#36: Travel Light through the Holidays

MYB EPISODE 36: Travel Light through the Holidays

(Also, stick around for some "light" bloopers at the end)

In Episode 10, we shared our best tips and strategies for navigating the holidays in a way that makes you feel healthy, joyful, empowered, and connected.

https://themindyourbody.podbean.com/e/10-setting-yourself-up-for-healthy-happy-holidays/

Even if you’ve listened to that one, you might want to go back and listen again.

In today’s episode, we’re talking about how you FEEL about the approaching holiday season.

Many of us feel stressed just THINKING about the holidays.

REGARDING THE HOLIDAYS, WE OFTEN STRESS ABOUT:

• Finances
• Travel: Across town or across the country!
• The pressure to create Holiday Magic for our family (decorating, find the perfect gifts, wrapping presents, hosting gatherings, creating memories)
• Additional social functions
• Fear of losing control of food choices
• Feeling like there’s less time to exercise
• Lack of sleep because of the heap of additional responsibilities on top of all the existing ones!

Even for those who love the holiday season, just thinking about the holidays can cause us to clench up!

WHAT IS STRESS?

According to the Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine:

“Humans experience stress, or perceive things as threatening, when they do not believe that their resources for coping with obstacles (stimuli, people, situations, etc.) are enough for what the circumstances demand. When people think the demands being placed on them exceed their ability to cope, they then perceive stress.”

So basically, stress often is our perception of a situation rather than the situation itself.

SWITCHING UP OUR APPROACH/MINDSET FOR THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

What if, instead of viewing the next couple of months as an inevitable landslide of overspending, overcommitting, and placing everyone’s needs above our own, we decided to take the pressure off IN ADVANCE?

What if we this year we decide to TRAVEL LIGHT through the holidays?

TRAVEL LIGHT: A DEFINITION

Having the mindset of traveling light means not taking a situation more seriously than absolutely necessary.

In this scenario, it means prioritizing the things about the holidays that are meaningful to you and letting go of all the perfectionist details (the perfect gift, the perfect décor, the perfect party, the perfect macros.)

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN IN REAL LIFE?

• It means communicating to your family/friends that you intend to ENJOY the holidays this year which means focusing on CONNECTION.
• It means everyone pitching in to create THE MAGIC.
• It means scheduling time for you to meet your needs.
• It means setting a budget: overall and for each person you’re shopping for.
• It means being intentional about your indulgences so you can enjoy holiday foods without feeling out of control.
• It means making bedtime a priority no matter what.
• It means ignoring all the hype about New Year/New You that’s going to be barraging your social media feeds

We’d love to know your thoughts. Was this helpful? Do you have other topics you’d like to hear us discuss? Let us know on our MYB Facebook page!

xo,

Lisa and Jenny, co-hosts

The Mind Your Body Podcast