Thanksgiving is here, and then it’s a busy December with holiday parties, family/work events, gift buying, food preparation. Yikes! I bet your life was already busy without all these extra events and tasks to do!

How to manage it all without it taking a toll on your energy level and giving you extra anxiety?!

Here are some of my ‘go to’ ideas when overwhelmed at holiday time:

• Write down a list of everything you need to do.
• What is the absolute minimum that needs to be accomplished? What can wait?
• Prioritize, and rank order your ‘to do’ items.

By prioritizing the most important things to do & blocking them out on your calendar, you now have an ACTION PLAN.

Now…… How do you FEEL about your Action Plan?
Write down your emotions & thoughts about it.
For example, are you scared you don’t have enough time?
Do you have thoughts like:
“I’ll never get this all done?!”
“It’s impossible?!”

Create new ‘coping’ or ‘balancing’ thoughts to focus on, such as:

• I can get it done bit by bit.”
• “Everyday I can get a little bit more done.”
• “It is doable.”
• “I have a plan of action to help me.”
• “I can ask for help. I can ask more people coming to dinner to bring a dish.”

Lastly, sit down and breathe.

Breathe into knowing you wrote out your action plan. Breathe into the feelings you have about the holidays. Breathe into your coping thoughts. Notice as you breathe into all of these things, notice what happens. Do your feelings intensify, stay the same, or do they diminish?

Try these out and let me know if it helps reduce stress during the holidays.

For more ideas on managing holiday stress, check out this article from the Cleveland Clinic:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/managing-holiday-stress