Natural Health, Wellness
Creating calm at Christmas time
Dec
The lead up to Christmas can be frantically busy with school holidays, end of year functions, gift shopping, food shopping, meal preparation and travel. So often we roll into Christmas day thoroughly exhausted and drained. There is a better way.
We’ve gathered a list of serenity inducing steps to a calm, centered Christmas. We’d love to hear your de-stressing insights too, so please comment below!
Choose less, ditch the excess
Spend a quiet hour browsing your favourite online website or two to find goodness for your favourite people. Bonus: Shopping in the quiet of your home with a glass of wine (or kombucha!) is one thousand times more calm inducing than pushing through crowded malls. Christmas carols are optional. You can support amazing NZ businesses and buy Waste Free gifts.
Make, bake or grow. Anything made by your effort will stand out in the mind of the recipient. Fresh brownies vs more socks? Pass the chocolate please!
For children in particular, giving experiences is so much more valuable than toys they don’t need. Give movie tickets, a voucher to a restaurant, book them music lessons, teach them a skill or a promise to take them on a trip.
Say no to pressure
As Christmas nears people gasp ‘we MUST catch up before Christmas!’ Nice thought, but not quite accurate! Make your dates for after Christmas and they will give you fun times to look forward to after Boxing Day, rather than something to cram into the run-up.
Take some quiet time to swim, walk, garden or read a book. It will make you feel like a complete rebel, knowing that the city stores are heaving and the roads are jammed and you’re just taking a moment to enjoy being alive.
Maybe you deal with tricky family commitments, zooming about on Christmas Day to share yourselves around. Consider heading to a bach with your kids, or letting family know you’ll be staying home, but they can to pop in.
Be healthy, be well
Susie from Suna Pilates says “Rushing simply stresses us out, which slows us down, and makes us sick. It’s essential to get out of “fight or flight” mode so you can enjoy your holiday. Breathe. Remind yourself you will be okay – our bodies get confused between Christmas and Crisis. Eat more protein for body repair and stablised blood sugars. Laugh!
Any tension and pain in your body originates with the thoughts in your head. If you believe that this time of year is always stressful, your mind will view events in a way that will seem stressful, and the body will feel it. Change your beliefs to change your world! While you are working on this, try showing your body some love with a massage, kinesiology, take a walk barefoot, and try Magnesium Spray to ease stress, muscular tension and insomnia.”
Know what you want for Christmas
If your ideal Christmas Day is a house overflowing with people, laughter and food, pull out all the stops and make that happen!
But if you’re just going through the motions because it’s the done thing, make your own plan.
Maybe the kids want to make pancakes for breakfast then a swim at the beach. Maybe you’d like to share a wine and mince pies with a close friend who doesn’t have family around them. Perhaps Christmas Crackers are a family tradition and you want to make really incredible ones yourselves this year. Focus on what really matters and make that special, rather than trying to do it all.
