I know that this year has been stressful for a lot of us, including myself, and people have been looking forward to the break that Thanksgiving offers. At the same time, Thanksgiving, and other holidays, can bring a lot of stress with it. Cleaning, hosting, traveling, and cooking all that food are a recipe for stress.
So how do we make this Thanksgiving the vacation that we want it to be? These tips will hopefully help you manage the stress and relax a little bit more.
- Be Realistic. The truth is that Thanksgiving is never going to be the picture perfect family with a magazine worthy meal and no complicated feelings. And, that’s okay. People don’t get together expecting that to happen, so we don’t have to stress ourselves out trying to meet an impossible standard.
- Keep your routines. We know that following a routine helps to lower stress levels. The most important things to keep regular are sleep, food, and exercise.
- Do some self-care. Don’t forget to take care of yourself during the holiday, whether that’s finding some time alone or taking a break to go visit with people you don’t often see.
- Remind yourself that you don’t have to feel grateful. Our other blog post by Beth has some great tips and reminders about the emotional side of Thanksgiving.
- Plan ahead. While there are only a few days left before Thanksgiving, there’s still time to make a plan. Are there things that can be finished beforehand? Or can certain tasks be given to another person? These will let you focus on what has to happen and take a few things off of your plate.
- Stress can build up physically too. For a lot of people, stress leads to tensing your muscles. So take a few minutes to pause and slowly relax them. If you have time, do some stretches or take a bath. Releasing the physical tension in our body will help us release some of the mental tension too.
- Acknowledge when your thoughts get a little negative. We are not our thoughts or our feelings. So acknowledging that they exist and then allowing ourselves to let go of them
- Finally, set some boundaries. Let people know you can only make it to one event, the one you actually want to attend. Don’t participate in conversations that raise your stress levels or cause conflict.
Hopefully these tips will help you navigate your Thanksgiving and make it a little easier to handle.
