Holiday Self-Care Survival Guide

In this episode, I’m focusing on self-care during the holidays. Specifically, I kick things off with my essay, “How to Survive Dysfunctional Family Get-Togethers (the Buddhist Version.)” It’s a perennial favorite, updated here to reflect some Buddhist teachings I love.   Then I go on to share my own thoughts about this all-important topic of self-care during the holiday madness.   Most of us know the holidays as a time to indulge, then stagger off to lose that extra weight/hangover/sudden shopping debt with a ‘wellness binge’ in the first weeks of the new year.   I’d like to humbly suggest something different. In this episode, I share some ideas about self-care during the holiday … specifically, how to rethink the usual routines to better honor ourselves.   Why not use parties as a way to check in with your feelings/values/desires/needs?   Why not treat those annual events you just have to do … yet again … as an opportunity to rethink the routines?   Can you notice how your own values may have evolved?   If nothing else, you’ll get much more deeply in touch with yourself – and you might even have a lot more fun. Because, yeah, this is a time of year when we’re soundly encouraged to have lots and lots of fun.   I’m taking a slightly more realistic approach here, because sometimes the holidays bring up grief, loneliness, anxiety and even depression. We don’t have to dwell on that – but it’s good to acknowledge that the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ can come with baggage.   And that’s perfectly fine. Even normal.   Happy Holidays my friend. I truly hope you find this useful … and you have a great one!   Suzanne Falter   RESOURCES   Suzanne’s online course ON SALE Self-Care for Extremely Busy Women – Save 60%!   Suzanne’s essay, How to Get Along at Dysfunctional Family Get Togethers (the Buddhist Version)     ABOUT SUZANNE FALTER Suzanne Falter hosts the Self-Care for Extremely Busy Women podcast where she brings better self-care to thousands of busy people each week in 98 countries around the globe. She also keynotes and leads corporate workshops and online programs on self-care. She is the author of The Extremely Busy Woman’s Guide to Self-Care (Sourcebooks.)