Hi everyone! My name is Diana Garcia and I’m a licensed mental health counselor in Florida and founder of a private practice called Nurturing Minds Counseling.
We’ve been doing 12 tips for the holiday season. Today we are on tip eight, so I’d encourage you to check out videos or blogs 1-7. First, they don’t build on each other but they might be helpful!
Watch Video: “12 Days of Tips for the Holidays: Day 8: Managing Personal Expectations”
Read Blog: “12 Days of Tips for the Holidays: Day 8”
For today’s tip I’m going to discuss expectations. There may be expectations and pressure with the holiday season and different events going on, whether they are in person or virtual. There are also many to-dos on the list during the holidays, whether that’s buying gifts, cooking dinner, sending out holiday cards, taking holiday photos, etc. I want you to notice and acknowledge if you’re putting any unrealistic expectations on yourself. You don’t want to be putting this pressure on yourself to perform or for all these different situations, or one situation, to turn out perfectly or a certain way. This isn’t helpful because it’s just adding more stress and pressure.
A common stressor that I hear, especially with moms, is to make Christmas the best for their family. We want Christmas to be great, and there is so much pressure to make it that way for our kids, maybe in-laws, or other people. There are different examples of pressure and expectations like finding the most thoughtful gift because you’re really good at that, and because of this, people expect or at least you think people expect that of you. I want you to notice if there are any expectations and, particularly, any unrealistic expectations or pressure that you’re putting on yourself. This could be amping up some of your anxiety or stress about the holiday season.
Just check those expectations and bring it back down. You don’t have to buy the perfect gift, you don’t have to be the perfect mom during the holidays, and you don’t have to have it all together or have these expectations that you’re going to please everyone. Notice when you’re doing that and notice the role that it’s playing as you’re going through the different activities for the holiday seasons. I hope that this was helpful, and we will continue our 12 tips for the holidays. Let me know if anything has resonated with you so far, thanks!