How To Prevent Holiday Stress

For some people, the holidays are their absolute favorite time of the year. For others, the holidays are positively dreaded for a range of reasons-- including an increase in stress, anxiety|, and even depression.

So what are the best methods of helping yourself, and others around you, to efficiently deal with the holiday blues? Let's first take a look at simply how the holidays can have a detrimental effect on so many of us; the following is a brief list of just some of the most frequently seen symptoms of holiday anxiety and the holiday blues.

• Feeling overwhelmed
• Depressed
• Irritable
• Fatigued
• Feeling drained emotionally
• Disrupted sleep patterns
• Feeling anxious, uptight, or otherwise on edge

You don't have to dread the holidays; there are excellent methods of coping through these complicated couple months so that you can approach them using much healthier coping techniques. Of course, the strategies that you utilize will definitely vary considerably based upon the underlying reasons for your holiday blues.

Let's take a look at some of the things that might just be contributing factors to the way that the holiday season affects you.

• Too much tension in the work environment
• Feeling pressured to host the perfect holiday events
• Drinking in excess as a method of coping
• Financial anxiety associated with the expectations so many have of presents, entertaining and travel
• Deviating from our regular routines
• Unresolved problems with family members with whom you have to spend time
• Traveling out of town, out of state, or even out of the country -- travel can be hugely demanding, especially when traveling with kids

Fortunately there are multiple things that you can do in purchase to decrease the overall tension degrees and aid you get with this once-dreaded season with a much better attitude and feeling about it.

• Try to limit your alcohol consumption; it might help initially to take the edge of off stress and anxiety but it can take a substantial physical toll on you when you overindulge.
• You should do the utmost to maintain a healthy diet that is well-balanced.
• Try to keep yourself and your kids on as regular a routine as possible; interrupting the routine can leave everyone tired and cranky.
• Be sure that you take a couple minutes out of the day to do a few helpful stress-relief meditations.
• Keeping up with your exercise routines can also be hugely valuable.
• Try not to place so much pressure on yourself to host the perfect events; do not be afraid to ask for a little bit of support.
• Be realistic about how much time you can devote to events, gatherings, and additional holiday festivities-- say NO! And turn down some of them if you simply don't have the time.
• Also be realistic about the finances-- if you can not manage to purchase presents for everybody in the family then you should have a conversation with everyone about more economical methods of managing the gifts situation. Setting a spending limit can also make a huge difference.

You have the ability to control how you approach the holidays. A bit of careful planning that includes taking a bit of time for yourself to combine healthy and balanced methods for dealing with worry, will help you to sail through the holidays with ease. Don't forget the value of meditation, simplifying and sticking to your exercise routine.

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Kaylee Murphy is a psychotherapist who helps people manage and reduce stress inorder to have more joy, freedom and better health. To get her free ebook so you can learn easy and clever stress reduction techniques visit her website today =====> http://www.kayleedmurphy.com/

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