YOU GUYS! It's finally Christmastime. Christmas has always, always been my soul soother, my mood lightener, my happy place.For a long time, I didn't know why Christmastime made me so happy, but when I started to really work on my self-care, I realized two things:
My love of the days and weeks surrounding Christmas is directly linked to the times in my childhood when I was going through my surgeries. I was ALWAYS home at Christmastime, even if I had just had a surgery of was anticipating another one. My mom, who I am incredibly close to and who is one of my favorite people, would take off work and we would bake and wrap presents and just have an incredible time.
A lot of the activities that we partake in around Christmas check alllllll of my self-care needs off the list: spending time with family and friends, expressing gratitude, delivering gifts and goodies to those people in life that we love and adore, and expressing creativity through cooking and baking and present-wrapping.
Once I made these connections, I began prioritizing some of these things ahead of others and being a little selfish with my time at Christmas. This might sound odd, but by protecting my time and prioritizing the activities that elevated my mood and neutralized my anxiety, I've learned how to make the month of December one long self-care warm fuzzy. I could not and would not have created this Zencember if I didn't know what activities, events and moments activated all those feelings of joy and contentment and elevated my self-care. The very best part about realizing all of this, though, was that it empowered me to put things in place so that I could extend my holiday zen through the entire year. You can do the same thing! I promise. How? Sit down, close your eyes and envision one of your happiest times.What is happening?What makes it so happy?HOW DO YOU FEEL?How can you recreate that?The trick, then, is to find a non-holidayish way to recreate the feeling you have.Want to see and hang with your people more often? Prioritize a monthly family dinner, or an event with friends every couple months. Even making a "friend date" to Target once a month can really open up opportunity to talk and have a one-on-one conversation while also getting stuff done. *Pro tip - really love entertaining or having people over but hate all the prep work? Buy premade food, order your groceries ahead of time, or ask people to bring something. Cutting down on prep work will lower your stress levels and empower you to really enjoy your time. No one wants to be worried about the oven timer when your Scrabble game is really heating up. ;)Love decorating for the holidays and making things pretty? Have a few decorations for each season. I have some for Valentine's day, St. Patrick's, Easter, Fourth of July, and Fall. Less is definitely more in these situations because you never want something you enjoy to begin to feel like a chore. Even better, find one statement piece that you can change out for the seasons (Mine is my front door wreath.)Do you love being an elf and using your creativity to make gifts or baked goods and dropping them off to people? Make homemade cards for people's birthdays, make a small, meaningful gift. Bake when you have the opportunity. When someone asks you to bring something, suggest being responsible for dessert. See a small something or other you know a friend or family member would adore? Drop it in their mailbox with a note!There are so many ways to make every day a warm fuzzy. Discover what creates joy for you and extend it out all year! Wishing you and yours a very joyful holiday season.
