Lose Holiday Stress from Holiday Expectations

What are your expectations for the holidays? Do you need to have the perfect party, or are you steadying yourself for the annual Christmas relative fight? I think much of our stress during the holidays is our expectations about how we should be and feel at this time of year. Some folks have had impossible standards to reach from their childhood fairy tale Christmases and others' don't have any experience with happy memories from the past. We spend a lot of time being stuck in those thoughts and those days gone by.

What would happen if we chose to create a new memory, not based on the old? This could be changing a family tradition that no longer fits in our life, even though you may get some backlash for the change, or creating something new that has meaning just for us. Is there something we can let go of this month? Instead of looking at every store in a 30 mile radius for the exact spice to use in that festive dish you always make and hating every moment of it....why not find something you love to create and choose that instead of delivering on those expectations? Take a look at what you really want in your life and start paring down the stuff that just doesn't belong there. The holidays are a great place to start!