cathy33December 7
Under Schedule
This time of year we tend to overschedule ourselves, never mind that are lives are most likely already overscheduled to begin with. Burdening an already over scheduled life with more overscheduled holiday chores, responsibilities and festivities.
Overscheduling leads to stress, anxiety, unhappiness, frustration. All of this causes you to not enjoy the holidays at all. It deflates your holiday spirit.
Too enjoy the holidays and get into and stay in the holiday spirit you need to actually under schedule all the activities that come your way.
Schedule and Prioritize making sure you schedule time for yourself, but also leaving empty spaces in your schedule. Empty spaces will give you flexibility to either take some much needed alone or quiet time or join in an activity that you weren’t sure about at first but now sounds like fun.
Write down all the things that you need to do, think you need to do, feel obligated to do, and of course want to do.
Go over the list, what must you absolutely do. Is there anything you think you need to do but really don’t want to or don’t absolutely need to?
What obligations do you enjoy or make you feel good or are important to your values?
Determine what events you will enjoy and are necessary for you to attend.
Eliminate events and activities that you don’t enjoy. If you can get help or have someone else handle a task, or chore relating to any of your obligations or responsibilities than ask for help. Same goes for things that you do not enjoy that need to be done, maybe someone else would love to do it because they do enjoy it!
And remember you can always say “No”. You don’t need an excuse or a reason.
You want a balance of activities that are a priority to you and honor your values such as family, faith, work/career, health and well-being. As well as a balance between social events, family events, and your own personal self-care needs.
