Thanksgiving is already upon us and many people have already begun their rounds of holiday events and parties. The holidays are wonderful but with them comes a lot of extra stress and for many people that means more stress eating.To prevent this, it’s good to have a plan in place.
The first step is to look at is your priorities. Do you feel you need to say yes to every invitation, even when it’s not in your best interest to go? Are you saying yes out of guilt or because you think you should?
Are you spending more money than you should?
It may be time to take a good look and learn to say no to the things you’re not all that jazzed about or that you can actually live without. This step can be very hard if you’re a people pleaser and need the approval of others to feel good about yourself.
Eliminating a lot of unnecessary activities or spending less money can leave you more time to enjoy the holiday in a way that you feel good about. In order to do that, you need to ask yourself what you find most important and enjoyable about the holidays.
The next step is to have realistic expectations of yourself and the people around you. Sometimes we expect the holidays to be all warm and fuzzy, and yet our own families may be difficult and hard to be around. For many of us, just knowing that there is a time limit with difficult relatives can bring a sense of relief. This may entail setting time limits and enforcing boundaries with certain people you find
stressful.
