If this holiday season has you feeling stressed and down rather than merry and bright, don’t worry, you’re not alone!

The pressure to do, do, do and buy, buy, buy can easily leave the best of us feeling worn out in these “last 10 shopping days till Christmas”. As if life wasn’t already filled with enough on our plates, with work, deadlines, papers or projects due, year-end expectations, there’s the added rush of holiday shopping, hosting, parties, family demands, too much to do, too little time, not enough money … Yikes! Where can I hide?

I’ve had a lot of demand this month from my corporate clients for employee training on how to deal with the stress of the holidays. And, I’m hearing many of the same complaints from my private clients and friends. So I decided to share a few tricks of the trade to keep the holiday blues away from your door this season.

I’ll share a tip a day between now and December 25, and give some special year-end and New Year’s prep help for Dec. 26 – Jan. 1. Feel free to check in daily to find inspiration, hope, and practical tools to bring peace, joy, connection and love to you and your loved ones as you celebrate this season.

Holiday Key 1: Recognize Stress Before It Gets To You

In this first tip on getting out of the rat race of stress, it’s good to start with a working definition of “stress”. For our purposes, we’ll define personal stress as:

“The perception that the demands placed upon you

are greater than your resources to handle them”

Here’s the good news in this definition of stress: There are three points of change easily available to annihilate it! You can 1) change your perception, 2) change the demands (hint, you may have to say no!),or 3) increase your resources. Over the next 9 days, I’ll give you several suggestions for how to do all three.

Know your stress response. Everybody responds differently, and to defeat the enemy, you must know yourself. How do you know you’re stressed? Where do you feel it in your body? (Tight shoulders, knots in your stomach, back ache, head ache). What’s your first response? (Overeating, loss of appetite, fuzzy thinking, difficulty sleeping…). At the very first sign you need to take action. Here’s some quick, easy, you-can-do-it anytime, anywhere stress-busters:

1) BREATHE. The first thing we often do when stressed is hold our breath. Your body needs oxygen to release the tension, and your brain needs air to think of a better response. Try it right now – take a long inhale, hold it, exhale with a sigh. Always breathe before you act.

2) LAUGH: Find a way to laugh at yourself, the situation. Laughter is the second best stress eliminator (try to laugh and stay tense at the same time – see what I mean?). Think of something funny, even ridiculous, and when you’re done laughing, you’ll have more energy to create a way out of it.

3) Ask yourself: WHAT ELSE IS POSSIBLE?  This is a powerful question that turns your attention away from being stuck (not enough resources) to creative (how can I change my perception, the demands, or increase my resources?

Stay tuned for more tips tomorrow, and enjoy breathing and laughing through your day!

Be Love and Prosper,

Felicia