My Game Plan For Surviving the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

“How we perceive a situation and how we react to it is the basis of our stress. If you focus on the negative in any situation, you can expect high-stress levels. However, if you try and see the good in the situation, your stress levels will greatly diminish.”- Catherine Pulsifer 00:05 Good evening and welcome to my humble podcast abode. I am Cocoa Griot, just a 50 something who's super excited to have a few moments of your time to talk about life love, and a hodgepodge of other topics. Let's face it, the holidays are the most wonderful time of the year for added stress. In this episode, I share tips on how to maintain your sanity while navigating dealing with family and friends. Holidays, the time period between Thanksgiving and New Year's day can be a delight or a disaster. I want to share a sobering fact with you. About 40% of adults are plagued with anxiety around the holidays. Why? What is it about this time that should be joyous that propels so many of us into a tizzy as the country folk say. Expectations about how our holidays should be are a major culprit of anxiety for a lot of people. Tonight, I'm going to show you three strategies that I am using to help reduce my holiday anxiety. I hope these will help you if you tend to experience anxiety during the holiday season. 1:13 The first area and one that is always hanging overhead is money. I found myself singing this tune the other day. It's beginning to cost a lot like Christmas! Then I thought to myself, you are the gatekeeper of your finances. Spend what you can afford to buy and with what you have in hand right now. I say this as I'm just paying off Christmas gifts from two years ago, I saw an intriguing article that said give to someone that your relative supports. Like any kind of cause and then donate in your relative's name. That is such a novel thought and I can tell you if you are searching for a nonprofit to give to, Friends of the Children in Austin Texas positively impacts vulnerable youth and their families. Ask your family members direct