3 Ways to Stay Sane in a Crazy Time
Have you every observed how crazy we can become over holiday season? People in general seem angrier, more impatient, less compassionate and more selfish. To say it bluntly we just don’t seem to care as much as we did the rest of the “normal” year.
Yes unfortunately, I have been guilty of this crazy behaviour myself. And I guess so have many. How can we break free from this mindless behaviour?
3 Ways to Help us Break away from Mindless Behaviour this Holiday Season
1. Don’t Break your Routine for Personal/ Spiritual Growth
This sounds easier said than done. Many of us have a routine that we follow for personal growth. We wake up early and maybe do some yoga, gym or meditation. This keeps us balanced and ready to enter into our normal day. We sometimes break our routine during holidays. Why? Because we owe it to ourselves to relax more and maybe sleep in a bit.
Although there is nothing wrong with treating yourself to another hour or two’s sleep, we have to be aware that this break indicates consistency. The very ingredient we need to make our daily routines a habit. So try and don’t break your routines for personal growth. For example. If you meditate each day for 30 minutes, keep on doing it. However, if you need to change this then do it in chunks. Do 15 or 10 minute chunks throughout the day. Just remember to do it.
2. Stay ware of your Levels of Gratitude and Compassion
This can become very daunting when you have difficult family members over for the holidays and a bunch of kids running around in your house. Not even to mention people cutting queues or driving like maniacs. Being aware of what you are grateful for can help with this. Remember Covey’s theory of stimulus vs. response? Well, thinking about what you are grateful for creates time between stimulus and response to think of a better response. Then before you respond you can ask yourself: “is this the most compassionate way to respond or is there another more enlightened way?”
I believe that being aware of our actions, not only in holiday season; can help us to become more balanced and attentive to how we respond to stimuli.
3. Lower your Expectations of Others
Sometimes when we take stock of our expectations of others we will see how high these are. We expect our children to be quiet and listen to us. We expect our extended family members not to bring up the sensitive family issue during dinner. We expect our spouse to step in and save us when our in-laws or parents talks down to us. Expectations, expectations and more expectations. Is it not time to lower our expectations of others? We cannot control the behaviour of others.
So why do we expect them to behave in a certain way? And what happens if our expectations are not met? We usually get angry or resentful. Two emotions that you don’t need on your holiday. How do you lower your expectations? Just let go of them. Another thing that is hard to do. However, like everything else it takes practice and awareness. I have personally benefited from making a choice to suspend my expectations for about a day at the time. This helped me to feel more free and calm during my day.
Yes, holiday season could seem like a drag. However, if we follow just these three steps then we can enjoy the holiday, stay aware and mindful, and have a super exciting and relaxing time with our family and friends.
