Tis the Season... for EVEN MORE "Busy-ness"

We have an epidemic of BUSY that is severely impacting our deep health. When late November-December hits, multiply that by at least 3x as much "Busy-ness". 🫣 By the time Christmas hits...

• We're POOPED!

• We're GRUMPY

• We're DOWN on ourselves

• We're STRESSED

Talk about a "holly, jolly Christmas" eh? Awesome! 😳

Christmas is a time for loved ones, joy, laughter, memories, meaning, being present... But how can we have those things when we have built up the above points over the course of our YEAR and then gave them a BOOST leading into Christmas!?!?! We can argue that the commercialization of Christmas has lead us in that direction. But it comes down to OUR CHOICES (as we've discussed here on the Zen Blog before). Just because the "busy-ness" of the season is there, doesn't mean we have to participate. It's a choice.

---

Let me take a moment to remind everyone that if you ENJOY rushing around, not knowing which direction you're going and loading your plate each week with SO MUCH STUFF (good or bad) - You CAN do that! If you do choose this however, DON'T be surprised when you're exhausted, grumpy, and stressed.

You can ALWAYS CHOOSE either.

We just CAN'T have both.

---

Here are some reminders of ways we can incorporate LESS busy and MORE slow into our days (ALL YEAR LONG). Of course, it will be easier to implement some of these practices into your days when your days are LESS BUSY. HOWEVER, beginning to practice one or two of these will help give you TWO things NOW:

1) You WON'T keep practicing putting yourself and your wellbeing off for "later".

2) It will help you more easily reach for SIMPLE and DO-ABLE practices instead of TOO BIG TOO SOON.

Ideas of Practices to Work SLOW into Your Days...

☯ Practice saying "No". You're in luck! I recently wrote an entire post on this topic! 😉

☯ Breathe. Our breath is an incredibly powerful tool that we carry with us EVERYWHERE we go, 24/7 for our ENTIRE LIFE. Practice by stopping whatever you're doing, and just breathing 10 times. Focusing your attention on your breath. Seriously. 10-concious breaths. Then go back to what you're doing. Sprinkle that into your days.

(Other practices such as box breathing, 4-7-8 breathing, alternate nostril breathing (nadi shodhana pranayama, and others are excellent to do ANYTIME!)

☯ Move. As counterintuitive as it may seem, since "busy-ness" drains mental, emotional and physical energy itself, incorporating regular movement DAILY can help us with our energy balance, mood, sleep etc. Pay attention to HOW you're approaching daily movement though. Don't FORCE anything. If you have lots of energy, push it a bit that day. If you don't, gentle movement is great. Movement will help keep your cells and physiology happy ANYTIME, but can be a wonderful tool during busy times as well. (*Bonus: Add fresh air and sunshine! Yes even in winter!)

☯ Prioritize sleep. We really need to do this for our health regularly anyway, but certainly when we're busy we need to make it a norm to prioritize sleep! Our body NEEDS that recovery each night from the busy-ness of the days. DON'T watch that extra show to sacrifice sleep time, ideally avoid alcohol after dinner, ensure your room is dark and cool, have an hour wind-down routine before going to sleep...

(*If you need help with this, connect with 'Coach D' and lets talk. He is a certified Sleep, Stress Management & Recovery Coach)

☯ "Shark Habits" work REALLY well in BUSY times (and year round). Dan John calls them "Shark Habits". Those little things we often think, "meh - I'll just do it later" (and then never get to, so they build up). Those little quick, tedious type things. Instead it's just "One Bite" and it's done. See? Shark Habit. 😁 Things like preparing the coffee for the next morning before bed, cutting up the veggies before you put them away after shopping, writing a sticky note to put right with your lunch bag so you don't forget something to take with you before work, doing the dishes right after a meal instead of letting it become a 30-40min job later.... Do it NOW in a shorter amount of time and watch how it keeps stress from building too big later.

☯ Mindful Eating. I love mindful eating practices, but we can certainly argue that mindulness very easily goes out the window this time of year. People bring goodies, there's parties with plenty of treats around etc... My clients know, I'm also one that says "ENJOY THEM! They taste great!". BUT be mindful. A great mantra I've added to my toolbox is "I can have MORE later, no problem". Yes it may taste great now, but I've just had some and I don't feel like POO. That's being mindful. That's slowing down enough to say "I'm good". This time of year there is PLENTY of goodies to go around - you DON'T need to have everything and anything that is put in front of you.

(*If you need help with this, connect with 'Coach D' and lets talk. He is a certified Nutrition Coach)

☯ Know your ENERGY and MOOD. This goes along with the previous point (being mindful) and you can also find this sort of dicussion in the "saying no" post I linked to earlier. Practice being mindful of how your energy and mood is, in relation to how your weekly schedule is being built. If you're struggling to make it through your days/weeks, if you're grumpy and/or on-edge more often than not, if you seem like your mind is on over-drive 24/7... it's a good sign you need to look at incorporating a couple days of your week where you say "NO" and where you can do YOUR THING without rushing or "needing to be anywhere, for anyone".

☯ Give yourself AT LEAST a day of NOTHING each week. When I say "nothing" I mean, nothing scheduled. Don't rush out of bed in the morning (enjoy a gradual build into your day vs rushing to start getting things done), do what you FEEL like that day, be spontaneous, be home for a while etc...

---

Reminder - Start SMALL. So small you think it's silly. Seriously! THAT small ISN'T silly because it's MORE than you've been doing for yourself!!

✔After a few days, you've already done more for yourself than you have in a while.

✔After a week you realize "Geeze, that didn't feel that hard to do".

✔After a month you look back and realize "Whoa! I've just done more for myself than I have in I don't know how long - and it wasn't stressful to make it happen"

THAT is what creates momentum to continue the practice. 😉