How to Stay Calm During the Holidays

Despite the time of year, things get worse during the holiday season. Traffic sucks, people get rude, and money gets incredibly tight for a lot of families. It’s a challenge for many of us to know how to stay calm during the holidays. However, that doesn’t mean you have to follow suit and lose your cool. It’s not fair to you, your family, or anyone else for that matter. No one wants to have to deal with your attitude on top of everyone else’s drama during this beautiful time of year, so you have to make a solid effort to try and keep your cool if you can.

During the season, it seems like things are purposefully trying to frustrate you. Maybe you don’t fit into the dress from last year’s Christmas party or maybe your kids have a serious case of the gimmes, but that still doesn’t mean you have to unleash the fury that is bubbling inside. We all have it to a certain degree as we get more stressed and overwhelmed by upcoming holiday tasks and commitments. The pressure is on, we all feel it, and it’s incredibly hard to deal with in such a short period of time, but there are ways you can keep things under control the best of your ability.

Ways to Decrease the Frustration

• Exercise – If you don’t exercise on a regular basis, now is a great time to start. First off, it will help to stave off the holiday weight gain that comes with all of the extra food and sweet treats. Second, it gives you endorphins and they make you happy. Give it a shot and you may find your frustration easing away. If you’re already an exercise fanatic, change up your routine or try and push yourself a little bit harder (but not hard enough to hurt yourself). Watch the pounds and the anger melt away.

• Take Some Time – Sometimes a little time alone is you need to decrease your holiday anger. Take a drive in the car, walk extra slowly to the mailbox, or go grocery shopping very late at night or early in the morning. A quiet mind is aided by actual quiet, so force yourself to take some time to try and enjoy your life for a minute. Don’t take your kids, hire a sitter or leave them with a spouse. Make sure the time is completely alone, even if it’s just for ten minutes.

• Breathe – It sounds stupid like you’re going to forget to keep breathing, but at times when stress is imminent, we don’t take the big, deep, and cleansing breaths we need to clear our heads and our lungs. If you’re overwhelmed with how you’re going to pay for all the kids’ Christmas wish list items or you’re organizing the holiday extravaganza for your whole office, take a couple minutes to breathe it out. Breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth, slowly is sure to take some of the tension off.

• Do Something You Love – If you like to cook, cook your favorite meal and do it methodically. Take the time to carefully dice your veggies or shred the carrots for that fantastic carrot cake you make. If you like to knit, kill two birds with one stone and start making someone a homemade scarf for Christmas. Above all, enjoy yourself.

• Be Grateful – Remember at this time of year, there are many people who don’t have families to come home to, or they can’t be with the ones they love. Take the time to appreciate all of the good in your life and enjoy the simple things. Any harsh feelings you may be having will be hard to have if you’re taking the time to celebrate the good things you have.

It’s really easy to get frustrated this time of year, but it’s also really easy to overcome it. There are pretty easy ways to relax and get over yourself and the people around you, so take the time to do them and slow down a little. Enjoy the holiday season, despite everything that could be happening.