webadminThe holiday season along with its lights and celebrations, often brings some unwelcome guests like stress, fatigue, and depression. These are often a result of an accumulated amount of demands such as shopping, cooking, cleaning, and entertaining among many others.
“Enjoy the Holidays: Turn Holiday Stress Into Holiday Cheer”, written by Rebecca Cofiño helps readers recapture the magic of the holiday season. Unfortunately, recent years have seen the holidays turn into a season of stress that robs people’s credit cards, time, consumes patience, and drains energy. Every year, individuals strive to relive the experience of joy that they had felt as children. Yet, somehow the holidays end up spinning things out of control.
Referring to the holidays as a single entity, the author presents an interesting calculation. Almost 17 percent of an average individual’s life is spent celebrating the holidays. This generally accounts for the time spent from mid-November till halfway through January. However, if the celebrations start earlier or include an extravagant Halloween, the percentage of time spent on holidays shoots up to 25 to 30 percent. The author terms this as “jumping on the Holiday Express” that takes one nowhere except in loops.
Cofiño discusses building a holiday experience full of meaning rather than one just based on perfectionism and consumerism. After all, 17 percent of a year is a significantly long period of time to spend feeling stressed out, pressured, overwhelmed, and exhausted. The food and the lights take people away from the real goals that form the very essence of their well-being. It puts unnecessary pressure on time, finances, energy, and other resources that would have been otherwise directed towards achieving life goals.
Stay in the present
The trick to remain grounded amid such chaos is simple: stay in the present. It is important to realize that holidays have strong underlying elements that they are essentially based upon. These are gratitude, salvation, a celebration of blessings, cultural heritage, and family.
The book further continues to explore in detail the various ways that can allow an individual to enjoy the holidays rather than be overwhelmed by them. Budgeting is an important component to make this work. The author claims that even though it’s not enjoyable, budgeting is “an incredible part of empowerment.” This budget is not just limited to money, but extends toward time and energy as well. All three of these elements are valuable and can easily be overspent on things that do not really matter.
Further, the book also talks about ways to incorporate mindfulness into holiday celebrations, alongside offering an array of practical tips to make the holidays run smoothly. It also addresses budgets, mental and physical health, perfectionism, family life, stress, organization, and making the holidays meaningful; it offers a simple, yet important promise of bringing back the joy into the holidays.
“An enjoyable book with terrific tips for taking care of yourself during the hectic season. Reminds me of what the season is meant to be!” said a satisfied reader’s review.
Road to mental well-being
While reading books and spending time with friends and family can be productive and boost one’s mental health, sometimes, we need more than all that. Maybe, we need to seek professional help to address our issues.
If you or a loved one is experiencing stress and battling mental health disorders and is looking for a licensed mental health treatment center, get in touch with Mind Health Network. Call our 24/7 helpline 866 548-0190 and speak to a member from our admissions team. With the help of just a few questions, they can assess your condition and assist your admission to one of our state-of-the-art partner mental health treatment centers. You can also chat online to a representative for more information on mental health services offered at our network facilities.
About the author
Rebecca Cofiño is a mindfulness expert who specializes in everyday spirituality and family life. She is the founder of the website mamaguru.com, devoted to helping people discover meaningful happiness.
She is both an author and public speaker. “Enjoy the Holidays: Turn Holiday Stress Into Holiday Cheer” is her first book.
Cofiño grew up in the Pacific Northwest, but spent her twenties traveling the world, visiting four continents and living in three different countries. She has studied Zen in Japan and yoga in India and has been a certified yoga instructor and meditation teacher for over fifteen years.
She currently lives in Miami with her husband and two sons.
