After hosting HTC10, I’ve been hunkered down in front of the fireplace studying with a cuppa tea and snoring pugs nearby.
Four years of grad school followed by 3,000 hours over two and a half years has led me to this final part on my psychotherapy journey: the social work licensing exam. You know, no pressure!
As I spend the next week immersed in study guides and rewriting concepts onto my pink legal pads, I’d appreciate any good vibes you can send. Standardized tests make me a little less than tranquil.
Considering this time of the year is filled with so many activities, obligations, and requests, I wanted to share a few tips to infuse your holiday hustle with ease.
During our recent (and very first) Facebook Live Event, I focused on Holiday Tranquility and below you’ll find a smattering of the suggestions:
- List everything on your mind: groceries, gifts, cards, decorations
- Review the list for your MITs (Most Important Tasks) and cross off what isn’t a must, see choices
- Make self-care a priority: sleep, exercise, water, healthy food
- Breathe deeply and place your hand over your heart to calm the nervous system
- Stack like with like tasks
- Reflect on your year
- Watch for triggers: over-doing, perfectionism, loneliness, unrealistic expectations, feeling trapped, overeating/drinking, negative comments
- Unplug
- Embrace simple pleasures: read, sit fireside, sip hot cocoa
- Help others: volunteer, donate, reach out
- Travel lightly
- Get outside
- Practice mindful eating and drinking
- Try monochrome decorations = easier and artsy
- Gift DIY/consumables (in 2013 I ran a four-part series with DIY ideas): bath salts, lavender body oil, jam, sugar scrub, dried potpourri, simmering potpourri, homemade granola, soap, embroidered handkerchiefs, candles
- Stick with a routine
- Consider the meaning of the holidays
- Abandon old customs that don’t resonate
May your holidays be filled with meaning, deep breaths, and ease. Thank you for being such a joyful part of mine! Bisous. x
