By enakshi ganguly
Tis the season to empty your wallets & run the streets to your local outlet mall! Even if you’re not somebody who really celebrates the holidays, our culture drastically shifts towards buying more, finding the best deals, and doing more for ourselves and others. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can definitely rev up the anxiety, stress, and feelings of overwhelm. Here are some basic ways to decompress as we head into this season:
- Make time to slow down
- For every time you feel like you need to rush to do something, take some time to savor the moments. This can be through meditation, enjoying a meal with someone or by yourself, reading a book…anything that doesn’t require you to be mindful of time.
- Budget your money
- I don’t know about others, but I definitely get caught up in gifting people an ‘experience’, which means going the extra two, three, five miles. For people who are like that, find ways to restrain yourself from over extending you and your bank account. Figure out how much money you want to spend in total, and how much money you want to spend per person.
- Plan your time
- Figure out your schedule so you know when you’re buying gifts, when you’re wrapping them up, how much time you have to look up ideas on Pinterest or recipes for the family, etc. I would even create a table of all the places you need to go to for gifts, wrapping paper, gift bags etc. and all the things you need from each place, so that you’re not making multiple trips back to a store, using up all your time, gas, and energy. There is enough time for everything, but only if you plan ahead and stick with it!
- Unplug
- If possible, take time out of every day (or week) to not be on any form of social media, not consuming the news, the radio stations, or television. Take time to sit in silence, read something, write something. Just exist and focus all your energy on that, because outlets such as television and news keeps mentally feeding us that we ought to be at a store, or working on some holiday dish, or catching up with family to invite them to some dinner party. The list goes on. Take several moments to unplug and regain some internal peace and calm to mindfully stop the stream of what we ‘should’ and ‘should not’ be doing at this time.
- Have fun!
- Decompress in whatever way that you enjoy like doing a secret santa with friends, cuddle with a best friend or someone you’re dating, make a gingerbread house with your neighbors and volunteer at shelters and community centers! This is a beautiful season full of celebrating the spirit of generosity, compassion and community. Take this time to stop and connect with the wonderful people and the larger community you live in, and make sure to joyously indulge in it!
What are some ways you like to regain peace and calm? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter (@allgoqpoc) and Instagram (@allgoqpoc)!
