FEELING FESTIVE PRESSURE OR STRESS?

I don’t know about you, but there are a lot of ideas about how Christmas “should” be that have been learned by my mind, over the years. Which is fine, and exactly what a mind will do, but then that mind also goes and forgets that these are ideas and starts judging itself when not all of these things happen in reality.

It’ll say things like:

"Why have I not been more organised this year?"

"I should have had all the presents wrapped by the end of November."

"I wish I could honestly say “yes” when people ask me if I’m organised for Christmas."

It’ll tell me that if only I could get this right, then I could really relax and enjoy the festive season and do all the things that it (the mind) thinks need to happen in December – clean the house, send Christmas cards, create “magical” Christmas experiences for the family, and so on. Oh and also keep working, building a business, and doing all the normal stuff, as well as looking after seasonally ill children with the accompanying sleep deprivation, and so on.

To top it all off, my mind also says that I should somehow have more energy at the exact time of year (in the northern hemisphere) when, quite naturally, like the rest of the living creatures on earth, we have less energy and more need for rest and general downtime, slowness and cosiness.

I used to get so caught up in this and spend a lot of the festive season feeling anxious and frazzled, hearing myself saying yes to things that I didn’t really want to do.

Then I saw all of this for what it is.

Thought believed.

The festive season looks and feels mighty different these days.

And I LOVE the feeling of stress that arises when I get caught up in mistaking thought for reality. It’s such a beautiful, powerful signal that I’ve got lost in the thought movie, again!

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#christmas2024 #wellbeing #stress #anxiety #resilience