3 min read
The holidays are upon us.
It’s time to rejoice, share time with family and friends, and appreciate the good tidings that life brings us.
But for some it can be a stressful time: extensive shopping lists, crowds at the mall, or home decorating. These issues can be very real and can drain us of our personal energy, but what we should understand is that while they might exist, we can choose to face them with anxiety or we can choose to face them with a joyful smile on our face.
The choice should be clear -- let’s smile our way through the holiday season! Let’s make a personal commitment to ourselves to enjoy what the holidays bring us and cherish each and every part of the season. And let us find ways to stay upbeat, positive and energetic so that we can truly treasure the time we spend with our family and friends.
Interestingly, learning to smile can be a great starting point as it offers us several powerful ways that can impact our mind and our soul.
Smiling is a tool that provides us with a double effect: it makes us feel happier, more positive, and more approachable. It can strengthen our immune system and our moods which both provide us with a source of energy. On the flip side, smiling can decrease anxiety, stress, and worries.
This article written by Peter Economy on February 13, 2015 in Inc. lists 13 different reasons how smiling can help your body and mind.
I also like this article by Rita Watson published on December 16, 2013 in Psychology Today. This story, titled “6 Ways to Smile Through the Holidays,” lays out nicely a lot of the techniques that I believe in that can help us maintain the joy of the holiday season. Here are a few of the methods recommended in the story.
- Time management. Take a hard look at your to-do list during the holidays and determine your best course of action. And remember, it’s okay to say “no.” We can’t accomplish everything asked of us all of the time, especially during the holidays.
- Daily time for ourselves. We should look to spend 10 minutes a day just to ourselves. Take a walk. Meditate. Read. Listen to music. Find the space for whatever it is that provides you with peace, harmony and tranquility, and make sure to carve out time each and every day just for you.
- Main-street shopping. A lot of the stress that we experience comes from driving to the mall in traffic, maneuvering through stores with crowds of people, waiting in line to pay, and driving home again in traffic. But what about shopping in your hometown? Instead of fighting traffic, consider going to your town’s main street and shopping in the local stores. You’ll save the hassle of traffic, get some exercise and fresh air, and support your local community. This provides us with an excellent win/win/win. And of course, with all of us being techies, we always have the option to easily do our shopping online.
We can also look for opportunities to express gratitude with others. In my earlier story published in Forbes, I discussed how acts of gratitude go a long way in building relationships, sharing kindness, and making us feel better.
If packing a smile isn’t enough to help you stay upbeat and energetic at work and at home, we can look for alternative measures to help us boost our energy levels. For that, we have this story that was published in Forbes on May 1, 2019. The seven ways I listed in this article to help you boost your energy include:
- Building peaceful physical surroundings around you.
- Work with gratitude.
- Practice kindness.
- Be aware of your inner voice.
- Begin with the end in mind for business meetings.
- Manage meetings to maximize outcome.
- Start meetings with a moment of silence and implement moments in silence to reflect from 30 seconds to three minutes. Use your phone as a timer.
If interested, you can check out my Forbes article mentioned above as I laid out more tips and ideas about each of these seven steps.
Hopefully this post help us all stay balanced during the holidays so that we can enjoy the holiday spirit that awaits us. We owe it to ourselves and our loved ones to do so.
Happy holidays!
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