It is now very close to the Christmas holidays, which we associate with meetings and reunions with family, friends, colleagues (or ex-partners) of work or studies, with food, gifts, the illusion of children and the memory of the people who are no longer with us. The Christmas spirit floods us all -major and small-, but as we grow sometimes nostalgic to miss people who have left us, or the fact of being away from the family and cannot celebrate the holidays together, or have that meeting with people with whom we have a little distant or uncomfortable, in addition to the excess of commitments and food these days make us not enjoy these holidays as we would like. We ended up overwhelmed emotionally, stressed and with some extra kilos. And although every year we propose to live it in a more calm and healthy way it seems that it is not possible. But the reality is that we do have the power to turn these days into very special parties to be with the people we want without stress, with joy, and enjoy food with sanity and without excess. In this article, we will discuss how to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas.
10 Ideas to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas
- Practice love towards oneself
- Learn to say no
- Prepare yourself emotionally for unpleasant situations
- Cry if we feel the need to do so
- Practice gratitude
- Remember the true spirit of Christmas
- Maintain the perspective
- Buy with awareness
- Notify family members of our dietary changes
- Make a light and healthy Christmas menu
How to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas- 1: Practice love towards oneself
Instead of focusing these holidays on dedication and dedication to others, we can take advantage of them to love and take care of ourselves. We can rest and sleep the hours we want, exercise, enjoy the couple, and pay to give us a massage, do things in the house more calmly or prepare a recipe that makes us excited.
How to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas- 2: Learn to say no
Many times we feel compelled to attend parties, meals, meetings or other events that are, in reality, totally dispensable, and that do not contribute anything. The best we can do in these cases is to thank the invitation and decline it kindly. Saying no to some acts will allow us to enjoy more time for ourselves and for the people that really matter to us.
How to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas- 3: Prepare yourself emotionally for unpleasant situations
Although we love our family and want to spend time with them during these holidays, it is often inevitable that conflicts arise, sparks from the past reignite or we live situations of emotional stress that are repeated every year. But if we start a few days before to visualize the situation from the perspective of forgiveness, understanding, letting flow and not taking any comments as something personal, when the day arrives we will respond to the situation in a positive way.
How to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas- 4: Cry if we feel the need to do so
If these are the first parties we have without a loved one, we are likely to feel the need to cry. In these cases, it is important to give us permission to cry. It is a temporary, momentary and totally understandable emotion. We must accept it and let it flow so that the following year, Christmas is less sad and painful. Keep reading How to make a DIY Christmas wreath
How to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas- 5: Practice gratitude
We should thank for sharing these days with loved ones, for the luck we have of being able to eat a hot dish, for being able to make and receive gifts and for having people to hug, instead of focusing on what we lack. The choice to focus on the good things we have and to be grateful will make us happy and cheerful. There is nothing more powerful than being grateful to be able to change the emotions of grief, pain, resentment, despair or lack of meaning of life in joy, peace, well-being, and happiness.
How to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas- 6: Remember the true spirit of Christmas
Very often we get stressed because we do not know what gifts to give or because we think too much about what the best menu will be. When this moment arrives, we must stop for a second and remember that the true spirit of Christmas is neither gifts nor food: it is the fact of being with the people we love. And if precisely the source of our discomfort is the fact of being with the family we should practice even more gratitude and forgiveness, because it means that we have blocked emotions that do not allow us to enjoy what is really worthwhile.
How to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas- 7: Maintain the perspective
The parties begin on the 24th not in October or November. See from as early as Christmas trees, decorations in stores and ads stresses us and makes us lose perspective. Remember, then, that the first day of Christmas is 24 and that neither gifts nor food are the most important of these holidays; so it does not make any sense to live the previous month with anguish thinking about the menu we will do or stressing thinking that we did not arrive in time to buy all the gifts.
How to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas- 8: Buy with awareness
For example, if we do not want to eat more nougat from the account, the best thing we can do is buy the righteous and necessary to enjoy a little that night and that’s it. In addition, today we can buy organic nougat, with whole cane sugar, gluten-free, dairy-free and very healthy. On the other hand, if we do not want to enter the consumerist spirit of “buy to buy” we can make “experience gifts”, like a good massage, and instead of buying five gifts for each family member we can make the invisible friend.
How to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas- 9: Notify family members of our dietary changes
If we have changed our diet from last year, we should keep in mind that the people around us may not know it; therefore, it is best to communicate it before the day we meet to allow room for maneuver to the person preparing the menu. We can also propose to take our food. In addition, sure that warning in advance of our dietary changes, we can also save the typical unfortunate comments made by people in these cases.
How to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas- 10: Make a light and healthy Christmas menu
If we do not want to end the holidays with three kilos more, we can lighten and make healthier the usual menu or even break traditions (that should be assessed by each according to their character and the people who will go to lunch or dinner). We can use a gluten-free pasta for the cannelloni or even prepare a vegan option, substitute the pork hors-d’oeuvres for a vegetarian pica-pica (cabbage or sweet potato chips, guacamole, mutabal, tomato and onion, baked artichokes, sweet potato bravas with vegan pesto), buy or make sweets without refined sugar (raw coconut and chocolate truffles, homemade polvorones sugar-free), do not mix alcoholic beverages, and we can also prepare a good green salad that also has baked vegetables and a very healthy homemade sauce (mix a spoonful of umeboshi paste with four tablespoons of tahini and a little hot water). It is not about forbidding us anything, but eating with a conscience knowing that we do not want to overdo it and then find ourselves wrong.
We hope you will like these ideas to have a healthy and stress-free Christmas. We want your comments and suggestions to improve our ideas. Thank you and have a good day!
