It seemed the moment I’d closed the door behind the last of the trick-or-treaters, Santa Claus came knocking. I kid you not — About eleven p.m., October 31st, I saw my first holiday shopping commercial.
Now, normally I’d get indignant at the shamelessness of this practice, because it seems like instead of joy during the Holiday Season, all I feel is stress. And here were the Joneses already challenging me to keep up.
Luckily for them, I’d been doing some live research on aromatherapy at the time and, nicely mellowed by a jasmine candle, remembered vowing last year not to let the holidays drive me to Prozac.
Coping strategies. I needed coping strategies to extract some joy from “the most wonderful time of the year”. Of course, short of a modified beer helmet that would spray me with jasmine every ten seconds, things were looking pretty bleak.
So what are your strategies? Any tried-and-true methods to survive holiday stress?
Grabs paper bag and starts breathing into it
This year I’m gonna try the list thing. Here…soon, I’ll make a list on what I need to do. Who needs presents, what foods I’m responsible for and when and when I’ll be making cookies (so I can make sure all the ingredients are stocked and I’m not sending hubby out for vanilla in the middle of a football game).
But can’t I get through Thanksgiving first? Please?
—I gave up competing with the Joneses. If you win, there’s no trophy and the bragging rights really suck. You’d think there’d be a consolation prize or something, ya know?
My coping method is trying to remember the reason for the season. Somehow or other, in the mad buying freezy that erupts earlier every year, (I’m really surprised the merchants don’t start advertising around the fourth of July), remembering why we celebrate the holidays is important.
It’s just not about how much you can give or receive.
All the best…
Mary Eason
Ahhh, the sweet smells of sweat wafting about the air eminating from the lady you are wrestling for that last blouse in the discount bin at Old Navy. Now, that is aromatherapy !
There is a saying we use when we are training new umpires and officials for the sports programs we have here. “Let the play finish.”
That is my hint for you. Consider what you have to do to make the day go by, shopping; laundry; cleaning the house; beating the children, and throwing the husband out of the house for messing the clean cat box up. Uuhh,,wait, throw the cats out of the house and make the hubby clean the cat box. I knew I had the order somewhat reversed.
Then, once you have considered everything, make your to-do list. Most important-the first thing on your to-do list is to actually write down-“make a to do list”, then you can cross it off and actually feel like you have gotten something done. Then, take your nice neat to-do list and toss it in the trash. This is “letting the play finish”, you know what you have to do, and so just relax, enjoy the nuts around you, breathe some weird combination of pumpkin pie and lavender, and remember to say no to most things people want you to do. Except for me of course.