Want holidays to include more joy and less stress?
We’ve spent the last two decades talking to families who have redesigned their lives to create more joy and less stress.
One way we’ve gotten smarter around how to do this is by taping the experts who are part of ThirdPath’s Integrated Life Advocate (ILA) community. In one of our conversations with our ILAs we talked about the added stress too many of us experience around the holidays. In particular we wanted to learn if they had any tips to help us find more joy and less stress during this busy time of year.
Work and Time Off – December is a good month to set some limits around how much time you spend at work. Learn how an increasing number of organizations are planning “collective time off” over the holidays, including ThirdPath Institute!
Gift Giving – It’s easy to get caught up in gift giving and buy more than planned – sometimes putting a strain on our family budgets and values. It also takes time to buy gifts. Jessica, Heather and Susan all had lots of good advice around how they simplified their approach to gift giving and instead found ways to focus on family connection.
Other Holiday Expectations – Creating holiday cards, putting up holiday decorations, attending holiday events – at work, with friends, and at your children’s schools – all require a lot of time over the holidays. As someone who experienced the holidays with her children and is now enjoying them with her grandchildren,+ Barbara has found very creative ways to adopt family traditions to become “age appropriate” for each stage of her life.
Family Time and Family Traditions – Everyone agreed the most important part of the holidays is creating time with our families, and the video shows how everyone incorporated this important lesson into their holiday plans. Take for example, Judy’s smart approach to holiday cookie baking — a tradition she loved while growing up. A few clever changes helped her hold on to this tradition with more fun and less stress.
Holiday Planning – The fantasy is that holidays magically happen. The truth is: advance planning helps us focus on what is most important. It also helps us find ways to share the work load. Who can be part of your planning team and how can you work together to create more joy and less stress?
One of the best holiday gifts you can give yourself is to take 20 minutes after the holidays to write down your thoughts. Then next year, you can revisit your list as you plan for the following year.
Want a free copy of ThirdPath’s holiday planner?
Join us this Thursday, October 29th at 1pm ET in The HUB!
Thursday’s conversation, and our holiday planner worksheet will help you keep track of what’s working well and what you would like to do differently to create more joy and less stress around the holidays. Consider it our holiday gift to you!