Busy holiday schedules are beginning, which means good and bad stress. Remembering to balance the positive in your life with the negative experiences is important. Without balance, remaining present, positive, and having hope for the holidays can seem impossible. Negative experiences happen to everyone. Whether it’s your marriage, your children, outside life stressors, or your past. Even if you struggle with depression or anxiety, it’s important to give your body and mind a break from the constant demands of your life. How do you recognize the signs of feeling out of balance? Some important signs are feeling irritable, critical of others or yourself, feeling exhausted, isolated or lonely, being impatient. Or, not being able to trust or have hope. Though the holidays can bring good stress, bad stress can steal your joy. Don’t let your good intentions for yourself and your loved ones be taken away by an inability to manage the good with the bad. Try and de-stress!

There are simple and easy ways to de-stress.

• Recognize you are over whelmed.
• Give yourself permission to tune into your experience for a few moments.
• Take inventory of yourself….ask, “What is going on with me?”
• Allow yourself the gift of distance that you might need from other people or work. Walk into another room, stop for a moment.
• Learn to detach emotionally, not just physically, from the stressor.
• Notice if you are constantly worried, then you have not detached emotionally from the stressor.

Gratitude turns what we Have into Enough….that’s how we find Balance, Peace, Joy, and Love. Humility doubts our insecurities and allows Hope.

If you can move into a place of self-care for a few moments, where you can feel your stress and try to learn from it, then you can gain balance. This is an everyday exercise, that over time can become quick and normal. Help yourself to move forward with hope and joy. Recognize what you need from yourself during these times. Not what you need from another person, but what you need for yourself. You can gain the ability to create the positive, affirming experience you need to stop feeling depleted or lonely. That’s how you come to know your own truth. That is where knowing yourself and understanding a core, basic need is beneficial. If you remain trapped; stuck in a place that feels overwhelming, then it’s time to get professional help. If getting what you need out of life is challenging for you, then consider needing someone else’s perspective and help. A trusted, confidential therapist can help. Giving yourself the gift of hope and joy is the greatest gift of all.

I wish you Peace and Love.