Hope you’re doing well, hope your children are in good health. I am so thankful for you all your time spent reading and sharing my blog. It’s now November am now 33 years chapter 33 am loving it 🥰.
So with Christmas approaching steadily, I wanted to help with mental wellness, be mindful of your emotionally state of mind. It’s important while we are showing others we love them to remember we CAN NOT exhaust ourselves!
The meaning of Christmas one of them is,
“to give up one’s very self – to think only of others – how to bring the greatest happiness to others – that is the true meaning of Christmas.” This phrase is normally associated with Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol.
Wikipedia
Blue Who!
So I am here to share some advice on how to keep the festive blues away. I know it’s hard especially with the pandemic a lot of us have lost our jobs, lost loved ones the situations we are in may differ from those around us. So be mindful of others right now, it’s not meant to be a time to show off it’s a time to think of others around you. With that being said do enjoy yourselves don’t be apologetic when buying gifts 🎁!
So let’s be honest we may not be able to buy lots of gifts, or we’re buying lots it’s up to us all we aren’t all In the same financial position, what if you can’t buy gifts at all! Don’t be sorry 😢 I’ll tell you why it’s not the gift nor the price of the gift it’s memory of the moment, the thought, & time coupled with effort that’s what makes a gift special!
So why not make one if you can’t buy one? Cx YES You heard craft a gift 🎁 what’s more special what says more that work done with our hands.
Do what you’re able too remember to embrace the smells, the feeling, remember the laughter the tears. The taste of the first cup of hot chocolate In December those cozy nights on the sofa in front of the telly. Cherish the time with your nearest and dearest, see at Christmas I don’t always get a gift nor do I give gifts to everyone but I still love it so much that I put my Christmas tree 🎄 up in October, ( yes October lol 😂) throughout the year others may think am angry as I do go through things I speak my mind but it’s because others can affect our space which affects our energy, so I do what I need too to reject negative people & situations.
As to me every day is beautiful not just Christmas 🎅 that’s the magic believing in love, kindness no matter what. Spending time with those we love after being in lockdown, being able to hug each other, getting together playing board games getting drunk together because you guys know I love a good drink 🍹 to celebrate 🎊 those special moments.
So my 1st tip: ENJOY the time spent WITH YOUR LOVED ONES.
Mummie Why You Stressed!
As a mum a single mother it’s easy to stress it’s easy to add pressure to ourselves it’s easy to think that we’re not doing enough it’s easy to feel like we’re not good enough but it is not the right way to think. Our children would rather us happy they would rather us stress-free, mentally strong rather than have thousands of pounds worth of gifts with a broken mother / broken parent.
It is not a time to compare ourselves to others nor is it a time to compete yes we may not be able to buy the same amount as other families however we all need to look at the beauty of the season remember those who are less fortunate even if you’re not giving to charity mindfulness of how you speak about other parents because not all parents are not getting a lot of presents for their kids because they’re on drugs not all parents are struggling financially because they don’t work hard enough sometimes our situations make it hard sometimes our situations are different which means what we give what we get is different.
You don’t have to feel bad just because you’re buying lots of presents neither do you have to feel bad because you can’t buy any presents what am saying is the important things are the memories the time spent with your families, remember last year this time we couldn’t hug our grandparents we couldn’t hug our auntie‘s we couldn’t all gather together. Now we can all share stories from the same room what we need to do is be grateful knowing you are enough what you’re doing is good enough.
Tip 2: Do not Compare or Compete Don’t STRESS!
Oh yes it’s only one day that’s what makes it special. So why spend it stressing why spend it missing all the special moments. It’s imperative this festive season on Christmas day to have compassion be thankful for the love we feel we won’t be able to feel the love, see the beauty be able to enjoy everything that’s happening around us if we forget to live in the moment if all we’re doing is living in our heads thinking what we haven’t done good enough what we could have done better or what presents we forgot!
Think about it as a mum when you wake up on Christmas Day when your children open their presents even the socks 🧦, pyjamas the looks on their faces they are happy with the socks, happy with the books happy with the pencils ✏️ the babies just play with the boxes 📦 the toys came in. Showing us that were good enough showing us that all the effort we made the decorations are good enough even if we didn’t feel like it was good enough the Children our babies appreciate our effort they will make us feel good enough no matter how small or grand our gesture.
Tip 3: Remember it is okay 👍🏾 it’s only one DAY!
Now some people should think about what they’re doing some people will say things like all you need is love that’s what’s important! You don’t need gifts! Oh I didn’t think you were getting me one! while they’re giving gifts to other members of the family or other people you can see them gifting now that is wrong. It’s not a time to bring your unresolved issues onto others it’s not a time to treat one person one way while treating another different almost making it seem like that person is not important or less valid.
Here are a list of things to try if you start to feeling overwhelmed this holiday season:
- Take deep Breaths, try to relax.
- Walk away from stressful situations.
- Shop with your Finacal means,
- Don’t put too much pressure on yourselves.
- Shop online if you get Anxious/ or shop when it’s less busy, take someone with you.
- Speak to a friend or family about how you feel.
- Remember it’s one day.
- Reach out to professionals if your mood gets too low.
- Do not isolate yourselves.
- Speak positive about your efforts.
- Take a hot bath.
- Try knitting.
- What ever you didn’t buy remember January Sales. You can buy it then or get it for their birthdays.
- Do some meditating 🧘♀️
Thanks for joining me again! Please leave your thoughts in the comments! Enjoy these last weeks leading up too the holidays!
P.s we got no instructions on how to deal with the holidays so just wing it. Xoxo 💋 please share.
Motherhood No Instructions 