The holiday season is notorious for sometimes bringing more stress than joy to our lives and relationships. But this doesn’t have to be the case! Late fall and early winter are busy seasons, but they don’t have to make us feel like we want to skip forward a couple of months. Here are three ways to prepare for a stress-free Thanksgiving.
Plan Early
Much of the stress around Thanksgiving is from feeling overwhelmed with the amount of stuff to take care of. To help this, make a big list of everything that needs attention. Then, you can delegate tasks to other people. Provide them a timeframe to complete it and write down their name next to the job so that you can follow up with them. This helps to take all the information out of your head and put it onto paper, so you don’t have to worry about remembering everything.
Schedule and Prioritize Personal Time
Providing time for you to unwind is what helps you not feel burned out. As your plan for all the above activities, your well-being should be at the top of this list. This doesn’t mean you spend a half-day at the spa. Instead, adding in something daily, like meditation, exercise, quiet time, a turkey trot 5k, or whatever makes you feel rejuvenated, will help charge you up for the long weekend. It’s a good life habit to learn to blow off some steam before it overflows into the rest of your life. In addition, being proactive about your well-being will help you take care of everyone else.
Turn Thanksgiving Into a Game for Kids
Although we can all agree that the time between Thanksgiving and the rest of the winter holidays should be paid time off, society has a different plan. Unfortunately, there are still final projects and exams for students to prepare for. For younger kids learning another language, you can easily incorporate Spanish vocab into Thanksgiving. Use this holiday as a time for kids to practice another language in an applied and practical way.
By making a few minor tweaks to prepare for a stress-free Thanksgiving, you’ll be on your way to smooth sailing through the holiday season.
