Sometimes meltdowns are completely unavoidable. In fact, I had one earlier today despite all of my planning, plotting and positive outlook. I was out of town for a couple of days and as often a side effect of vacations, I came back to more work than I really had energy. I started looking at my schedule for tomorrow, then the week and then the month. And that’s when it all came crashing down for me. My schedule felt like a straight jacket.
It was time to pull out my self-sustainability workbook. This is something I created for myself and also share with my patients when I sense that they are in overdrive. It helps to make clear the things that we are doing to recharge along with the energy draining tasks we drudge through. But this time as I started working, I noticed that I needed a special one for this time of year: holiday season.
I’ve talked with a few patients in the last week about how the holidays will affect their routines and all of them were dreading the upcoming months. For them, Thanksgiving and Christmas have lost their luster as they’ve become adults and are now in charge of hosting events and carrying out traditions they may not enjoy. Listening to the way they described it, I started to dread it, too. I’m in a similar, but different boat. I have a small family and no children or spouse, so there’s not much surrounding the holiday at all. In fact, I pine for the gaudy decorations, over indulging on Christmas cookies and dinner with distant relatives that tell bad jokes. Still, as a small business owner, the busy still exists.
This afternoon, I tweaked my regular self-sustainability guide to be geared toward the holidays. You’ll see a lot of the same questions, but this one asks you to reflect on what your most enjoyable holiday was like and to make space for this season to be less stressed, more energized and full of joy. Because let’s be honest, would anyone really even notice if you didn’t put up ALL the decorations or make the cranberry sauce?
Holiday Self-Sustainability Guide