Not a big fan of the change from Fall to Winter? Finding that the change is affecting your mood and physical wellness? You’ll mean to learn about the five self-care tips for the Holiday season, to beat stress and burnout.
With the changing of the season, the leaves falling from the trees, and the wind bringing in a winter chill, everyone is adapting to changes in their routine. Whether it is back to school for yourself or your kids, less leisure time, or just more time indoors, you may be having a hard time adjusting to a new schedule. Many people find it particularly difficult to cope during the fall and winter seasons, perhaps experiencing an onset of unrelenting tiredness, low mood, loss of interest in pleasurable activities, physical aches or pains, increased anxiety, or feelings of irritability.
Let’s learn more about practicing self-compassion and learning how to use self-care to overcome this sometimes stressful period.
Dealing With Seasonal Stress
The above-mentioned symptoms are often associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is a mood disorder that coincides with the changes in seasonal patterns. Shorter days and colder weather can trigger winter affective disorder, causing individuals with typically good mental health to experience symptoms of depression.
In addition to these symptoms, you may be experiencing a busier schedule than usual. Between the end of September and the beginning of January, there are over 20 different Holidays celebrated by various cultures and nationalities, including:
- Thanksgiving
- Yom Kippur
- Indigenous People Day
- Diwali
- Winter Solstice
- Kwanzaa
- Christmas
- Hanukkah
- And many, many, more
As a result, the last few months of the calendar year can feel incredibly hectic, isolating, and overwhelming- not to mention expensive!Â
You may feel like you’re being pulled in 100 different directions, with end-of-year deadlines or obligations to family and friends, with no time for yourself to just relax. As a result, many people begin to experience the effects of burnout this time of year. Â
Seasonal Burnout: Taxing Your Body And Mind
Burnout can build gradually, starting with an overpacked schedule that causes you to neglect your own needs such as adequate food, sleep, or downtime. Our minds and bodies need all of these things to function properly, so when they are deprived, they begin to work against us.Â
You may start feeling tired all the time, detached from yourself and your loved one, apathetic, absent-minded and just overall kind of sad and cranky. To some degree this is normal. You’re not broken and you are not alone, everyone gets down sometimes. In these times when everything seems to be going wrong, here are a few things you can do to start feeling like yourself againÂ
Self-Care Tips For The Holiday Season: 5 Ways Of Preventing Burnout
Let’s look at five key ways to prevent burnout and give you some Holiday stress-relief.
1. Acknowledge Your Feelings
Many people feel a tendency to ignore these feelings, to downplay them or push them down in an effort to push through them. As if they will go away if we don’t acknowledge them. However, oftentimes the opposite is true. The more we ignore these feelings and refuse to address them, the longer they can linger and the more they can affect us subconsciously.
The best thing you can do is acknowledge how you are feeling, that you are going through a low point, that it is temporary, and allow yourself to feel the feelings in an effort to move past them.  Â
2. Make A List Of Your Values
Take a moment and consider your values. What is important to you? Family? Friends? Hobbies? Work? List these things in order of importance. This will serve as a tangible reminder of what to prioritize in your life and schedule.Â
3. Take A Look At How You’re Using Your Time
Take a look at how you’ve been spending your time and energy during the last week: how much are you spending doing things for other people vs. how much are you spending doing things for yourself? Life is about compromise and sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do, but if the majority of our time and energy is spent serving others, we are destined to burn out eventually.
Now take the list of values you compiled and use it to plan your schedule. Incorporate the things that are important as priorities and then fill in the rest. Â
4. Schedule Downtime For Holiday Self-Care
Make room for intentional downtime. When we are busy, downtime doesn’t just happen, so scheduling it and respecting that designated time is necessary to ensure you allow your body a chance to unwind and relax.
5. Reach Out For Support
If everything feels too heavy and you just don’t know where to start, we’re here to help. Book a free consultation today to get back to feeling like yourself and enjoying the Holiday season.Â
Discover Holiday Self-Care Tips That Work For You
If you’re seeking Holiday stress relief strategies, or how to incorporate these self-care tips for the Holiday season in your busy life, reach out to the team of experts at Rebound Total Health. Book a free consultation to get back to feeling like yourself – and loving the Holiday season.
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