Happy Holidays Everyone! The holidays are about having fun and spending time with family and friends. However, they can also be stress-inducing or even nerve-wracking for some people. It’s essential to take care of yourself when needed in this jolly time of year.
Most people spend time with their families and loved ones and celebrate the new year as a new beginning! It can be a lot of fun to have some quality time with your family because, during everyday life, work and responsibilities can get in the way of doing so.
When you are responsible for the organization of all the festivities or have to buy gifts for the entire family, it can be very stressful! And even if you are not responsible for organizing it all, maybe you have to go to four or more different Christmas and New Year’s parties, this can be quite overstimulating as well.
Therefore it is so important to take care of yourself during this eventful period. When you take care of yourself first, you will enjoy the holiday period much more. You will also be more enjoyable company for your family and friends because you can’t pour from an empty cup.
Let’s fill your cup! Here are 10 great self-care activities to recharge your energy and make you feel more joyful and less stressed during the holidays!
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10 Self-Care Activities to Fill Your Cup During The Holidays
1. Holiday Preparation
Depending on how much you need to do during the holiday period, being well-prepared will really help you to keep your stress levels under control. A good preparation starts with a brainstorming session. You need to know which things need to be done before you can fit them into your schedule.
Let me give you a few examples of things to include in your preparation. Decorating the house and Christmas tree can bring a cozy vibe to your home. Buying a tree and decorations should be done after the holidays so the prices will be a lot cheaper! Inviting family or friends to celebrate with you. Choosing and maybe even practicing to cook recipes to use on the big days. Buying gifts for your family and friends. And so on…
When you list everything that needs to be done, you can start writing it down in your planner leading up to the festivities. With a plan to follow, you won’t feel like you are missing things or forgetting about important stuff!
You should try to create a realistic plan because all the other duties of your normal day-to-day life won’t disappear in thin air.
Start on time with your holiday preparations so you can spread everything that you have to do and then the holiday period will be much less stressful. Trust me!
2. Healthy Routines – Exercise & Meals
We all know that eating healthy and exercising regularly is good for our general health. In the holiday period, these things can get overlooked pretty quickly as we don’t have much time left between all the preparations and the parties. Take care of yourself by sticking to your healthy routines as much as possible.
The meals that we eat at all these lovely parties are most likely to contain fatty and sugary foods, and that’s totally fine! You should indulge in these moments with family and friends and not worry about not getting all the vitamins you need. However, the time spent between Christmas and New Year’s parties is a good time to focus on eating more healthily. Your body will thank you for the fruits and veggies!
Next to getting these needed vitamins, it’s also important to give your body some kind of physical exercise. This can be gentle exercise like taking a walk or doing some yoga to stretch it all out or build a little muscle. Keep your body moving and you will feel better I promise! Yoga With Adriene even has a video for when you are hungover.
Alcohol is often a part of the holidays and it can be festive for celebrating together. But try to not overdo it so you won’t be hungover the next day. And if you did drink too much, be extra gentle with yourself and drink plenty of water to detox your body from all the alcohol it has to process.
3. Me-Time
During the holidays, we often think more about other people and we take care of them because we love them. You should take care of yourself as well, even more than normal during this period as it is a very busy time of year.
Me-time really means spending time by yourself doing what you enjoy most.
This can be reading a good book with a nice cup of tea while you sit on the couch. It could also be watching your favorite series or movie. If you enjoy making or listening to music you can spend some time doing only that. Spending some time in the kitchen cooking something you really enjoy or exploring new recipes can be it for you. Have a spa night or day at home or at a real spa. The list of fun things to do is endless.
You know what you like to do, plan some time for it in your agenda and enjoy it! You deserve this!
When you schedule some me-time, you will be more likely to not feel guilty for spending time just doing things you like instead of looking after other people. This way you can recharge your energy to enjoy the holiday period even more!
4. Sleep!
Getting enough and good quality sleep will help you to deal with all the extra stress during this time of year. For most people, it is best to get 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Some people need more, others less.
If you don’t get enough sleep, you will be more irritable and every task on your to-do list will feel so much more difficult to do. Take care of yourself by getting the amount of sleep you need to feel like an energized human being in the morning.
When you don’t get a good amount of sleep during the night, you could take a nap early in the afternoon to refill your tank during the day. This way you will have more energy to do some more tasks in the afternoon and evening if necessary.
With parties until late in the evenings, you should be able to stay in bed a little bit longer in the mornings. Enjoy your bed the morning after!
5. Quality Time With Loved Ones
Spending time with your loved ones, your family, and friends, is what the holiday period is all about. Genuinely connecting with people is one of the best feelings in the world. You can take care of yourself by spending time with others.
Having quality time with your best friend or a close relative can really recharge your energy. This can be as simple as meeting up at someone’s home and drinking a cup of coffee together or doing something more active that everyone enjoys. As long as you spend time with each other and enjoy each other’s company, that’s all that matters.
Quality time with your family can also mean having a nice long breakfast together or making homemade pizzas with everyone. There are no rules. Just relax and feel safe and happy with the company.
6. Treat Yourself To Something Nice
Buy yourself a Christmas present! It’s not that silly, and you will actually get something you truly love. You don’t have to wrap it but you can if you want to lay it under the Christmas tree and open it with everything else.
You also could combine Christmas present shopping with a shopping spree for yourself to find a new cute outfit or nice earrings to wear to parties.
Treating yourself doesn’t have to be expensive. It could also be treating yourself to a cup of coffee in your favorite cafe or having an at-home spa night. Cooking your favorite meal or ordering takeout so you don’t have to cook is also a great treat!
7. Set Boundaries
Assertiveness will come in handy when you are getting invitations from everywhere, and I mean everywhere! Your work, your friends, your family, your in-laws, the list goes on… If you want to have some energy left to enjoy the parties you really want to go to, it might mean saying no to other invitations. Don’t feel bad about this!
You deserve to enjoy the holidays as much as other people. Try to make compromises to make as many people happy as you can without sacrificing your own joy.
It could also help to delegate some of the responsibilities you have to do to other members of the family or friends. This way, not everything is on you and everyone will help and do their part of the organization. Take care of yourself!
When you organize a Christmas party at your house, you can do all the cooking but you don’t have to. You could think of ordering meals from a catering service or eating something that allows you to spend time at the table like table-top grilling or fondue. You don’t have to spend the entire party working in the kitchen!
8. Regular Breaks
As you are working hard during your day job, organizing and going to parties, you might get exhausted pretty quickly. That’s why taking regular breaks will help you recharge your batteries before you fully run out of energy.
When you are shopping for presents or doing holiday preparations at home, think about having breaks as well.
Taking a break by scrolling through your phone watching TikTok or your Instagram feed won’t count as you will still send stimuli to your brain. You need to give your brain some rest by doing some breathing or stretching exercises, looking at nature, and being still.
Also, take care of yourself with this healthy habit during your everyday life. Nobody can stay focused for a very long time without taking breaks.
Get a cup of tea or coffee and drink it mindfully or eat a healthy snack. Have a power nap or close your eyes for a few moments. Recharge your energy!
9. Cozy Night In
During the winter we are more likely to stay in than to get out of the house every night for fun activities. Organize a cozy night by planning it with your family or having some cozy me-time can also do wonders for relaxation.
Prepare for this night by buying or making snacks, and drinks. Pick a show or movie to watch. Maybe you could play board games if your family or friends are into that as well, this can be very fun and a great bonding time. You could also have a game night playing video games with your friends.
Add a cozy blanket, some candles, and a hot beverage and you can start to de-stress.
10. Mindset Shift – Stop Perfectionism
You should take care of yourself not only physically but also mentally and emotionally. Your mindset plays a big part in how you feel in your everyday life.
How much stress you experience goes hand in hand with the expectations you have for the holidays.
What do you find most important during the holidays? Is it only spending time with family or do you have specific traditions that you want to follow? Do you have to buy presents for everyone or is organizing a Secret Santa perhaps a good idea? This is more budget-friendly and is less of a hassle to get the right presents for everyone.
When you know your key values and the things that are most important to you and your family, you can focus on those things and don’t stress about everything else. This will help you to feel less overwhelmed.
Don’t forget the purpose of Christmas. It’s not that the turkey is perfect or you are the best dressed at the party. Those things are fun if they go well but they are not worth stressing about for days. It’s about enjoying time together with your loved ones. That’s it. How you do this shouldn’t matter.
Another important thing to mention is that when someone isn’t feeling very well, they shouldn’t be forced to put on a facade. If you feel like shit, you should be able to do what is best for you, do the thing that makes you feel better even if this means staying home.
Conclusion
Take care of yourself any time of year but even more during the busy holiday period! When you don’t take the time to take care of yourself, you won’t enjoy this jolly time of year as much as you should.
Looking after yourself is equally if not more important than taking care of others so make yourself a priority.
There are so many ways to practice self-care so try them out and see which things help you to become the best version of you can be.
How are you looking after yourself this busy time of year?
Happy holidays lovely people!!