We all get the message each year that the holidays are supposed to be a joyful, celebratory, most wonderful time of the year.
We see the ads, the holiday movie snippets, the happy posts on social.
My wish for you is that this is true. That the holidays are wonderful in all ways.
And if it isn’t so, if it’s more messy and ambivalent, mournful, and loneliness-inducing, well I certainly get it.
And why wouldn’t the holidays be messy, just like the rest of our human experience.
We get the good and the sad, all rolled up into one neat package. We could even call it a gift.
If your to-do list mounts, if your self-care slips, and if it seems as if you’ll never have enough time, enough lights, enough homemade cookies baked, enough presents under the tree, enough of however you celebrate or whatever traditions you honor at year’s end with family and friends….
Then professional encourager that I am, I encourage you to take a peek at my Holiday Self-care Checklist.
You can pick up your other list again later, but focus on this one for now, and then bring it with you as you go about your day.
✅ Breathe.
✅ Name five things you dig about this time of year. David Sedaris’ “Santaland Diaries” anybody? Eggnog? Twinkly lights?
✅ Reach out to someone who might need a pick-me-up. A postcard or a text is perfect.
✅ Assume good intentions of those around you. Even the person who takes your parking spot.
✅ Listen to music if the voices of gloom boom. I made you a playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6FHKVkcRND2B6nwWhg8ajY.
✅ Allow your feelings and thoughts to be seen and greeted like an amazing display of Colorado clouds passing across the sky of your heart and mind.
✅ Take one thing off your list that you have no desire to do.
✅ Do only what you want for one hour. Following your desires is the best kind of self-care during the holidays.
✅ Give the people on your holiday list a personalized donation. Give chickens to your niece through Heifer International, glasses for an Native American, keep a child from going blind through my friend Howard’s wonderful organization Vitamin Angels. or give to 350.org to fight the climate crisis.
✅ Remind yourself that satisfaction and enoughness reside in what you declare is enough; not out there in the ever-expanding hustle and never-ending demands of others.
✅ Put your hand on your heart and tell yourself, “I’m doing the best I know how right now.” And that is more than enough.
And may I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude for our connection?
Thank you for allowing me into your life and heart this season and year-round.
Thank you for being someone who shows up for herself and the world through all of the ups and downs of every season and all we’ve been through together.
May your holidays be full of the knowledge you are always enough.
