self-care during the holidays

hello cherubs!

today's blog post is going to be about self-care during the holiday season.

most of us can get caught up in the shopping, decorating, and celebrating that we forget that we still need to take care of ourselves. while all of those activities can be fun, if we don't take care of both our mental and physical wellbeing, we will end up overstretched, overwhelmed, and exhausted by the end of it.

to help ourselves, we must take care of our health before, during, and after in order to maintain a healthy mental wellbeing.

here are a few tips and tricks to help practice self-care through this busy time of year.

• check in mentally and physically

this goes for yourself and for others. check in with yourself (just like we do in our monthly checking in blogs) and make sure that you are in the right mental capacity to maintain and conquer everything that is on your plate.

this not only involves your thoughts and emotions, but also incorporates your physical health as well such as energy, sleeping habits, and eating habits as well.

for some of us, it's easy to keep up in the holiday season and we're used to maintaining daily stress and are used to that way of life, so it's simple.

but for some of us, we're not used to all of these plans and activities and things to get done that we don't know how to keep up. we feel as if we have to get everything done at a certain date and stress over things when they aren't going according to plan.

we all have our ways of dealing with stress and anxiety, but we must keep on top of it in order to stay healthy and well.

• set boundaries

setting boundaries can be extremely hard for some and for others it comes naturally. if you're anything like me, you usually have a hard time telling people no, and if you do, you have some much guilt afterwards.

first of all, you shouldn't feel guilty for saying no and take care of yourself. you are the only one in control of maintaining your mental and physical health. if someone is upset by you doing what's best for you, then shame on them. it's better to take care of yourself than overextend yourself and cause your mental health to decline.

setting boundaries is maintaining your ability to say no, only doing activities that you are comfortable doing and that you have the time for, and stopping things that don't bring you happiness. these boundaries are completely up to you and can be different for everyone, but are necessary to living a fulfilling, happy, and healthy life.

• schedule 'me' time

i think this is one of the hardest tasks for most people to accomplish simply because most of us are busy with school, work, and life that it doesn't seem plausible to schedule this time to themselves.

'me' time can look different for everyone. for some it can be taking a drive by themselves. for some it can be going to get their favorite coffee and spend some time reading. for some it can be shopping. for some it can be playing video games or listening to music.

there are no rules to what 'me' time should look like, but once you try it and spend the time to do it, you'll realize how much you appreciate it and love it and you'll probably want to do it more often.

• practice hygge (hue-gah)

so i recently learned about hygge by my friend john (hi john, i hope you're reading this!) but i had no clue what it was before and had never even heard the word before. but hygge is the scandinavian or danish word for contentment or coziness.

"In essence, hygge means creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people"

hygge is making sure that the environment that you are in is serving you contentment. your atmosphere, your presence, your pleasure, your equality, and your togetherness.

i know in this time, not everyone has a supportive family or a good group of friends to spend the holidays with, and that's so hard for me to think about. but believe me, there are other ways to find hygge. maybe it's in the neighbor baking you cookies, or the kids at your job coloring you a picture, or the coworker sending you a christmas card, or that acquaintance that offers you an invitation to their christmas party.

hygge can be sitting down and watching a christmas movie, cuddling with your pet, or making some christmas cookies. it doesn't always have to involve others. you can make your own hygge. comfort is there and coziness is too, you just have to find it.

• ask for help

during this time of year, you're going to be seeing most of the family that you don't normally see all year round. they're going to ask the questions of "how've you been?" and "how's life?" and you might not have the best of answers. and that's okay. the best idea is to be honest with them.

if you're not doing well, explain that life's been rough, but you're trying your best. the worst thing to do is to blow them off with the normal "i'm doing good, how about you?" trust me, i've made this mistake before too.

often times, those of us dealing with mental health struggles don't want to burden others with our intrusive thoughts and how we're feeling. this is one of the main reasons that most people don't ask for help.

please don't let this be the reason that you don't speak on how you're feeling. this is the best time because you are with those who love you most. they care about you and want you to be the best version of yourself. they will understand and they'll want to help.

if you don't have any support or family and friends to ask for help, please reach out to some mental health services or if you think that it is too urgent, go to your nearest emergency room and they will offer you help and point you in the right direction.

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well i hope you guys liked this blog post and gained some ideas for some self-care this holiday season.

remember, you must take care of yourself before you can take care of others.

christmas is just 4 days away,, who's excited??

i'll see you guys again soon

xx loryn