Managing Holiday Stress and Anxiety

Tis the season to be jolly, but the busy schedule can increase stress and damp your holiday cheer! Be it financial stress over buying things or the stress of hosting events and having people over, enjoying Holidays can be difficult with anxiety and stress.

Few tips on how to manage stress:

1. Take a deep breath when you feel the anxiety kick in. Download the Breathe app, if needed so that you can remind yourself to slow down and take deep breaths.
2. Limit your workload and focus on enjoying the moment. Being in the present can reduce anxiety.
3. Take a moment to reflect all the things that you are grateful for. Gratitude is an antidote to anxiety and stress. Keep a gratitude journal or a diary.
4. Dance like no one is watching! Any form of exercise that engages your entire body is an excellent form of stress relief. Choose any activity that can lessen the chattering mind-dance, yoga, run, swim, martial arts.
5. Make your worries bigger: Are you worrying about a severed relationship, the stagnation in your salary, or your competitors overtaking you? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says, “We should start worrying about the whole world instead of ourselves”. The human mind is inclined to worry, so why not worry for the greater good of people? You will see that in the bigger scheme of things, your problems are minuscule. This perspective is a panacea in itself and is one of the natural ways to treat your anxiety.
6. Volunteer: To know that you are the reason for someone’s happiness can make you unbelievably happy! This enthusiasm will help you keep emotions, like anxiety and fear, at bay. Small acts like tutoring a needy student, or providing health services to the poor, make a lot of difference in the lives of the less fortunate.
7. Meditate : Take a break from the stressful planning for the Holidays to meditate. Meditation is an excellent tool to quieten the mind and bring it naturally to the present moment.

The Art Of Living Foundation (AOLF)* is conducting FREE meditation sessions at community library in various locations– Edina, Eden Prairie, Roseville, Hopkins, St. Louis Park and Bloomington.

This event will include:

• Introduction to mind and meditation
• Tips on how to manage holiday stress.
• Light body stretches
• A short guided meditation

To register for the event, click on the following link. https://tinyurl.com/yasujktv

*Operating in 154 countries, The Art of Living Foundation (AOLF) is a non-profit, educational and humanitarian organization founded in 1981 by the world-renowned humanitarian and spiritual teacher Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.