We are deep into the holiday stretch! The present-buying (the panic shopping), the parties, and the cookies.
This time of year is wonderful for some, and brings up painful memories for others. Whether you love this time of year or can't wait until it's over (or both!), one thing is for sure - creating a magical holiday season is A LOT of work.
For every beautiful gift purchased and wrapped, and every dessert made and party planned, someone is working hard behind the scenes to make it all happen. While these traditions are special and help us focus on family rituals as we close out the year, we do all of this domestic work on top of closing out work at our jobs as well. Deadlines abound, performance reviews are being prepped, and time off at the end of the month often means compressing 4 weeks of work into 3 weeks or even less.
For many, by the time the end of December rolls around, we are exhausted. And an extra long To-Do list plus being tired means higher-than-usual stress levels.
Finding ways to maximize the joy part of this season, whether you celebrate holidays this time of year or are simply looking forward to some time off as things slow down, means also investing time in strategies to manage stress.
Here are a few of my favorite ways to manage, and even try to enjoy, December:
1. Acknowledge that this time of year is hard.
The starting place for coping well with anything difficult, including the stress of being overly busy, is to acknowledge and embrace the reality of what is happening.
So pay attention to how you are feeling. Be honest with yourself.
If you can, talk about how you're doing with someone else too. It can be unexpectedly soothing when we experience pressure to feel a certain way, and then open up to someone we trust. When we feel seen and understood, we often then feel relief from sharing the experience and remembering that we're not alone.
2. Create a project plan.
Meeting our personal goals and achieving excellence in that sphere requires the same organization and clarity that we bring to our careers. I know for me, I've got a plan/ calendar for my cooking schedule, my holiday activities with my family, and my gift giving (with a clear budget drawn up in excel). Keeping track of multiple moving parts and achieving excellence across the board means having strong plans and systems in place.
And if you’re reading this thinking, “Nope nope nope that’s not me”, it’s never too late to start. Often when something doesn’t go well for me, I write out a plan for my future self that's like “Hey- this document exists to remind you just how bad that was. Here’s how to do it better next time!”. Then send yourself a calendar invite to read the document when you need it next year. Your future self and your cortisol levels will thank you.
3. Self-care. Rest. Fun. Whatever it is that works for you to recharge.
In the wise words of Viola Davis, “Sometimes you gotta be ambitious about rest. About nurturing your soul and your heart. You know, they say the only way to treat being overwhelmed is to do absolutely nothing. It’s in those spaces that you find who you are - that you connect with your life.”
Get clear on what restores you, and do that! See friends. Have adventures. Enjoy the parties. Or, if that's not your speed or you need some balance, carve out some "Me-time" before the new year starts to simply relax, enjoy a hobby you don't often have time for, or to just be.
4. Look for opportunities to infuse more joy into this time.
Laugh and embrace feeling lighter. I co-planned and co-facilitated the most wonderful retreat in Austin a couple of weeks ago with some dear frolleagues (friend-colleagues).
So many lessons came out of that weekend, and one powerful moment for me was my peers encouraging me to bring more humor into my everyday business activities. Their point was, "You're making us laugh. You should do that more at work." While I pondered this advice, a few also shared, "I need to laugh more. I can be too serious."
This led me down a rabbit hole of reflection and reading about humor, and the relationship between pain and joy. Heaviness and Levity. More to come on this in the new year, but for now, I'll say that the VIA Character Strengths Survey, which you can take for free here, classifies humor as "transcendence", a virtue they define as "a strength that helps you connect to the larger universe and provides meaning."
Humor can help us better understand what is happening in our lives while also providing us with a cathartic release, which is such a helpful companion during stressful times. Plus there are opportunities for humor nearly everywhere, since life is filled with absurdities!
Wishing you a wonderful December filled with joy, laughter - and even rest!
