Heyyyyyy, Hyper minds!
If you’re anything like me, the holidays bring with them a whole lot of fun, excitement, and joy…but also a lot of stress, FOMO, and beating ourselves up for our procrastinating ways. Well, this year, I’m here to encourage you to let go of some of the things. YES, for real. I don’t mean not decorating the house or buying gifts, but letting go of anything that brings you more stress/anxiety than joy.
FIRST AND FOREMOST, my main goal for this post is to show you that your brain doesn’t deserve for you to beat yourself up mentally during what should be an awesome time of year. I know, I know – it comes from a good place. The place of setting sky high expectations upon yourself, and then hating yourself when you can’t reach that peak. We all do it! We can’t fix things overnight, but what I beg of you, is that the next time you start that awful negative self talk, try and stop yourself – take a deep breath, and compliment yourself! Tell yourself that you’re doing a great job, and it’s okay that things get messed up sometimes. Then move on with a little more empathy for yourself.
OK back to the main program! So how do you know what things bring you more stress than joy?! Make a list, baby!!!! Or, if you’re a math nerd like me, you make an Excel Spreadsheet 🙂
Make three columns. First one is for the activity name/description. Title the second column “Joy!”, and title the third column “Stress”. Now, fill out column one with literally everything you think you want to or should do this time of year (as extensive as you want!) Next, fill out the Joy column with a number from 0-5, zero meaning it brings you NO joy, and 5 being MAXIMUM JOY. The key to this part? Being 100 percent honest with yourself. NO JUDGEMENT ZONE HERE. When you get through that one, go do the same system for column 3 with 0 being NO STRESS, and 5 being MAXIMUM STRESS. Get the picture? Take your time and fill everything out. When you’re done, go back and look at everything. The comparisons might suprise you!
Now it’s the fun part – anything on your list where the stress outweighs the joy, those are the ones you’re going to skip. Full stop. No feeling bad about it! Highlight them in red, cross them out, or delete them altogether. Next, take the things that are left and open up your calendar for the month. It’s already December 4th, so there isn’t as much time as we may think there is for ALL the things. Go through and literally schedule the things you have left onto the calendar. This will help you see if it’s realistic! This one helped me SO much. It also made me look up the dates and times of events in town i wanted to attend, and actually put them on the calendar because I am notorious for missing them simply because i forgot the date.
See where this is helpful yet? Feel free to put even small moments on that calendar – like “watch a Hallmark Christmas movie in my PJ’s” so that you don’t miss out on any of the things you love. For me, this method truly helps alleviate the guilt that plagues me constantly. I tell myself that if i just was more organized or planned better i could have DONE IT ALL! But with this method, now I know that isn’t realistic and just a weird fantasy LOL.
This method helped me have a much happier and healthier November, so I hope that it helps you, too – and if you get busy and need to move things around, THAT’S OKAY TOO! That’s why i personally use a google calendar for this so that i can easily drag and drop my plans around. It’s fantastic.
Want to go a step further? Go over the things you have left with your kids and/or spouse. See if THEY enjoy them as much as you might think they do. This process helps them get involved, and feel heard. It may get rid of things you thought everyone loved but they actually don’t, making your month even more relaxing.
I hope this helps some of you feel less pressure for this magical month, and enjoy it a little bit more. REMEMBER: you are awesome, kind, and SO MUCH FUN! Your super power is the JOY you find, the JOY you create for others, and the FUN you bring to the table – being able to let go of some things will allow you to lean into this power, and be more present for those moments, too.
Want to see my list? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll share!
Love you all! Happy December!
xoxo – Jena
