It’s the Holiday stress time when life can feel overwhelming with added social events and longer to do lists. The stress, anxiety and overwhelm can be minimalized if you take good care of yourself. With strategic planning and conscious monitoring of your energy and emotions, you will have a holiday that fulfills you instead of depletes you.
To help you navigate I’m sharing 5 Powerful Steps for Highly Sensitives to Kick Holiday Stress with tools to help you.
Here is what is causes highly sensitives holiday stress:
- overwhelmed – there are too much to do and too many places to be
- empathy – you’re feeling other people’s stress and anxiety as your own
- overstimulation – travel challenges, parties, too many people, not enough alone time, …
- run away creative mind – feeling disconnected or not safe around family or friends
- depleted energy – you dropped your self-care
- money worries
Boot holiday stress out of your life and fill you up with more joy, love, and connection.
Practice these 5 steps to kick stress this holiday season.
1. Don’t take things personally
When other people do, say or react remember, It’s not about you!
People who cut you off in traffic, bump into you and say stupid thoughtless things are stressed out and dealing with their own stuff even if they are intimate with you. Realizing this can relieve you of a tremendous amount of anxiety and stress.
When someone reacts or acts out, say to yourself, “It’s not about me!”
You are not the center of their universe, they are.
How people react and feel is the result of the “meaning” they put on an event. It has to do with what they believe about themselves and the world. People’s reactions are their responsibility and are a result of their beliefs, habits and childhood conditioning.
(Abuse is not to be tolerated, which is another matter that I’m not discussing here)
2. Take responsibly for your thoughts, emotions, and actions
You create how you feel. So choose the emotions you want to experience this holiday season and then think the thoughts that help to create those feelings. Create emotional intentions for your holiday season and plan out how to manifest them.
Let’s pretend you want a peaceful and fun holiday season. What thoughts and actions lead you to peaceful feelings? Do the same for feeling fun. Make a list of the thoughts and actions and start implementing them. Remember all of this creation starts with you first and then overflows into your world
Peaceful: Meditate and ground daily, attend Xmas-eve midnight mass and/or winter solstice gathering, spend time in nature, give myself plenty of time, only go to events that are meaningful to me, have clear boundaries, plan and structure for ease, know your limits, ask for and allow support, remove clutter from your environment and mind, don’t listen to news, spa day, aromatherapy bath… “I am peaceful, my life is filled with peace, what makes my life so peaceful?, I am so grateful for all the peace in my life,…”
Fun: Join a caroling group, attend only fun holiday parties, bake with your family/friends, make fun handmade gifts for friends, dance, dress up, give to people who don’t expect it, create new traditions, intimate dinner parties, decorate and celebrate… “My life is filled with fun, I am fun, I love having fun, Fun opportunities abound, what is making my life feel so fun, I am surrounded with fun and peaceful people, I will have fun this holiday…”
You have to choose what you’d love to experience and then create it through
your thoughts, feelings, and actions!
3. Take care of yourself energetically, mind, body, and spirit.
We are made of energy and we are receiving and projecting energy all day long. As energy beings, we are like radio towers tuning in on other people’s frequencies around us. We can pick up and own a lot of energetic information that is not ours. As HSPs you can pick up on other people’s feelings and moods (empathy) and take them on as your own. So it is really important to become conscious about clearing your energy field (your body and the space around you) and not taking on other people’s emotions.
Sign up to receive your Self Care Guide for HSP e-book if you haven’t already in the drop-down box for more help.
4. Plan your holiday
Set your intentions for your holiday experience.
Most people focus their attention on what they don’t want and end up having those terrible experiences become their reality. What you put your intention on expands.
Here a few examples:
There is too much to do vs I make time for the important things and let go of the rest, I have healthy boundaries.
I hate the holidays vs I love spending time with the people I deeply care for and celebrating life with them in a way that is authentic for me.
Socializing terrifies me vs I plan for events that matter to me and with whom I will spend my valuable time with.
Traveling overwhelms me vs I’ve learned how to travel so that I am comfortable, entertained and calm.
So, What will your holiday to feel like?
(grace, creative, joy, mellow, free, ease, flow, festive, celebration, grateful, mindful, loving, compassionate, abundant, happy, peaceful, divine, sacred, playful, traditional, loving…)
Journal about it and start vividly daydreaming what you want this holiday to be like.
Who do you want to spend your time with? How does it make you feel? Why?
What is important to you during this time? How does it make you feel? Why?
(traditions, connection, family, creativity, gift giving, celebration, spirituality, religion, caroling, socializing, cooking…)Where do you want to be? How does it make you feel? Why?
(families home, host from your home, snow, tropical, spiritual retreat, community, caroling, kitchen, church…)
What will you have to change in order to make this happen? Why is it worth it?
5. Take action to create what you want by making your self-care and desires a priority.
Visualize every morning and evening what you envisioned in Step 4. Feel the feelings and see yourself already doing, having and being what you dreamed up above.
Embody these emotions throughout the day. Make decisions and plans while you are feeling these emotions.
Stay focused on your intention, taking one step at a time expanding your emotions as if you’ve already achieved it and you love your life.
Happy Holidays!
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