Beat Christmas Stress and Anxiety
Beat Christmas Stress and Anxiety…Rob Kelly wrote in the Huffington Post.
Christmas is rapidly approaching and the festive excitement is building up. Sparkling lights are being switched on, parties are nearing, the shops are filled with gifts, and snow is forecast. Christmas is bursting with family fun, mulled wine, log fires, carol singing and delicious food.
It’s ‘the most wonderful time of the year!’
Yet, for some people, the Christmas season is filled with stress and anxiety. They feel panicked by the heaving crowds and queues they have to battle through to buy gifts. Their minds race at night with thoughts of the complicated parties and meals they ‘need’ to plan. They feel anxious about making everyone happy and avoiding family arguments. They worry about the potential for colds and flu to strike them and their family down at an important moment.
This time of the year often involves financial worries for many, with the pressure to buy presents and host expensive celebrations. For some, the winter season is associated with low moods or even ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder’. For those who have recently lost loved ones, this can be a particularly challenging time of year, with emotional thoughts about past celebrations.
But, although some people do have significant adversities or problems to contend with, more often than not, we create Christmas related stress and anxiety out of pretty much nothing – merely through our unhelpful thoughts and beliefs. Even in the face of real challenges, the way in which people interpret and react to situations has a profound effect upon how they experience them. We don’t experience reality, but reality filtered through our belief systems and thinking styles.
One person, for example, might see Christmas as a great opportunity to relax with friends and family, whereas another might be anxiously worrying about how to make all the seasonal celebrations perfect. Some individuals relish the challenge of doing Christmas on a tight budget, finding creative ways to make things festive without spending too much. Others create anxiety about money and worry that the kids won’t enjoy themselves if they don’t receive expensive Ugg boots and iPods as gifts.
So, what can you do to ensure that your Christmas season really is a pleasurable time of year? How can you avoid creating excessive stress and anxiety and make sure that you enjoy the festive fun? The following three top tips are short insights from my Thrive Programme, a psychological training programme which shows people how to permanently change their limiting beliefs and thinking styles and guides them in developing the psychological skills needed to flourish in life. Putting effort into applying these tips will help you to take control of your thinking this Christmas, so that you can make the most of the holiday!
Three Top tips for Thriving This Christmas
1. Make sure that you process your positive experiences and achievements
Continue reading about this and the other tips at the Huffington Post.