Twelve Tips for Holiday Bliss: Part 2
By
Vicki Hinze
If you haven’t yet read Twelve Tips for Holiday Bliss, Part 1, you can find it HERE. Let’s continue now with the remaining six tips!
7. START YOURSELF A SIGNATURE TRADITION. If a specific task stresses you out, turn it into something else—like your own signature tradition. Let’s say you cook a huge meal on Christmas Eve for a ton a people and then you rise early on Christmas morning and cook another huge meal. That stresses you. You could start a signature tradition of making the Christmas Eve meal a potluck buffet. Or of buying Christmas dinner already prepared (most grocery stores, caterers, and many restaurants do this) and you serve it at home. Or cook early and freeze it, then thaw and heat. Do something to change things so you’re less jammed and more relaxed. Maybe the only traditions you have of your Christmases are memories of visits to grandma’s. Start one of your own. One that makes you happy, makes those who live with you happy.
8. TALK THROUGH IT—SOLUTION-STYLE. Emotions run high during the holidays. Don’t let them build. Find someone you trust and talk through them, stating the challenge or problem but focusing on solutions. When you focus on solutions, you feel empowered, more in control of the outcome. And that brings calm, order in your mind, and peace.
9. REMEMBER THAT NO IS A COMPLETE SENTENCE. We’re maxed out and get pleas from many to do more and we just can’t but we don’t want to hurt feelings so we don’t say no. Say no. When you can’t give something what it needs to be successful yet agree to take it on anyway, you’re not helping, you’re hurting that which you were supposed to help. If you can’t give your best, just say no. That’s not a license not to pull your weight when you should, and if you can, do. But there are always times when we just can’t do one more thing. And we best serve others, whatever the project is, and ourselves by admitting that we have limitations and honestly say no. It’s far worse to take on a project and do a shoddy job than to say no to taking on the project.
10. GIVE YOURSELF THE GIFT OF BEING PRESENT. Yes, you’ve got sixty things to do and limited time to do them. But if you flutter, what you do will take longer. Quality will suffer. And you’ll enjoy nothing. So whatever you’re doing, when you’re doing it, focus on it, be present in that moment, and find joy in the doing whatever you’re doing. That joy in what you’re doing is your gift. It’s being present.
11. DITCH YOUR SUPER BEING CAPE. You’re a mortal man or woman, not a superman or woman, and you can’t be all, do all, know all for all. Know it. Accept it. Be at peace with it. You do your best at what you do, and you choose to be content with that. This doesn’t mean you don’t try new things or aspire to whatever you consider more worth doing. It means when you’re overtaxed, teetering on the edge of exhaustion for tackling too much in too short a time, you see it and ditch your super cape. It doesn’t fit—and you’re fine with that. The key to bliss is to do what you do well—that includes dreaming well and aspiring well. You balance with realistic expectations. A brain surgeon doesn’t do surgery before med school, right? You do what you can do as you can do it—and do it well.
12. BE GENTLE. With yourself, with others, with everything. It’s easy to have a short fuse, to be impatient. But it is more aligned with the holidays and with your bliss to pause and take a couple deep breaths rather than wag a sharp tongue. Lengthen your fuse and remember that you’re not the only one with so much to do, or who is struggling. Others are, too. So be gentle. You’ll spend less time upset with yourself for not being kind or gentle and feel good about having the self-discipline to control your emotions. A drop of kindness spreads like ripples in water. You can smile because your little effort of being gentle could start a trend!
These are the twelve tips for holiday bliss—and I wing them to you on the wish that your holiday season be blessed and your personal best . . . so far.
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