Return on Life: Be Flexible With Holiday Traditions

Yes, I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, much less Christmas, but we're getting there quickly! Having lunch with a friend yesterday reminded me of one of the ways we can all reduce stress and truly enjoy the holidays.

My friend Michelle loves Christmas. Every year she puts up not one, but three decorated trees (one of them is probably fifteen feet tall and greets you in the two-story vaulted entrance to her home), assembles a model train layout, and bakes cookies which she shares with friends and family. She thoroughly enjoys it all. However, this year she has been traveling extensively both for business and pleasure and has been busy, busy, busy with a very quickly growing business (she has become a best-selling author with her first book!!). It's been an exciting time for her, but has just about used up her energy reserve--mental and emotional as well as physical. As she thought about putting up all the Christmas decorations, instead of total excitement, she began to feel overwhelmed. Many of us, at that point, would begin to feel frustrated that we were too tired to create our traditional holiday time. We'd feel guilty and sorry and sad. What Michelle decided to do instead was to create a new tradition--to change her paradigm. She decided that she will perhaps put all the trees up only every other year, and this year won't be one of them. She allowed herself to change without getting stuck in thinking that this would make her holiday less than what it should be.

Holiday traditions should be fun, warm, comforting. Don't let them become sources of frustration and guilt! If you have a tradition that can't or won't work this year, increase your return on life by creating a new one!