How to Slow Down During the Holidays

The holiday season is a very special time of year for many of us! But despite this being “the most wonderful time of the year” so many of us experience such stress! This is exactly the opposite of how we should be feeling! This is why I decided to come up with a few tips to slow down this holiday season, and make it the best it can possibly be!

1. Reprioritize

I think a lot of stress around the holidays comes from outside influences. With all the advertising everywhere you go, and even just from friends and family. Theres a lot of pressure around the gift giving. Not to say gift giving is all bad. It can be a absolutely wonderful way to show someone you care. However, our culture today has really seemed to push out the idea that getting lots of gifts is the main thing to focus on this season. Whether you’re financially in a place to get lots of gifts or not, this being your main focus can really dim spirits. I think the very fist step to enjoying the holidays more is to really think about what is important to you for this season. Is it the time you have with family, some way to celebrate your religion? Whatever it may be, really stop and think if what your stressing about actually has that big an impact on what you really care about.

2. Be more mindful of the gifts you’re giving

Of course many of us still want gift giving to be part of this season, which is wonderful! But being more thoughtful with the presents you do buy not only gives the sense of slowing down, and possibly saving you some money, but can mean a lot more to the person you’re giving it to! Thing I like to think about any time I am gift giving are:

• Would this be useful to the recipient?
• How long will this gift last?
• Is it something I know would bring the recipient long-term joy?
• Is it something they need, and if not will it just become clutter?
• Would I want to get this for them even if it wasn’t for the holidays?

These are just a few important questions to think about so that gift giving can go back to being a special act of love , and not just something to fuel consumerism.

3. Start new traditions

Its never to late to start new traditions! Traditions are something that you and your family have the opportunity to look forward to every year! You can have a few special traditions, or absolute tons! It can add some excitement and joy to the leading up of your holidays, and even afterward, opposed the excitement only being in one short moment.

4. Be present

A different type of present than we normally think of during the holiday season! Trying to be more present is a important step for slowing down any time of year, but I think its a great reminder during the holidays. It can be very exciting wanting to take photo opts with santa, or get those videos of opening presents underneath the tree. Capturing moments is very important to many of us, myself included! But that’s all it should be, is a moment. Take that photo or video as a keepsake, and then put the phone away. Posting about it to socials, or getting caught up in what other people are doing should not prioritize over the beauty of getting to experience thing in the right here and now.

5. Celebrate as a season, not a day

My final tip for slowing down during the holidays, is to really let it stretch out! Humans live on average 76 years, that means we only get to celebrate about 76 times in our life! Lets let ourselves enjoy it! That can be incorporating more traditions to do during the season as we previously talked about. It can also be just allowing yourself to not feel rushed to put it all away after the holiday is “done”. Take your time, don’t let all the magic go as quickly as it came. Some traditions could even be incorporated after the holiday just to keep the winter spirit alive!