Tips for Reducing Stress and Increasing Joy During the Holidays

Christmas is supposed to be a happy time, a time of celebration. Whether we consider ourselves religious or not is not relevant; we collectively seem to enjoy this time. There is a sense of common goal: a goal to cherish and spend this time with the ones we love or care for, and a goal to do something that we enjoy. But many of us find ourselves stressed during this time, and the question is why and how we overcome that.

One of the reasons may be that we get surrounded in the shopping and the material aspects of the Christmas break too much, and we lose the real meaning of it. In other words, we may disconnect from its intention, an intention that seems to be more based on connection, self-refection, rejuvenation and detoxification (mentally and physically).

Now let's go through a number of tips for both reducing stress and doing some self-reflection during this period.

Tips for reducing stress:

1. Prioritize you goals for the holidays, and spend reasonable time on each depending on what is on the top of your hierarchy of goals. Write down your list to help you visualize it and act on it.
2. Reevaluate what it means to love someone or show them that you love them. Is it really measured with the "things," or is there something more to it? Find a balance between the two and take it from there.
3. How much is too much? And what can you do to stop yourself when you feel like you are going over your limits?
4. What does this holiday mean to you, and what habits do you have around it that you need to change?
5. Is it a material or a spiritual time of the year for you, and how can you evaluate the two and find a balance between them?
6. How can you use this time and the collective positive energy that surrounds it to detoxify your mind and body of the many toxins that are around us these days?
7. How can you focus on the spirit of this time and let go of the unnecessary distractions?
8. What type of irrational thinking patterns like "should" and "must" are adding to your stress? And how can you replace these with more logical and practical ones that are relevant to your life style?
9. Focus on the care of the soul. How are you shaping and molding your life to make sure you are taking care of your soul's growth and needs?

At the end, remember to check yourself, be open to healthy playfulness and humor, find a healthy lifestyle that works for you, and surround yourself with positive and caring people.

And finally, remember these tips:

1. Being able to learn from life's lessons and accepting and processing them for growth is something that is rooted in wisdom. Wisdom is a great gift, and if one learns to get deep into it, it can take an inspiration into creativity and give the person the ability to heal any form of insecurity and loss. When we learn to heal, we can open the door to growth and the joyful sensations that come with it.
2. Take a moment in this busy life. Think about any issues you may have. Try to look at things in a fresh way. The world is expanding, and so could you. The more you grow, the more you can keep up with this ever-expanding world. Is it an issue that is a normal part of life's ups and downs, or is it a self-created one? To be able to see the difference needs wisdom.
3. Use your innate wisdom to turn a tragedy into a lesson. This is what love means, and an unconditional love is the ability to connect to everything, what you see as positive and what you see as negative. True love is unconditional, and it is able to connect regardless. When we learn to connect with the negative, we can release or minimize its damages
4. Earn your innately designed wisdom.
5. Learn to let go of the need to control everything at all times, and find a balance when you need to swim with the flow instead of trying to resist and control it. It is healthy to learn when to go with the flow rather than resisting it.
6. Let go of your irrational fears, and evaluate them to see how they are affecting your life and how they are creating what you are fearful of.
7. Find ways in which you are fighting yourself, and try not be block your own path.
8. Find a balance between winning and surrender. Surrender, sometimes, could be a positive thing if wisdom is involved.
9. Find ways to respond rather than react, and give yourself time to think.

Roya R. Rad, M.A., Psy.D. is the founder of Self Knowledge Base & Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to public education.