Enjoy yourself this holiday season

The holiday season is a time for indulgence, and that’s a good thing. I mean it when I say we really do need to indulge ourselves during this time of year… The trick is figuring out what exactly to indulge in. Figuring this out will ensure your indulgences are worthwhile and will help you balance out the rest of the year.

I like to ask myself these two questions:

1.) What basic human necessity or pleasure did I not get enough of this past year?

a. Sleep
b. Naps
c. Baths
d. Time to myself
e. Time with my family
f. Parties
g. Nights at home
h. Indulgent foods
i. Health conscious gourmet foods
j. Permission to be “off-duty”
k. Stretching
l. Intimacy
m. Exercise
n. Non-exercise days

2.) How do I want to feel on January 3?

a. Exhausted
b. Revitalized
c. Ready to set goals for the next six months
d. Not sure where to start
e. Empty
f. Overloaded
g. Just right

The holidays provide us with a landscape of events and variables so that it’s easier to indulge in what we identified that we are lacking from our past year. Time off from work, festive foods, socializing with friends, and recognizing your loved ones are just a few opportunities that this time of year affords or imposes on us (depending on how you look at it).

I like to pick three or four things from question one that I do not get enough of in the year and make sure I indulge in those three or four things as much as possible throughout December so that I feel as close to how I would like to on January 3.

To do this the right way, you will need a bit of planning. For optimum holiday enjoyment, you must decide some things in advance, like how many social events you want to attend, roughly how long you want to stay and how much you really want to eat and drink at each one? Don’t forget to consider how many activities are you going to want to jam into a day, what are your boundaries going to be with your house guests, and will you remember to schedule in time for yourself? Stuff like this will make your indulgences really happen.

Planning can seem overwhelming, but it is actually easy when you realize that you just have to make choices based on what’s good for you and then be flexible. After you commit to a party or plan a day, you can let that part go and just focus on what is right in front of you.

Try to do a little planning and then enjoy yourself this holiday season so that you can start the new year the way that you want to.

Happy holidays! Good luck!

by Kristin Anderson

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-anderson/indulge-holiday-season_b_1130646.html