Christmas and New Year’s is supposed to be the season of joy, happiness, family, and fun but what happens if you are feeling depleted? A lot of us are struggling with the journey this year has brought and just because it’s the holidays, it doesn’t mean to say those struggles go away. Taking care of your wellbeing through the holiday break is important and so is investing some energy back into yourself.
Here are 5 tips on how to take care of your wellbeing throughout the holidays.
- Stick to your feel-good routines
School holidays, Christmas and New year celebrations can easily throw our normal routine out the window. Although this can be a great time to spend with family and friends we can also feel out of balance without a routine.
If you are the type of person that tends to do better with a structured routine, think about what would make you feel good over the holiday break. Is regulating your body clock, going to sleep at the same time each night, or having regular meals at the same time each day helpful to you? Maybe you want to shake up your routine by having feel good rituals like going for a walk each morning or staying in bed and reading a book. Even if you don’t typically gravitate towards having a strict schedule, having a routine can be helpful in maintaining your mental health and wellbeing. Routines provide structure and can give you a sense of control and satisfaction.
2. Ask for help if you need it
Christmas can feel like you are constantly running around with so many duties to complete leading up to festivities and on the actual day. Especially when we have high expectations of ourselves to buy the perfect gift, cook the most delicious dinner and make sure everyone is enjoying themselves. Factor yourself into the picture and remember if you tend to go it solo, you are allowed to delegate and ask for help! If you don’t like asking people for help, are there little things other people can do to lighten the load?
3. Practise gratitude
The holiday break can be the perfect time to stop and smell the roses. Pause and take in everything that happened throughout the year and acknowledge you made it. Practising gratitude and being thankful can help generate positive feelings. It helps us find the treasures during hard times and it can be a good reminder of all the wonderful things we have in our lives.
Are you thankful for spending time with a particular person? Are you thankful for having some peace and quiet away from work? Are you thankful for the beautiful walk in nature you just had? Write down a few things that you have felt grateful for as part of your self-care ritual.
4. Reset from rushing
With parents, kids, extended family and friends, the holiday period can be a crazy busy time. Travelling between people’s houses, making sure you have everything you need from the supermarket and last minute shopping, it can easily turn into a big rush.
If you find you always end up rushing around after everyone, schedule in time to be still. This could be any activity where you can take your time and there is no pressure to get it done and you don’t have to rush onto the next thing. It could be taking a walk on the beach, watching Netflix, having an afternoon nap, basically anything that does not have to be completed or have a time deadline on it. Rushing can activate our nervous system and put us into survival mode. When we make time to slow down and push pause we give ourselves the chance to reset.
5. Do something that you would normally be too busy to do
Is there something that you’ve been meaning to do, but you just haven’t had time for it? Have you been studying hard all year and you haven’t done any reading for fun? Have you been meaning to get to your garden, but time keeps slipping away. The holiday period might be the best time to complete one of these activities and give you a sense of accomplishment. It can be really satisfying to finally get to something you have been wanting to do for a long time.
Christmas and New Year can be a wonderful time to relax, have fun and reconnect but it’s important to take care of your wellbeing too. It’s been a long year for many of us and we have hit the ground running after the last two years of the pandemic. So, this holiday period, do what’s right for you and your wellbeing. You deserve it!