The Holidays and Boundaries

Communicating and holding your boundaries during the holidays can feel especially tricky. There are expectations to be managed, ideas about how to spend the holidays, and for many of us balancing work and family become tricky as we bring the year to a close and plan for 2023. There are budgets to complete, final sales sprints and, of course, work celebrations. It is easy to feel like you are being pulled apart by running from one event to another. It is for this reason that being mindful about how you spend your time is crucial.

Here are some tried and true tips to making the holidays fun instead of an endurance test. 

1. Spend a few minutes thinking about and writing down how you want the holiday season to feel. For example: Do you want to relax? Do you want to travel or have an adventure? Do you want it to feel festive? Are there special traditions you want to make time for? If you have children, how do you want it to feel for them? 
2. Communicate with your loved ones early about how you want the season to feel and why it is important to you.
3. Think ahead to decide what invitations to accept and what you will need to decline. Remember you don’t have to go to everything you are invited to. Try to prioritize the events that you are excited about and avoid those that feel like an obligation. Just because someone is family does not mean that we need to spend time with them. It is okay to decline family invitations. This can be hard for many of us, but sometimes creating boundaries for your family or yourself requires you to make difficult decisions or potentially disappoint someone. Often, we sacrifice too much to make others happy and end up sick, exhausted, short tempered, and even resentful. Not a great way to spend the holiday season!  
4. Decide how you feel about gifting during the holidays. You don’t have to exchange gifts with everyone. Talking about gifting openly and honestly can be truly liberating. This is true with family, friends, and co-workers. 
5. It is okay to prioritize routines that help you keep your sanity like, daily exercise, mediation, healthy meals, walks, and down time recharge. This will make everything feel better and it will be less difficult to continue your good habits into the new year!