5-Stress Busting Holiday Tips for Family Visits

Visiting the family for the holidays can be stressful. During a visit, it’s likely that things will get a little stressful. Maybe someone will get irritated and perhaps even a little angry. It’s an actual skill we’ve acquired as humans to decipher exactly where to push another’s buttons. Our family has the secret map to those buttons! From the view of Unconditional Love, it’s lovely that another human knows those details about us. We think, geez… “I can’t believe they said that”, or “but we’re family.” “We’re supposed to get along!” Not the case. It’s easier to give up that fantasy now and implement a strategy to keep your mind calm, your heart open, and the love flowing.

I love my family, and I love spending time with them, BUT honestly - we’re different people with different beliefs, thoughts, and opinions. We don’t always agree, but we do always love each other. There’s much beauty in difference, for if we were all identical, this would be an awfully boring world. Not to mention, difference allows us to see things from a different perspective and grow. A belief is just a temporary “placeholder of operating procedure” until another belief takes its place – isn’t it remarkable how adaptable we are?!?!

I have a few practices in place that help me year-round that I’m offering you. I use these not only when I’m visiting family, but these practices help me show up each day with a calmer mind and open heart.

1. MEDITATE – Meditation is a foundational tool that we can build our day on. It’s said that the first 30 minutes of the day are the most impressionable to the mind. What happens during those first 30 minutes is how you’re programming the body to respond the rest of the day. Suppose you’re waking up to alerts going off on your phone, chaos in the house, and reading fear-based news. In that case, your nervous system will be on hyper-alert all day, and after time this can lead to chronic stress, which can manifest into something far worse. If you take those first 30 minutes of the day to meditate, you’re warming up the mind-body system. When you take the time to warm up the system, you’re more alert, focused, less reactionary, and more consciously responsive. I’ve recorded a Great Day Morning Meditation that is posted on Insight Timer. Check it out here.

2. STAY ACTIVE – Do some physical activity. Get those muscles and joints moving and the blood flowing. When we visit family, there’s a lot of sitting and not much moving. This lack of movement is the perfect garden for toxic invaders to plant themselves. This toxicity will affect the mind and put you into a more reactive state. Have you ever noticed how much better you feel after taking a walk or working out at the gym? Do your part for the peace of the family and MOVE! Moving the body helps to weed the garden of those toxic invaders!