Don’t let Christmas stress get the better of you this year
Here we are at the beginning of December, and you’d need to have been living under a rock for the last six weeks to be unaware that Christmas is fast approaching.
Whether you celebrate Christmas as a religious festival or not, there’s no doubting it’s a time of year when the world feels a little kinder and a little more inclined to good cheer than it perhaps does at other times.
But it’s also a time of year that tends to bring more than its fair share of stress and anxiety, and this year that pressure feels like it’s been dialled up even more as we try to compensate for last year’s festive period spent in partial lockdown.
This year I can sense a tangible upshift in the amount of pressure people are putting themselves under to make this Christmas extra special, and there’s a risk that all this will do is make the stress and anxiety trigger just that little bit more volatile.
The reality is that even in normal times the very nature of the season, for all its twinkling lights and bon homie, makes it very difficult for reality to live up to the expectations we place on the holidays.
When we now add the pursuit of a storybook Christmas into the mix, the potential for stress and anxiety to boil over becomes very real.
If you look at this logically, none of it really makes any sense, because people plough huge amounts of effort, time and thought – not to mention disproportionate amounts of money – into a single day of the year.
For those who observe the season, it is often an expensive and stressful time of the year.
Yet, I have spoken to many people over the course of 2021 who told me that last Christmas was in many ways calmer and more enjoyable because the expectations they had were suddenly redundant.
The traditional big family gatherings would not take place. There would be fewer people with whom to exchange those carefully selected gifts. The table didn’t need to creak under the weight of food we would never have been able to eat anyway. There were no parties to go to, no events to be shoehorned into already busy schedules.
Lots of us also discovered that spending time in close company with immediate family over Christmas – something that has often been a source of strain at Christmas – was actually pretty easy because we’d been doing it all year anyway, and we’d already worked out how to co-habit again.
In 2020, we all experienced a far simpler, stripped back Christmas. For lots of people it became a pleasantly surprising opportunity to relax, free from the pressure of hurrying from one day or thing to the next. And that reduction in pressure translated into a reduction in stress.
It can surely be no coincidence, for example, that the first working Monday of 2021 – known in the legal world as Divorce Day due to the post-Christmas spike in divorce petitions – saw far fewer legal instructions than in any other year since records began.
But this year it feels like we have already forgotten that amid the disappointment of last year’s festive season, there were actually some positives. Instead, there is a widespread sense that we have something to make up for.
So, how do we enjoy this festive season without getting sucked into the pressure of trying to make it completely perfect (always assuming, of course, that the emergence of the new Omicron variant doesn’t derail Christmas again altogether).
Here are some tips on how to dial down your own stress and anxiety whilst also making your time over the coming season as enjoyable as possible.
Prioritise your own wellbeing
Whether it’s meditation, yoga, mindfulness, reading a book or magazine, or simply binge-watching that show on Netflix that you’ve not had time for this year, make sure you look after your own emotional health.
Acupuncture is fantastic for either de-stressing, or protecting yourself from the effects of stress. And as a holistic treatment, it also helps to address other mental and physical health imbalances by resetting your natural life force energy.
Be realistic about what you can achieve
If you keep a to-do list, you’ve probably found it gets longer and more difficult to manage at this time of year.
Why not go through whatever list you have and separate everything into two categories – the things you absolutely have to do, and the things that are nice to have. Make the ‘nice to have’ list a bonus list. In this way, you’ll also be re-setting your expectations.
Turn down some invitations
You don’t have to go to every party or event you’re invited to. If saying yes to something means you’re going to end up racing around trying – and possibly failing – to do something you absolutely need to do, why not just politely decline and save yourself the stress?
Everything in moderation is okay
There’s no rule that says you have to have seven types of vegetable done seven different ways on Christmas Day. If you cut your gift budget by 20 percent and save yourself some money and the stress of finding so many presents, will anyone really notice?
The word ‘no’ is your friend
It’s healthy to say no sometimes. But it’s hard to do that at this time of year. However, sometimes it’s not another person you have to say no to; it’s yourself. If you find yourself buckling under the pressure to do a million and one different things, try telling yourself ‘no’ and reframe your own expectations.
You’ll be amazed at how liberating that is.
Over the coming weeks, the demands on our time are going to be more significant than they were last year. But the impact of stress and anxiety on your emotional and physical health can be highly damaging.
By understanding where your own stress triggers are, and making a plan to deal with it, there’s a good chance you’ll be mind-fit and ready for whatever the season throws at you.
If you’d like know more about how acupuncture can help you to combat stress and anxiety – no matter how severe or mild – or you’d like to book a consultation, please get in touch. I’d love to hear from you.