The holidays are here! Can you believe it? Has it stressed you out yet? It is so easy to become overwhelmed during the last few months of the year, but I’m here to give you a few tips to decrease the holiday overwhelm! Before the holiday season gets too busy, and your mind and calendars are filled to the max, take a deep breath! Read these tips to make your holiday season the most enjoyable yet...less holiday overwhelm, more of what matters the most.  

Create Your Ideal Holiday

Figure out what would make your holiday perfect. List out all of the things, big and small, that would make you happy at each point of the season. Perfect gifts? Happy kids? Travel or no travel? You and your spouse might work together to ensure that your family balance is there as well. Once you have this ideal picture sketched out, decide which of those items are the most important to you. We all know the holiday parties, kids’ events, etc. will start to roll in. So if you have a list of the important things, you will be able to easily decide when to say yes and when to say no. It is okay to say, “thanks, but no thanks!” Do less and enjoy more!  

Shop Now!

Even though it seems early, start your list of important people and gifts to purchase. If you have the list created, by the time the chaos of the season starts you will have a plan in place. You may even have the majority of your gifts purchased and wrapped! In a recent article, I read that the average person spends an extra 60 hours of shopping during the holiday season. That is a lot of extra time to expect to schedule in December alone! Get started and maybe you will even get finished before then!

Stay Healthy

The added stress can easily derail your health in these busy months. Be sure to get 7-8 hours of sleep and keep eating healthy as much as possible. Use the holiday parties as an exception to enjoy the holiday foods. But eating healthy foods for most meals will help give you energy, beat the feeling of overwhelm and keep the illnesses away.  

Keep Exercising

Working out may feel like an extra stressor for you during such a busy season – just something ELSE to add on the calendar. I’m here to tell you: Squeeze it in! Maybe you can only fit in 20 minutes here and there, but I promise it’s worth it! Exercising can boost your mood for up to 12 hours, so this can really help your mental state and decrease the overwhelm caused by the holidays. Plus, using all of the other tips will give you a way to keep exercise on your holiday agenda.  

Forget Perfection

Perfection does not exist! For some reason, we feel the need to achieve perfection. But that doesn’t exist. No one is perfect, and no one expects you to be. We are going through this together, so let it go! Allow some things to not be perfect. I’ve had to let perfection go, and trust me it is so freeing!   Focus your energy on the people in your life, not the things. This will bring so much more happiness to your holidays, and every day!   I hope these tips can make some difference in your holiday months. If you are looking for a little more support, fun and encouragement, we would love to have you join us for our Anti-Healthy Holiday Challenge: Bad Moms Style. We won't be giving you the same old healthy tips you've heard before. We will focus on what most important this year while maintaining our sanity!   Get rid of holiday overwhelm, relax, enjoy and let’s do this together!