Beat Festive Stress: 3 Powerful Strategies for Conquering Christmas Chaos

Termed the most wonderful time of the year, it's debatable for many of us, right?

I’m hearing from clients right now comments like: “Head down,” “Just get to Christmas,” or “I’ll deal with it next year.” The inertia experiences relate to their tiredness and the reality we still have left to do before we can sit down with a mince pie.

The competing polarities of tiredness and busyness cause us to overtax ourselves, and the resulting outcome is we move from one thing to another with little thought of our energy, our capacity or even what we want to do. Essentially we exist or another way of describing this is we are in survival mode...just trying to get through it all. Surely there is a better way to steer clear of festive fatigue and safeguard our well-being during this festive season?

Here is some simple guidance on how to move through the challenges and retain a little bit of energy for you.?

Beating Festive Burnout: Tackle the Christmas Overwhelm

Tune In To The Feels Signals: There's no right or wrong emotion, only signals to guide our responses. However, we often miss the signs, brush these signs off, or morph them into something different. But a great technique that neuroscience proves is a keeper of a tool is naming your emotions—calling out whether you're feeling worried, overwhelmed, fearful, helpless, insecure, sad, or out of control—is crucial for your well-being.?

Recognising the specific emotion helps determine the right response. Each label gives a clue on how to handle the feeling and creates a moment to reassess and separate yourself from emotional responses, easing the overwhelming intensity instead of being unknowingly governed by them. Studies even show that merely identifying your emotions lessens their hold on you. Regularly practising this can dial down distress and build emotional resilience. So, next you experience a Christmas curveball, remember to the emotion out by name (don't assume it is just stress).

Evaluating Priorities Based On Values & Creating?Memories: Caught in the festive frenzy? Feeling stretched thin? Too often, we ditch our abilities to plan and prioritise for a 'yes-to-all' attitude. We cram way too much in and it lessens our ability to enjoy any of it - we are just surviving.

The festive season is just like any big project we focus on what genuinely matters, what gets us nearer the goal and allocate our time and energy effectively. Not only does this ease stress, but it may even carve out some space for joy.

Throughout my coaching career, I've seen perfectionists struggle especially this time of year and have witnessed the power of reconnecting with our values, considering who's important and understanding what needs to be done to make things happen helps with the need to be perfect. It's more of a reframing from perfect to what really matters such as making meaningful connections, creating joyful memories or taking time out and relaxing from a busy year.

Meaningful Micro-Moments: We’ve heard how reflecting on our past experiences can be incredibly beneficial to our well-being. BUT...finding the time for it can prove challenging and knowing how to reflect is just as challenging. So in the run-up to Christmas, rather than focus on the to-dos take a mini moment to reflect.?

It doesn't have to be an enormous task- nipping to the shop, sitting in a traffic jam or taking a few extra minutes to go to the bathroom can be used to ponder and mull. Try holding one of these questions in your mind whilst washing hands, boiling a kettle, or wrapping a gift is an opportunity to reflect and connect with the year. Here are three powerful questions to try:

• How has 2023 treated you?
• What has mattered or what created meaning for you in 2023?
• What or even who brought you happiness in 2023?

Adopting Different Tactics?

Fostering awareness of emotions, taking time for thoughtful reflection, and setting thoughtful priorities can be immensely helpful strategies to maintain calm and enjoy this lovely yet challenging season. These approaches have been proven to foster mental well-being, helping us navigate Christmas merriment and stress alike with grace, mindfulness, and joy, which sounds better than just surviving.

My name is Asha Ghosh, and I coach leaders to find out how they can thrive and be impactful and find new ways to succeed whilst having clear boundaries with their team, their home life and most importantly their wellbeing.

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