Preventing Holiday Burnout Part 1: Try These 3 Self-Care Tips
You’re standing in line, shopping for holiday presents at the last minute… again.
The last thing you want to do after a long day at work is to run stressful holiday errands. But, here you are.
Next!
The cashier calls you over. As he rings you up, you massage the knots in your shoulder. You wince at the hammering in your temples. Through the pain, you consider stopping for coffee to hopefully clear your brain fog.
This is what holiday burnout feels like.
The signs of burnout feel like uninvited guests every holiday season. Instead of joyful anticipation for the holidays, all you feel is exhaustion and anxiety. 
This holiday season, I want to equip you with self-care practices that will improve your physical, emotional, and mental well-being. That way, you can enjoy your holidays and savor the time you spend with your loved ones.
This holiday season, I want to equip you with self-care practices that will improve your physical, emotional, and mental well-being. That way, you can enjoy your holidays and savor the time you spend with your loved ones. Share on X#1 Fortify Your Body
For many people, burnout symptoms manifest in their bodies. Headaches. Tense muscles. Shallow breathing. Here are three physical self-care tactics to address those problems.
Prioritize Sleep Quality
Sleep improves your energy levels, sharpens your focus, and improves your appetite. However, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that 1 in 3 adults don’t get enough sleep.
If low energy levels seem to be the norm lately, start evaluating your sleep quality. Are you going to bed on time? Are you consistently sleeping for six to eight hours? If not, make improving your sleep quality a top priority.
Fuel Your Body
Burnout and the common cold often partner up during the holiday season. Depending on what you eat, your diet can worsen your symptoms. Excessive sugar and empty calories can sabotage your energy levels, mental clarity, and mood.
Boost your immune system with wholesome, nutritious meals. Fueling your body with the right foods can help you ward off holiday burnout.
Get Moving
If you’re sitting at a desk from sun-up to sun-down, it’s easy to save exercise for “when you feel like it”.
I’ll try again tomorrow. It’s been a long day and I’m beat.
However, neglecting exercise does little to soothe your signs of burnout. When you consistently exercise, you can boost your energy, sharpen your focus, and increase self-esteem.
Taking walks during your work breaks (Another tip: schedule in work breaks!) and during the weekends can be a convenient way to strengthen your heart, while combating all the holiday stress.
#2 Reclaim Your Mind
As fall transitions into winter, your mind is bombarded with holiday-related errands. Practice mental self-care with these tips to help you better manage holiday burnout.
Declutter Your Mind
Ever felt overwhelmed by a huge project?
Looming deadlines and a mountain of work is enough to overwhelm anybody.
We often see the holidays the same way: a mountain of work.
The best way to climb this mountain is one step at a time. And that first step is getting all those holiday errands out of your head and onto paper. Once you’ve written them down, assign each task a date and time on your calendar.
With a little organization and the right productivity systems, our minds don’t always have to suffer from burnout.
Meditate
Sitting in silence with your thoughts can be scary. Distracting yourself with social media and your favorite TV series is so much easier.
However, our minds can get cluttered with anxiety, overwhelm, and self-doubt. Meditation helps you clear that mental gunk and invites inspiration and peace back into your life.
If you find yourself overwhelmed with holiday stress, sit down and meditate. If you’re still uncomfortable with silence, try guided meditation with a mobile app.
Avoid consuming negativity from toxic people and online sources. Instead, feed your mind with inspiration and positivity, like the content I share when you sign up for my mailing list.
#3 Discover and Celebrate Your Emotions
Emotional exhaustion can easily tear down your resiliency during the holidays. Here is how you can add emotional self-care to your routine.
Journal
The self-care process can be a journey of self-discovery. However, your voice is often drowned out by trending news, social media, and marketing ads.
We get so busy listening to others that we forget to listen to ourselves.
Journaling helps you tune back into your thoughts. Rediscovering who you are and what you value helps you achieve emotional harmony. Don’t wait until the holidays to gift yourself with a journal. Delve into your thoughts and emotions now.
Connect with Your Loved Ones
Inter-connection is biologically wired into all of us. Our survival depended on people forging bonds and building communities.
As you prepare for the holidays, schedule some quality time with your loved ones. Plan a dinner with a close friend. Give your mom a hug. Go on a date with your lover.
When you give your time and love, you will receive it back in abundance.
Overcome Holiday Burnout In Just Ten Minutes…
Holiday burnout happens to the best of us, myself included. If left unmanaged, it can derail the entire holiday season for you.
And that’s why I want to help you. In addition to these self-care tips, you can sign up to receive a FREE gift: “From Burnout To Balance: A Simple 10-Minute Daily Self-Care Practice.”
This practice has been shown to:
- Increase mindfulness, well-being, self-confidence, and personal power
- Increase your ability to concentrate
- Cultivate a greater resilience to stress, a positive mindset, and a sense of hopefulness and calm
- Decrease stress and stress-related symptoms like frustration, mood swings, feelings of overwhelm or lack of control, anxiety, depression, low energy, headaches, body aches and pains, muscle tension, chest pain and rapid heartbeat, insomnia, and frequent colds and infections
- Reduce or even stop worrying
If you dedicate just ten minutes everyday to caring for yourself, your life will transform for the better.
