Don't Fall for the Busy-ness Ruse this Holiday Season

It's December. Your calendar is packed. You're making sure everyone else is happy. And you're running yourself into the ground again. Ugh!

 It’s the old Holiday Ruse: we think that the more we are doing, the more festive it is! The more that we make people feel happy, the happier we’ll be! The more, the more, the more…

Don’t fall for it.

We need to put ourselves first to be the very best for everyone else and that includes during the holidays. That doesn’t mean to stop feeding our toddlers first, or ignore our partners, but we can schedule breaks for ourselves to recharge and remember what really matters is time to think, breathe and heal from the unrelenting digital and very real life. If we don’t schedule it and prioritize it, it can easily fall off the list of what gets done.

The truth is, everyone is going to be just fine if you don’t make your 48-hour-long-process pecan pie this year, or if you don’t do the biggest tree, or (gasp) buy less small, junky presents, and spend on more meaningful shared activities. Everyone is going to be just fine. And if someone pipes up to tell you how disappointed they are, you can certainly invite them to take that item onto their own to-do list next year.

So if you are having any trouble thinking of ways to schedule your downtime, you might want to check out my video on creating a mental health night for yourself and put it on your list of priorities. The pecan pie can wait.