During the holidays it’s easy to put ourselves last, even more so than usual! This not only causes serious stress but, by always tending to your needs last, you can experience not-so-pleasant symptoms including:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Animosity toward those you are giving to
- Weight gain
- Feelings of helplessness
- Feelings of hopelessness
- Low energy
- Loss of drive
And that’s a few of the symptoms and emotions you might experience. This is definitely not the way to get into the holiday spirit! This holiday season, make it a priority to move yourself up to the top of your list. There are some simple ways to do this.
Schedule 60 minutes of “me” time at least once per week.
This 60 minutes could include lunch with your girlfriends, a hike, or a mani/pedi. Maybe you want to indulge in a massage or a fitness class at your local gym or yoga studio. Whatever it is, make sure it’s something that makes you feel good about yourself and like you are really nurturing YOU.
Schedule at LEAST 5 minutes of “me” time daily (but shoot for 15).
The 60 minutes of uninterrupted me time that was mentioned above is great but it’s super important to reconnect to YOU on a daily basis. This might be just 5 minutes of meditation every morning before you wake up the kids or start your day. It might look like a 15 minute burst of cardio or yoga video. The key is that it’s short enough to actually make you FIT it in. An hour a day would be great but if you set the bar that high, you might just never get started. However, if you can commit to just 5-15 minutes a day, you might want to keep going longer. And if you don’t? No problem! 5 minutes a day will add up to way more benefits than only getting reconnected to YOU for one hour, one day per week.
Let go of things from your to-do list.
Really examine your to-do list. First, decide what things really NEED to be done. Next, notice what things need to be done by YOU. Let go of the things that don’t really need to get done. Next, delegate tasks to members of your family. They don’t have to be done perfectly, they just need to get done. Let go of some of your control and relax knowing that you are doing yourself some good by not having to micromanage it all.
Photo Credit: a year of boxes
Treat yourself to a gift, too!
It is really fun to give but most of us women have a hard time receiving. Start showing yourself that you deserve to be pampered too by treating yourself to something that will inspire you to be a better YOU! This might look like yoga gear, maybe a new yoga mat, a monthly subscription box full of yoga apparel or a yoga studio membership. Your local studio might even have deals around the holidays.
Help your fellow women out and share with us on Facebook or Instagram your favorite ways to give back to yourself!
About the Author
Crystal Gray is an E-RYT 500 yoga teacher and proud YogaClub Tribe Leader living in central Illinois on a 20 acre organic vegetable farm with her husband and daughter. She is the creator of the Yoga Goddess Academy, an online spiritual sisterhood, leads local and destination retreats and yoga teacher trainings and coaches yogis and soul-preneurs on finding their purpose and building businesses around that purpose. She makes yoga and spirituality accessible to everyone and every body and gives students the tools to be their own Guru.
