Half Full

This is the time of year where we often try our best to keep the holiday spirit alive and well within us, but the daily drudgery of work and life can easily bring us down. I awoke this morning after tossing and turning all night with dreams of the school week ahead of me. Thus far, I've had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with my family and friends, so work is the last thing I want to think about. However, it seems impossible for me to ignore the things that await my attention on Monday morning. I try hard to look at things with the glass is half full mentality, but it definitely takes all my energy to do so on some days. As I began to feel the stress creep back in, I received this uplifting email from a good friend (talk about great timing). I thought I'd share these little pearls of wisdom that might just help you keep your own stress at bay.


Stay Positive During the Holidays
Holidays are for celebrating what is truly important to you, your family, and friends. Make it the holiday you want it to be and chances are you will keep a positive attitude.

• Avoid over scheduling yourself. Use an agenda to keep track of your holiday commitments.


• Give yourself plenty of time between events.


• Schedule some downtime for yourself everyday.


• Lower your expectations.


• Don’t strive for perfection, good enough is okay.


• Don’t expect your family to be perfect during the holidays.


• Make a budget and stick to it.


• The price of the gift is not equal to how much you love them.


• Focus on the people that you care about instead of the stuff that really doesn’t matter.


• Beware of the joy-to-stuff ratio: more stuff does not equal more joy.


• Spread out your socializing in the months after the holidays.


• Don’t try to pack a year’s worth of socializing into a few weeks.


• Get as much sleep as you can.


• Schedule one or two pajama days for yourself or for the whole family to stay home and rest.


• Enjoy some downtime together without rushing about.