Hello lovely reader!
If I told you to go out and fill your trunk up stress, you couldn’t do it. We create stress. So, during the holidays especially, make an effort to simply stop creating stress. How?
1. See it now, buy it now! If you know that you are going to eventually pick up a gift card for your mailman and your uncle, buy it now while you’re waiting for your latte at Starbucks or while you’re grabbing wine at the grocery store. Be flexible. You don’t need to be “officially holiday shopping” to get a couple people checked off of the list. If you know that your sister would just love those salt and pepper shakers, pick them up right now. Trying to remember what you saw, where you saw and who it was perfect for is only added stress you don’t need and can prevent.
2. USE your smart phone. If you can do it in two minutes or less, do it now. If not, put it in your reminders and better yet, block off the time consuming ideas in your calendar so you have actually created a place to get it all done. Put EVERYTHING in your phone. Even recurring appointments, payments and tasks. This will literally free your mind up for more creative thought, and perhaps, even some thoughts of holiday cheer.
3. Stop thinking about what you have to do. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between thinking about doing something or actually doing something. So, if you’re continually ruminating about what you have to do, your brain thinks that you have been working on it, and furthermore, getting absolutely no where. This leads to the phenomena of thinking that something will be way harder and take longer to complete than it actually will.
4. Think happy thoughts. When you think about something enough and get no where in completing it, you begin to dread it. Since your brain will avoid anything associated with displeasure or pain, you can be sure it will keep you far from anything that you’re dreading or thinking will be miserable. This furthers the procrastination problem leading to stressful thoughts. A nice mantra to take on, even if you don’t believe it now is, “it’s easy and I like it!” Don’t worry. All you have to do is think something enough for it to become a belief. Keep thinking that it’s easy and fun and lo and behold, it will eventually become so.
3. Don’t put everything off until “after the holidays.” No magical time slots open up after January 1st and when they do, we usually head for Mexico. This is just setting up the beginning of the new year for a lot to do. See what you can squeeze in. It’s way more than you think because you may already be grappling with the procrastination time distortion situation that I described in #3. Especially make time for the fun things like lunch with a friend or game night with the neighbors. This is not adding to the stress, it’s probably more likely relieving it a bit.
Peace, love, and all things wonderful,
Cheri
