By the end of the year everyone is looking forward to a
break over the holiday season. Most of us look forward to spending time with
our children, our family and our friends. But one part of the holiday season
which no one looks forward to is added stress. Stress is a reaction to
perceiving a situation as threatening or troublesome. Stress over the holiday season can arise from lots of
different situations. There are the financial stressors that may come at this
time; families coming together and old conflicts or difficult relationships may
be exacerbated; and there may be extra work to do for Christmas parties or long
travel to visit families. Stress
is well-known to have a range of physiological and psychological impacts: it
can make us more susceptible to annoying colds and headaches, and can also lead
us to feel irritable, tired and down.
The good news is that psychological research has provided us
with real ways that can help us reduce our stress over the holiday season! Here
are three great tips to reduce stress over the festive season:
1. Share tasks around
One of the most common sources of stress is through taking
on too much or overburdening: the result of there being too many jobs to
realistically complete (Kumar, 2014). While overburdening is most frequently
discussed in the context of the workplace, it is also relevant to the busy
festive season.
Rather than one or two family members taking on the
responsibility of preparing a large amount of the Christmas celebrations,
sharing the load between a larger number of family members can reduce any sense
of overburdening. There are lots of ways that you can share around responsibilities
at Christmas, including dividing up the food shopping between extended family
members, and splitting present buying based on extended family member
locations.
Sharing the responsibilities leading up to Christmas can
help to reduce the feeling of overburdening and also promotes a sense of
inclusion and responsibility between family members.
2. Be aware of relationship problems
We all can’t get along with everyone, and conflicts between
immediate and extended family members are a common source of stress around the
festive season.
To reduce stress arising from conflict, recognition and
acceptance of different people’s triggers may prove useful; avoid sensitive
topics if possible and instead of focusing on the issues that are causing you stress, turn your attention to the things that you enjoy in these relationships or at this time of year.
Also try to avoid poor coping mechanisms, drinking excessively is likely to increase stress and possibly conflict as well.
3. Try practicing Mindfulness strategies
When stress builds up or seems to be unavoidable, mindfulness
techniques can help keep our mental health in check. Mindfulness techniques are
a broad category of actions and thinking styles which encourage the awareness
and acceptance of moment-by-moment experiences. Mindfulness activities are easy to learn and incorporate into your day. Check out this link to some great, easy mindfulness exercises.
Mindfulness techniques can be practiced by yourself, as well
as your friends and family. If you suspect someone close to you might be
feeling a bit stressed this festive season, why not encourage some Mindfulness
to ease the tension?
