As much as the Christmas and New Year holidays are full of good spirits and cheer, they’re also a time of immense stress for quite a lot of us. Trying to figure out which gifts to buy, dealing with irritating family members, and attempting to get everything sorted before the end of the year make for one heck of a headache! To help you keep calm and relaxed these holidays, we’ve put together some helpful tips for keeping your zen.
1. Don’t Strive for Perfection
No matter how much you plan and prepare, life will always throw you curveballs, particularly around such a busy and social season. It’s great that we want the best for our friends and family, but sometimes this can lead to us feeling anxious and stressed trying to make it perfect - and when things go wrong, it feels all the more disastrous.
This year, try to take a step back and relax, and just go with the flow. Besides, no one will even know that you forgot to make that salad or clean the window sills.
2. Add Some Humor to Your Day
For even just a little while, a sense of humour can offer some much-needed detachment, balance, and perspective. As long as it's not mean-spirited, humour can help us relax and view life (and ourselves) with a bit more perspective.
So don't stress yourself and just laugh at the silly things in your daily life. The release of endorphins and other feel-good chemicals during a good belly laugh can do wonders for your health.
3. Remember: It's the Thought that Counts
As much as Christmas is a time for giving, it’s also become somewhat of a competition to see who can give the best gift.
This causes a lot of stress, on both your mind and your finances, so this year, strive to be more thoughtful with your gifts as opposed to spending a lot of money.
Perhaps you might like to get a voucher for a pottery class for your mum instead of buying her an expensive vase. Or maybe your kids would benefit more from an outdoor cricket set than that new video game.
4. Take a Few Moments with Yourself
Even if practised for just a few minutes a day, meditation can profoundly affect one's emotional and psychological well-being.
You can begin by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and visualizing a ball in your palms. Try to imagine that you are rolling up all of your negative thoughts, feelings, and concerns into a ball and placing them under your pillow. Take a deep breath in and push the pressure ball up high. Exhale deeply and swiftly as you "throw" the ball between your knees. Get back to the origin and begin again. At least five times through, add anything else that is bothering you emotionally or mentally to the stress ball and then let it go until you feel better.
Adding Aromatherapy Crystal Candles during meditation may help you to lower your stress level.
5. Have an ‘Escape Plan’
It can be quite a high stress environment when all of the family gets together - there’s always one or two people that like to stir a bit of drama. If you feel you need some time to yourself and you can’t just up and leave, have a plan in place to get a quick 10 or 15 minutes to take a breath.
You could excuse yourself to walk the dog or pick up some more bread at the shops - whatever it is, getting away from the drama and high energy space will be good for your zen.
6. Choose Your Social Gathering Wisely
No doubt you’ll have plenty of invites to social gatherings, whether they’re for work, a friend’s party, or your children’s prize-givings. You may feel compelled to go to each and every one, but remember that picking and choosing which ones you actually attend is a great way to relieve tension and give yourself a break. You really should be at the awards ceremony, but you might have to skip your party-loving friend's "casual cocktails" this time around.
Tell your loved ones you'd rather stay in this Christmas season. You may set the tone by telling them what works for you, whether that's a weekly phone call or text message to see how they're doing. Do whatever works for you, but keep in touch!
7. Shop Online
If you’ve been out and about lately, you’ll know exactly how chaotic all of the malls and shopping centres are right now. The best thing to do to avoid stress is to shop online, you don’t need to be spending a lot, and at least you can check out whether they’re cheaper somewhere else without hiking all the way across a bustling mall.
Once you’ve sorted everything online, all you need to do is wait for your packages to arrive. If you don’t have time to wrap the gifts, see if the online store will also throw that in for you too!
If you’re stressing out and feeling a bit behind everything this year, just remember what this season is all about - spending time with friends and family, yes, but also giving yourself a well-deserved break.
And if you are stressing about finding some thoughtful, unique gifts, you can always check out our bestsellers from the comfort of your own home.
Have a Zen Christmas everyone!