Healthy Happy Loving Life: Beat Holiday Stress with 4 Top Tips!

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at choice, effective living strategies, Healthy Happy Loving Life, holiday stress, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, The life you want

© 2021 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved. http://www.kebba.com

–A version of this article appeared on our Upbeat Spiritual Living blog in November 2017.–

Image by Megapixl

In the USA, “The Holidays” now means the entire season from before Halloween to after Christmas and New Year’s Day.  This season sweeps through Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, HumanLight, and Ramadan, with Boxing Day on December 26th. This year, The Holidays seemed to start before Halloween: I saw my first red- and green-labeled carton of eggnog around October 25.  Then Hanukkah begins Thanksgiving weekend, Sunday November 28th!   We are now in the peak frenzy of The Holidays, with Christmas only 42 days away.

In this country’s popular culture, The Holidays are supposed to be a happy, bustling time when people love to buy gifts, decorate seasonally, have large gatherings, play and sing seasonal music, go to church, and eat and drink copious quantities of rich and sweet foods.  Yet many feel mildly stressed, bluesy, or even totally stressed during this time!  If you are one of those who get stressed, these tips are for you.

First, simplify, and select how you will spend your energy.  It’s important to realize The Holiday Season now reaches over almost a 3-month period, so you need a strategy other than trying to ignore it.  So write down everything you usually expect from yourself, such as:

o Buy seasonal candy

o Put it in seasonal candy dishes in home and office

o Buy cards and mail

        o Play holiday music in your home, go caroling with a group

o Buy gifts for 10 relatives and wrap, take or ship

o Attend 4 parties with special appetizers you make

o Attend 3 holiday concerts or dance performances

o Attend 2 on-holiday family dinners

       o Go to church services wearing red and your happiest face

o Go to a sing-along of The Messiah and sing your heart out

o Take the kids for a carriage ride around Kierland or Central Park, or to a Disneyland event, depending on your area

o Take holiday photos

o Post all those activities on FaceBook and Instagram

o Help feed the homeless at St. Vincent de Paul or Salvation Army on Christmas Day

o Buy larger pants in New Year’s sales.

Whew!  Did you feel energized, or did you feel tired and worn after reading this expectations list?  Now that you have written it all down, try cutting those expectations and events by two thirds.  Now order the gifts and have them shipped.  Use a card service to get the cards out, or email your good wishes, or skip the cards altogether this year.  Take the photos with your phone or your kid’s phone, and post them and your holiday wishes on Instagram and Facebook.  Play only music YOU have chosen. Don’t let the TV run, with the constant messages of “Buy! Buy!  Buy!”

Second, take timeouts.  Even if you cut to one third your expectations of yourself, there is a lot of busy activity around you, wherever you go.  It’s a very stimulating time of year, and now it’s a quarter of the year.  It’s like the anti-vacation!  So you need microvacations to see you through.

o Take quiet moments in a still area of your home.

o Exhale and drop your shoulders, imagining quiet energy moving from your head down to your toes; picture your body’s cells holding onto that quiet.

o If you enjoy praying or sitting in contemplation, take time for those regularly, giving them your full attention.

o If you like to read fiction, take two hours at a time to get totally involved in a good novel.

o Practice totally letting go of the hustle and bustle around you.  Nurture your Peace Within.

Third, give your body extra support.   Drink extra water between holiday beverages.  Eat salads, fresh fruit, and lean protein.  These will strengthen you between sweet and rich holiday meals.  Add ginger to your chicken soup to counter the effects of sugar.  If you can nap, take naps.  Different lengths of naps work for different people, but research has shown that naps as short as 20 minutes can totally refresh you.  Create time to walk, hike, or work out, to flush the toxins and clear your mind.

Fourth, enjoy what nurtures you.  Are your spiritual values getting towed under during The Holidays?  Whatever there is about The Holidays that fills you, uplifts you, or restores you, keep those pieces.  If spending a day with Grandma makes you feel great, be sure to spend a day with Grandma.  If video chatting with your niece or grandchild leaves you joyful all day, make time to be fully present for that.  If the Messiah Sing-Along thrills you, go!  If walking alone in the labyrinth, or attending Midnight Mass, or journaling, or practicing your guitar, leaves you feeling calm and happy, make those priorities.

Take these tips to heart, and you will beat stress during The Holidays.  Remember, it’s your life, and you are always at choice.  Will you choose to take care of yourself during this season?  You are a precious child of God, and you deserve to enjoy the true gifts of this season.  And that’s you, choosing to be Healthy Happy and Loving Life^sm!

• ---

  Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

  

  Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Happy (Lite) Holidays

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choices, Christmas, holiday stress, holiday stress tips, less sugar, merry and bright, Reason for the Season, stress, Stress Management

Lite Holidays for You!

©Kebba Buckley Button 2020.  World Rights Reserved.

As you read this, in the U.S., the Holiday ball is rolling fast.  Life sped by Thanksgiving and is crashing forward into full Holiday Mode. Warehouse stores have almost sold out of Christmas décor, themed candy, and gift baskets.  Images of Santa are plastered everywhere, and shopping districts are awash in red and green.  Holiday music is playing frantically in stores and mall parking lots, other than maybe on Sunday mornings.  Decorated trees have sprouted everywhere, including that white one hanging upside down in the famous gallery store.  Poinsettias rim every grocery display, and sugar is in the air, on the menu, and in most commercials.  TV is showing endless specials and old movies on the cultural themes of the season.  People are anxiously surfing the Web and surging through stores in search of the right gifts.  If you love these sights and sounds, by all means, hustle with the bustle and have a great time.  Stand in line for that spiral-cut smoked ham, and send your friends handmade holiday greeting cards and cookies.  The rest of us admire you!

However, if you are overwhelmed by all the commercial holiday stuff, here’s a radical suggestion:  do it “lite”!  Stop, right now, and exhale!  Why not create your own Happy (Lite) Holidays?  Are you an atheist, a Christian turned off by Santa, an adherent of another faith turned off by Santa, or simply a no-commercial-hubbub person?  Then try these simple tips:

1.  Keep it light. Send some gifts and cards with minimum effort, and get it done just as fast and early as possible.  Or just send a holiday email and make a few calls.  Let them know you care.

2.  Stay out of the way of the rolling Holiday ball. Celebrate with your spouse and loved ones,  at home, with what you know you enjoy.  Stock up on food, music, and movies that have nothing to do with Santa, or everything to do with your Holy Days.  Plan to take care of an unfinished creative project, or do that online research you never have time for.  Christians, sift the church calendars for Santa-free Christmas concerts and pageants.  Go sing in a “Messiah” sing-along.  You know how to celebrate the reason for the season.

3.  Eat half the sugar and drink twice the water. Sounds too simple, but this will help keep your mind calm, your metabolism strong, your skin smooth, and your waistline slim.  You will get along better with everyone and enjoy every day more.

You can choose to be happy and in deep satisfaction, anywhere, anytime.  Choose these now.  That’s being Healthy, Happy, and Loving Life^sm!  And whatever your background, may your days be merry and bright!

———————————————

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress solutions expert and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She also has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

UpBeat Living: Quick! Say A Proper Goodbye to 2013!

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holiday stress, Kebba, New Year, New Year's Resolutions, stress, Stress Management, UpBeat Living

UpBeat Living: Closing Out 2013

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Image by Microsoft

It’s the last day of the old year, 2013, and already people are wishing each other a Happy New Year.  TV networks have aired video summaries of the most colorful events of 2013.  This morning, Arizona time, as people watched those videos over breakfast, Sydney, Australia had already crossed into the New Year and celebrated with fireworks.  You have to watch those pesky time zones.

But wait!  Have you properly said “[G]oodbye” to 2013?  Before you launch into your New Year’s resolutions—and you know you will—how about first making your own summary list of all you accomplished or weathered or observed in the old year?  My husband held a great-granddaughter on his lap for the first time.  I finished the second edition of my newest book, Peace Within, and officiated an interfaith prayer service in a Catholic Church (think about it—I’ll wait) for International Day of Peace in September.  A new Pope was elected, an Italian-speaking Hispanic, who embodies God’s love and goes by “Francis”, after St. Francis.  And CBS says Esquire Magazine has named the Pope Best-Dressed Man Of The Year!  For a Pope, he dresses simply, in white.

Why not make a list of all the frustrations and victories, disappointments and joys, that were there for you in this outgoing year?  Take a piece of paper, or a word processor document, or create lists in your phone.  Make 3 columns:  what I didn’t like, what I did like, and what happened in the World that affected me.  Take just 15 minutes, or more, if you realize it’s a powerful thing for you.  You’ll notice a lot of accomplishments.  Be proud.  Celebrate the good.  Toast to the wonders of the Old Year, and wait until midnight to ring in the New Year.

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Going Gaga Over Gifting?

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Effective living, Gifting, holiday stress, holiday stress tips, Kebba, stress, Stress Management, UpBeat Living

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo by Fotolia

Got stress over gifting?  In our continuing series on beating holiday stress, you were no doubt expecting us to talk about your budget, when talking about gifting.  Yes, that’s important.  And many have found a budgetary haven in home-making or home-baking an array of holiday gifts.  But your time is valuable, too, and that hand-done basket of cookies may have an actual cost higher than ordering cookies to be delivered.  My family found a cookie product with our last name, “Cookie Buttons”, and we get them delivered to every household of relatives, in various flavors, with free shipping.  One big order and we’re done!  Except for the cards and calls, but that’s another column.

So let’s back up and ask a question no other writer has ever asked about holiday gifting:  what standard are you setting with what you’re spending, either in time or money?  Most people are on a budget, and they don’t have either the time or talent to spend a day and a half at holiday time, baking holiday goodies.  And while you may think your generous gifts will be received with the same joy as that with which you selected or made them, here’s news for you: many people will feel bad when they open your gift!  Why?  First, because they’ve been too stressed to even get around to gift decisions yet this year, and they don’t have one for you, so now they feel GUILTY.  Second, because your cookies are so gorgeous and always delicious, and you arranged them so beautifully on the seasonal platter, and their baking will never be up to that standard, so now they feel INFERIOR.  Yes, most people’s self-esteem is very low!

A great bet is to quit gifting altogether, other than reasonable gifts for children of the family and seasonal food gifts for others.  With relatives, ask them if they would like to exchange gifts this year.  You may be surprised how fast they say, with relief, “[O]h, that would be great to skip it this year!”  For the office, a plate of cookies or a fruit tray, set out in the breakroom, is perfect.  For your book club or other circle of friends, agree on a maximum value for gifts.  Do not go overboard, or you may set an uncomfortable standard.  How will your out-of-work friend match that $70 pitcher you got her from the high end kitchen store?  For the kids, set a budget and stick to it, or you will be setting a standard you’ll have to answer for in future.

The gifts most loved ones would really like from you are calls, your time, your companionship, and the sound of your laughter.  Round up some friends for a concert, a special church service, or to meet at a restaurant or for drinks.  Consider an impromptu New Year’s brunch, at your place or at a restaurant.  Show them you care.  Show them you want to be connected. Share your love and laughter.

This season, may you have the least possible holiday stress!  Happiest holidays from UpBeat Living!  And this year, may there be Peace on Earth.

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Sick of Santa?

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Christian values, holiday stress, Kebba, Relationships, Santa, stress, UpBeat Living

 

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

Are you over-Santa’d?  Do you see far too many of those white-bearded guys with red suits, in commercials, movies, and TV shows?  Meteorologists on many TV stations even pretend to track Santa as he travels the globe, supposedly delivering gifts to all good people.  His image may have come to us culturally from the Danish “nisse” tradition: little helpful people with peaked red hats.  But the Coca-Cola company created the current image of Santa—red suit, white trim, white beard, black boots, and rosy cheeks–and his cultural presence is now everywhere in the US and many other countries.

 

If you are a Christian, you may be truly baffled as to why anyone would tell the Santa myth to their kids.  What a lot of fuss to keep up with this cultural setup, when the reason for the season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.  I know, Jesus was born in the Spring, but this is the time of year when we celebrate His birth, so stick with me for another minute.

 

So what can you do about Santa saturation?  Insulate yourself!  Choose your own Santa-free music, and play it, at home, in the car, and through your earbuds.  Air only your preferred Santa-free movies, and don’t go caroling except with groups that leave out the Santa songs.  Politely decline!  Stay out of the malls until after December 26^th, doing all your ordering online, or next year, before about December 1^st.

 

The worst anti-Christian message of the Santa myth is that Santa is in charge of managing your kids, not you, the parent. Does this sound familiar: “[H]e knows if you’ve been sleeping.  He knows if you’re awake.  He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for Goodness’ sake!”  Wait, isn’t that God?  So parents who teach their kids to be good, so that Santa will bring them gifts, are handing off their parenting to Santa!  Hello?  Does this make sense?  Can we just step back and take a fresh look at this whole Santa thing?  The presents are from loved ones, the late-night cookies are eaten by the parents who’ve stayed up late wrapping gifts, and the tree was decorated entirely by people who care and who the kids know.

 

So if you’re Christian to some degree, let’s sing a round of “It came upon a midnight clear” and then a round of “Oh little town of Bethlehem.”  Let’s thank God for those precious children and the one baby whose birth we celebrate on Christmas.  Thank God for all the good in your life and all the good to come.  Let Santa be completely on his own this Christmas.

 

Happiest holidays from UpBeat Living!  And this year, may there be Peace on Earth.

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

 

UpBeat Living: Oh Christmas Tree!

Tags

Christmas tree stress, Effective living, fulfilled, HolidayStress, Kebba, stress, The life you want, UpBeat Living

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

A Tabletop Tree.
(c) 2013 Kebba Buckley Button

Do you love Christmas trees?  In the US, a passion to put a tree in the living room and decorate it is widespread. I know Christians, Jews, and Buddhists who love to get a tree and decorate it, then leave it up for a couple of weeks, at least.

At least as early as the 18^th Century, Germans and Scandinavians were decorating pine trees, outdoors or indoors, for the Christmas season. Straw and fabric ornaments, and lighted candles, gave way in recent decades to metal and glass ornaments, with strings of electric lights.  People now can choose between natural trees and artificial ones.  Artificial trees may look exactly natural or may look like spun metal. And the newest ones have branches that fold neatly as you slide it into its special bag for storage until next year.  There are trees taller than most living rooms and trees as small as the tabletop Nativity set.  Some families make an annual tradition of going to the tree lot or even to the National Forests, tree-cutting permit in hand.

If you haven’t yet settled on a tree for this year, consider a natural tree, to be recycled, or “treecycled”, or a reuseable manufactured tree.  If family members are allergic to pine fragrance, then the choice is clear:  artificial is best.  Get the tabletop size and you can just pop it into its box to store for next year.  Some come pre-lit and pre-decorated, so that’s much less holiday work and stress.

However, if you really love natural trees, get the freshest one you can, and set it up with a water container under it, to help the branches stay moist.  Decorate and enjoy.  And when you know it’s too dry to stay up, take all the ornaments and icicles off, and recycle it for mulch.  Call your Public Works Department, or put “Christmas Tree Recycling” in the search bar on your computer or your phone.  This year, the City of Phoenix offers this link, for pickups of Christmas trees:  phoenix.gov/publicworks/recycling/christmastreecycling.html‎.  Oh, and take your natural-pine wreath too.  Staff  run your tree through a huge shredder, creating mulch that is then used in parks.

If you got a natural tree in a container, certain types can be replanted by your Parks Department!  Wouldn’t it feel good to have your family’s memories, and your Christmas tree, go on to live in a park for many years?  Whatever you decide, it should bring you less stress and more joy.

Happiest holidays from UpBeat Living!  And this year, may there be Peace on Earth.

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

Protected: Holiday Stress Got You Down? How to Beat It!

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at choice, choices, Effective living, holiday stress, holiday stress tips, Kebba, peace within, stress, Stress Management, UpBeat Living, vitality

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UpBeat Living: Foods for Better Moods

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Eating, foods and moods, Health, holiday stress tips, Kebba, Stress Management

©2012 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

 

Eating to beat the blues is a popular strategy.  Cartoonist Cathy Guisewite made us laugh sympathetically about binge eating, with the namesake character in her award-winning cartoon strip, Cathy.  For over 30 years, the character, Cathy, could eat an entire cake in one sitting, when her boyfriend was behaving in a puzzling way.  After eating a cake, Cathy would be portrayed sprawled out on a couch, clearly feeling sick and frazzled.  Did eating like that bring her joy and resolution?  No.  Eating an entire cake as a response to stress was not a successful strategy.

 

However, there are successful ways to use foods to have the best moods.  Bear in mind that the body has about 70 trillion cells.  And your body has only what you put in your mouth—food and drink—from which to make new cells.  So does it make sense that your cells would function well on a diet of, for example, cake and diet soda?  A well-rounded diet of lean protein, dark green leafy vegetables, other non-starch vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grains, will give you a baseline of great nutrition.  Switch to this simple list for a few days, to begin feeling strong and clear-minded.   Vegetarians can use organic beans, including garbanzos, instead of lean meats, in salads and stir-fry dishes.  Of course, coordinate with your doctor before going on a very different dietary regime.

 

If you eat out a lot, order the whole grains, egg dishes, other lean proteins, and dark green salads every day.  Kale salad is a current fad food that is widely available in restaurants and offers great nutrition.  Grilled chicken- or tuna- Caesar salad is another very nutritious, popular dish that is available at most restaurants.  These dishes will leave you feeling clear-minded and balanced.  And you will be, um, regular, which will also clear your emotions and mind.  Bean dishes contain a phenomenal amount of fiber, so if you like those, they can assist in cleansing your intestines and even help you lose weight.  In Chinese medicine, sadness or depression may be related to the energy of the large intestine.  See if your mood improves when you are eating a high-fiber, low-sugar diet.

 

Speaking of sugar, the more nutrition you can get for your calories, the better you will feel.  So why eat foods rich in refined sugars?  When you crave something sweet, reach for grapes, berries, a banana, or a peach.  There are many vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidant compounds in fresh fruits.  Fruit without added sugar is now widely available in your grocer’s frozen food section.  And in the canned-food section, it is easy to find fruit in its own juice.  Health food stores even have fruit-sweetened waffles and other baked goods, plus powdered fruit sweeteners.  Switch to fruit and fruit-sweetened foods, and you will be eating at a lower glycemic index.  That index is a measure of how fast a food is metabolized, compared to glucose.  Many people feel better, have a flatter abdomen, and lose weight easily on a low glycemic index diet.

 

For low-calorie snacks, veggie sticks—carrots, celery, jicama, green beans, cucumbers—are very filling and massage your intestines from the inside out.  So, in addition to being satisfying, these leave you more relaxed.  For quick energy snacks, consider going nuts.  Yes, nuts!  Brazil nuts, almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts are great for both giving you energy and supporting your health.  Brazil nuts are very high in protein and also contain selenium, a mineral linked to mood improvement.  Almonds are high in potassium, which is key for metabolic balance, mood and blood pressure regulation.  Almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts are all rich in magnesium, a vital mineral in converting blood sugar to muscle energy, via the Krebs Cycle process.  Low magnesium is also a cause for constipation; so nuts can help by contributing both magnesium and fiber.  When the intestines are well, you will be in a better mood.

 

With the Thanksgiving-Hanukkah-Christmas-New Year’s holiday feasting season fast upon us, consider the traditional holiday depression so many experience.  Are the holiday blues really just emotions and associations?  Or can you eat and drink differently and miss the blues altogether?  Why not experiment?  After all, it’s your life.

———————————————

● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You, and the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Beating Holiday Stress

Tags

choices, energy foods, exhausted, fatigue, fulfilled, holiday stress, stress, stress tips

© 2011 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

In the USA, “The Holidays” broadly means the entire season from before Thanksgiving to after Christmas and New Year’s Day.  This season sweeps through Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, HumanLight, and Ramadan, with Boxing Day on December 26th. This year, The Holidays seemed to start before Halloween: I saw my first red- and green-labeled carton of eggnog around October 25.  In this country’s popular culture, The Holidays are supposed to be a happy, bustling time when people love to buy gifts, decorate seasonally, have large gatherings, play and sing seasonal music, and eat and drink copious quantities of rich and sweet foods.  Yet many feel mildly- to completely stressed during this time.  If you are one of those who get stressed, these tips are for you.

First, simplify.  It’s important to realize The Holiday Season now reaches over almost a 3-month period, so you need a strategy other than trying to ignore it.  What plan have you used for previous holiday seasons?  Write down everything you usually expect from yourself, such as:  buy seasonal candy, put it in seasonal candy dishes in home and office, buy cards and mail, buy gifts for 10 relatives and take or ship, attend 4 parties with special appetizers you made, attend 2 holiday concerts or dance performances, attend 2 on-holiday family dinners, take the kids for a carriage ride around Kierland or Central Park, take holiday photos, post all those activities on FaceBook, feed the homeless at St. Vincent de Paul on Christmas Day, buy larger pants in New Year’s sales.  Whew!  Did you feel energized, or did you feel tired and worn after reading this list?  Now that you have written it all down, try cutting those expectations and events by half.  Now order the gifts and have them shipped.  Use a card service to get the cards out, or email your good wishes, or skip the cards altogether this year.  Take the photos with your phone or your kid’s phone, and post them and your holiday wishes on FaceBook.

Second, take timeouts.  Even if you cut your expectations of yourself, there is a lot of busy activity around you, wherever you go.  It’s a very stimulating time of year, and now it’s a quarter of the year.  It’s like the anti-vacation.  So you need microvacations to see you through.  Take quiet moments in a still area of your home.  Exhale and drop your shoulders, imagining quiet energy moving from your head down to your toes; picture your cells holding onto that quiet.  If you enjoy praying or meditating, take time for those regularly, giving them your full attention.  If you like to read fiction, take two hours at a time to get totally involved in a good novel.  Practice totally letting go of the hustle and bustle around you.

Third, give your body extra support.   Drink extra water between holiday beverages.  Eat fresh fruit, vegetables, and lean protein whenever you have the option; these will strengthen you between sweet and rich holiday meals.  Add ginger to your chicken soup to counter the effects of sugar.  If you can nap, take naps.  Different lengths of naps work for different people, but research has shown that naps as short as 20 minutes can totally refresh you.  Create time to walk, hike, or work out, to flush the toxins and clear your mind.

Fourth, enjoy what nurtures you.  Whatever there is about The Holidays that fills you, uplifts you, or restores you, keep those pieces.  If spending a day with Grandma makes you feel great, be sure to spend a day with Grandma.  If Skyping with your niece or grandchild leaves you joyful all day, make time to be fully present for that.  If walking alone in the snow, or attending Midnight Mass, or journaling, or practicing your guitar, leaves you feeling calm and happy, make those priorities.

Take these tips to heart, and you will beat stress during The Holidays.  Remember, it’s your life, and you are always at choice.  Will you choose to take care of yourself during this season?  It’s up to you.

________________________________________________________________

Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com.

UpBeat Living: Happy (Lite) Holidays

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choices, holiday stress, holiday stress tips, stress, Stress Management

Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM                                                                 ©Kebba Buckley Button 2010.  World Rights Reserved.

As you read this, in the U.S., the Holiday ball is rolling fast.  Warehouse stores have almost sold out of Christmas décor, themed candy, and gift baskets.  Images of Santa are plastered everywhere, and shopping districts are awash in red and green.  Holiday music is playing frantically in stores and mall parking lots, other than on Sunday mornings.  Decorated trees have sprouted everywhere, including that white one hanging upside down in the famous gallery store.  Poinsettias rim every grocery display, and sugar is in the air, on the menu, and in most commercials.  TV is showing endless specials and old movies on the cultural themes of the season.  People are anxiously surfing the Web and surging through stores in search of the right gifts.  If you love these sights and sounds, by all means, hustle with the bustle and have a great time.  Stand in line for that spiral-cut smoked ham, and send your friends handmade holiday greeting cards and cookies.  The rest of us admire you!

However, if you are overwhelmed by all the commercial holiday stuff, here’s a radical suggestion:  do it “lite”!  Stop, right now, and exhale!  Why not create your own Happy (Lite) Holidays?  Are you an atheist, a Christian turned off by Santa, an adherent of another faith turned off by Santa, or simply a no-commercial-hubbub person?  Then try these simple tips:

1.  Keep it light. Send some gifts and cards with minimum effort, and get it done just as fast and early as possible.  Or just send a holiday email and make a few calls.  Let them know you care.

2.  Stay out of the way of the rolling Holiday ball. Celebrate with your spouse and loved ones,  at home, with what you know you enjoy.  Stock up on food, music, and movies that have nothing to do with Santa, or everything to do with your Holy Days.  Plan to take care of an unfinished creative project, or do that online research you never have time for.  Christians, sift the church calendars for Santa-free Christmas concerts and pageants.  Go sing in a “Messiah” sing-along.  You know how to celebrate the reason for the season.

3.  Eat half the sugar and drink twice the water. Sounds too simple, but this will help keep your mind calm, your metabolism strong, your skin smooth, and your waistline slim.  You will get along better with everyone and enjoy every day more.

You can choose to be happy and in deep satisfaction, anywhere, anytime.  Choose these now.  And whatever your background, may your days be merry and bright.

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Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management trainer.  Reach her at kebba@kebba.com.