Ease up on yourself this Christmas.

For many of us, today marks the end of the work year and the start of the festive season. I love Christmas as it’s the time to be with my family and friends, go for swims, explore, sleep in, eat delicious food, and most importantly live my days with absolutely no agenda!

However, holiday season can also bring about a sense of stress, anxiety, or overwhelm for a lot of people. We can end up worrying about managing everybody else’s needs or expectations, fretting about how much weight we are gaining, or feeling guilty about relaxing when we could be ‘working’ on something.

Now you’ve probably been reading lots already about keeping routines in place, maintaining an exercise regime, and eating in moderation to balance out your moments of indulgence, so I thought I’d offer up something a bit different, which is simply ‘Ease up on yourself’.

I invite you to let go of the pressures and expectations.

• Stop all the doing and busyness, turn off your social media and email notifications, and have some genuine holiday time.
• Connect in with yourself and your loved ones, play, laugh, indulge, and I dare you to be ‘un-productive’ for a few days…allow yourself to be 100% present in the moment.

By easing up on yourself and giving yourself the time-out to be alone and around the ones you love, it will remind you of how simple life can actually be, and how great it feels to value the parts of life that are most important to you.

My Quick tips to help you ease up this summer:

1. Ease up on the to-do-list:  We can fill our time up with ‘to-do’s’ which adds unnecessary pressure and stress. If you have a list of ‘things’ to do get them out of your head and write them all down on a piece of paper. Look at the list and highlight all the ones you think are non-negotiables or urgent tasks, and strike out the rest. Once you have a list of non-negotiables ask yourself ‘Will my world stop turning if I don’t do this over the Christmas break?’ If the answer is yes then that’s ok, keep them on the list and set some time aside (30 to 60mins) each day where you can chip away at it. But if the answer is no then put the list to the side, grab a wine, and enjoy your break knowing that you will get on to it at the start of the year.
2. Ease up on expectations:  Listen out for the shoulds, musts, and haves that creep into your internal and external dialogue and question these. Do these rules and expectations you’ve set for yourself serve you? - Must you really? Do you have to? Should you? For fun try swapping these words out with ‘want to’ and see how it makes you feel. The biggest expectations we set over Christmas is our expectations of others – particularly with our family members. We all do it, even if you’re aware of it or not. We have set expectations around what we think others should be doing, or what they should be saying, which can lead to stress or frustration for all involved. As the age old saying goes ‘we can’t change others, only ourselves’ so ease up on them and you do you. Sure, others may not always act in ways you agree with, but don’t let their attitudes and behaviours undermine yours.
3. Ease up on technology:  This one is my favourite. Unplug and unwind over the break and give yourself the opportunity to connect in with yourself and others – not the wifi.

I always believe in starting how you intend to finish, and I think starting by easing up on yourself and valuing what is most important to you, will set you up for a purposeful and energised start to 2018!

Happy Holidays lovely people!

Sarah x