5 Steps to Simplify Your Life This Holiday Season

December 2, 2015
December 2, 2015 Kenneth

5 Steps to Simplify Your Life This Holiday Season

Christmas is a time to be merry. Sounds cliché, right? The reality is that while kids are perhaps the happiest during the holiday season, adults seem to be getting more and more anxious as it approaches. Imagine all the stress that comes with last minute gift shopping or the number of parties you need to attend to, not to mention the pressure of planning on what to wear. What used to be supposedly a simple, merry celebration has now become all too complicated.
Now it’s time to put a halt to this bittersweet relationship with the holiday season, put away the holiday rush, and do what really matters most during this time of year.

Here are 5 ways to simplify your life this holiday season:

1. Reflect on the things that really matter most to you.
First, ask yourself: What are the things that really matter to you? Who are the people that matter most to you? Knowing the people you need to prioritize or the activities that hold the utmost importance will help you narrow down the things you need to focus on this Christmas.5 Steps to Simplify your life this holiday Season

2. Let go of the trivial stuff. Focus on what’s more important.
Oftentimes the things that overwhelm us the most are those that are the least important. So try to weed out things that are really not worth your while. Although the holiday season is a time to reconnect with family and friends, don’t forget that more importantly, it’s a time for you to reconnect with yourself. So perhaps you could try to get rid of some distractions. Does social media ring a bell? Getting all too enmeshed in Facebook or Instagram can sometimes pull you away from the people in front of you who are actually those that matter most to you. Spend more time with yourself. Meditate. Read a good book. Watch a movie classic. Spend more time with your family. Put on a good music and dance to it. Have a holiday bonfire. Whatever it is, make sure to engage all your attention to it. Be present.

3. Delegate.
Christmas is all about sharing and bringing helping hands together. So don’t think of it like you’re going to have to do everything yourself. Save that for the superheroes. Make a checklist of the things you need to do for the holidays. Check the things you need to do yourself and assign the rest to your family members or relatives who might be coming over for the holidays. Pass on some of the tasks to the kids too like simple yet fun activities such as wrapping presents or decorating the tree. Doing things one at a time and letting others help you do the other stuff would greatly put a lot of load off your back.

4. Give gifts in a simple, different way.
Shopping for gifts amidst the holiday rush could be one of the most overwhelming things during the holiday season, if not the most. So what are ways for you to simplify the gift-giving process that if you’re lucky would make you skip going to the mall?
Create your own gifts. You don’t need to match the skills of Martha Stewart. All you need is to squeeze a little creative juice out of you. There are tons of DIY gift ideas that you can find on Pinterest. Baking your own goodies to send out as gifts to your friends never gets old either.
Support a cause. Yes, traditions are important. But exchanging gifts can be something you can take off your list this season. Why not be more practical and do something that would impact your society? All the money you spend buying presents could do more good if you give it to people who need it most. That to me is what the true spirit of Christmas is all about. Donate pre-loved clothes to a homeless shelter. Visit retirement homes (you have no idea how elders appreciate this, many of them whose families have completely forgotten them). Here are others examples of causes that you may want to get involved in this Christmas. Then you can ask your friends to do the same thing too and make this a part of your tradition.

5. Clear your schedule.
Parties, soirees, gatherings, no matter which way you call them – they simply prove to be inevitable this holiday season. But it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get to attend each and every one of them. They’re going to be having another one next year anyway. So it doesn’t mean you have to go inside your hermit cave and ignore all of them. Just choose the parties that you want to go to and limit them to a number that would restore your sanity.

Indeed… ‘tis the season to be merry and not the season to worry. So do something different this Christmas, will you? And put more focus on the true spirit of Christmas – LOVE.

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