to energies that leave you feeling good, that fill your cup up. That includes people and animals. Feeling overwhelmed about the presents you still need to buy? Hug your cat. Aunt Gladys going off about politics again? Excuse yourself and take the dog for a walk. You don’t need to engage in conversation or people who leave you feeling bad. You don’t have to be rude or tell the person off, you can just excuse yourself. You can protect your peace.

7. Remember it’s your holiday. The holidays aren’t just for the kids or for your family or for your friends, they are for you too. Remember to give yourself some of what you need this holiday season. Invest in yourself. Buy yourself a holiday present, decide to go on vacation this year instead of hosting, order take out instead of cooking, give yourself the gift of therapy or coaching, place a spending cap on presents. Self-love is never selfish.