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“Adding Value” to Christmas and reducing the cost of personal stress.
Successful businesses seek to add value to their services and reduce their overheads. So it seems apt to explore how we can add value to our own experience of Christmas, whilst reducing the personal costs of stress.
Stress abounds at Christmas. Positive stress can include all the anticipation, excitement and activity. Negative stress can come from insufficient resources, business targets, potential relationship challenges, absence of loved ones, loneliness, trying to meet the expectations of others, to name just a few.
Aside from our religious beliefs and traditions, it is easy to become swept up in cultural and family patterns of how Christmas should be. Those happy families, glittering decorations, gifts, flowing hospitality. . . where no one is exhausted from doing too much, ill, bereaved, hard up, homeless, or just not wanting to conform.
At the darkest time of the year, having a focus for socialising or celebrating can brighten and lift our spirits, and many people thrive on it all. And there also seems to be an acceptance that high stress levels are a normal part of this. But it does come at a cost.
So rather than starting with a list of stress busting tips for getting things done, I would like to start at a different place.
What does Christmas mean to you personally, what do you want?
When was the last time, if ever, that you sat and thought about what Christmas is about for you?
May I invite you to join in this simple exercise, to help you to add value to your experience of Christmas, and to reduce the cost of stress? It will only take you a few minutes.
Find somewhere quiet to sit and relax, close your eyes, breathe gently and let go of pressing demands and things to do.
Imagine your ideal Christmas. Let’s begin with the time leading up to Christmas day, how you are feeling, what you are doing. Then see Christmas day unfold. Where are you? Who is with you? What are you doing? Picture all the details, everything you can see, hear, and taste. How are you feeling, happy, relaxed? On a scale of 1-10, how much would you like your Christmas to be like this? Why is it important?
This is about getting in touch with what is important to you. Which aspects of Christmas do you want to keep? Which bits can you do without? What would you like to add?
Next step, open your eyes, and reflect on what you are expecting this year. How will it be affected by things that have happened to you during the year? How stressed are you feeling as you prepare for it?
What is the gap between how you would like Christmas to be and what you expect it has to be?
The final stage in this exercise is to identify one small thing that you can do as the first step towards your ideal Christmas. It could be practical, seeing things differently, deciding not to do something, asking someone for help, or doing more of something that you enjoy.
You decide, and do it. And then you can add another one after a week or so.
(Part 2: Managing resources to reduce your stress levels.)
Copyright 2011 Jenny Cooper
