Choose your battles wisely.
Tip # 15 for the holiday season: Choose your battles wisely.
Your family is bound to get on your nerves a little while spending so much extra time together in close quarters. It can be tempting to start a fight or to try and sort it all out in a night. The holidays are not the most effective or appropriate time to unpack complicated family dynamics that have formed and solidified over years. Take a step back, relax, go with the flow, and find ways to take care of yourself. If it’s important to you to sort out these issues in this lifetime, then make a commitment to figure out how to tackle them later in the year.
Here’s how the Calm team finds their holiday flow:
Jade: Acknowledging that the holidays might not be the right time or place to resolve particular issues was a huge breakthrough for me. By making this decision it liberated me to be more in the moment and focus on activities we could do together, instead of trying to ‘fix’ family dynamics or try to change things which are out of my control.
Christi-an: This is where a deep breath or placing my hand on my belly really helps me to soothe and regulate my emotions when I’m feeling upset by something that someone said or did.
