Hello, balance bestie. Today we’re gonna talk about how to create more balance through the holidays. We do this every year. Every year I make sure that we have episodes where we talk about different parts of the holidays and how to create more balance, more time, more freedom, more peace, and I will make sure that I link to past episodes as well in the show notes.

There’s one that I especially want you to listen to if you’re hosting for the holidays. I absolutely love to host Christmas, Thanksgiving, any of them. I love it. There are some tips and some tricks that I have learned over the years that have helped me to make it much more enjoyable, much more peaceful, much more systemized and organized, even a little bit of automated.

And so all of that is in my hosting holidays episodes, so I’ll have that as well as other past episodes. There’s just so many great nuggets about. Having more joy, being able to figure out how to organize your calendar and your schedules and prioritize, and that one on hosting, they’re all gonna be linked.

You go find what you need, they are there for you because the holidays are supposed to feel magical and not just for the kids. They can feel magical for us adults as well. They’re supposed to be fun, and my goal is for you to have more. Fun this year together, we are going to do things differently so that we can truly enjoy the holidays.

So for this holiday episode, what I wanna focus on is our holiday energy boosters, and I’m talking about two forms of energy. I am talking about the actual pick me up that you need because you are just outright exhausted trying to go through. All of the motions of the holidays. But I’m also talking about when we need an emotional energy booster, because let’s be honest, it can be a little tricky to have that happy dancer prancer vibe going around certain people and the holidays.

So whether you need that energy, pick me up because the day is getting long and you are getting tired, or you need the emotional pick me up because. The event is getting long and the attitudes of others is making you tired. So today we are gonna look at three tiny shifts and they’re going to help protect your peace and your energy.

They’re going to help you feel like you can keep that energy up when you need the pick me up and actually feel excited and not just exhausted because the holidays. They are supposed to feel joyful and that should be our goal. So I am really excited to jump into these and I really, really want to invite you, challenge you to use these strategies.

They are fast, they are simple, and they pack a punch and that is my favorite kind of strategy. So the first thing I want you to do is I want you to guard your mind space. I used to think that holiday burnout was just about doing too much, but over the years I realized it’s not always the doing that drains us.

It’s the noise. It’s the noise that happens in our heads as well as that happens externally. So the notifications, the endless scrolls, the pressure to make everything look Pinterest perfect. Our energy leaks through our eyes and ears long before our feet. Ever hit the floor. So I want you to really audit and check in and make sure that the things that you are bringing into your space are uplifting.

They’re giving you peace. They’re not adding to the stress. So the shift is guard your mind space. The way that you’re going to do this is going to be on the bookends of your day, how you start and end your day, and what I want to encourage you to do is to make that space feel quiet. That means no emails, no scrolling, no just checking.

One more thing. Just seeing how the sales are going, or ordering one more thing from Amazon. Give your brain some time to just. Rest. Now I am going to suggest giving yourself 15 to 30 minutes, but even five minutes really will make a difference. This is your chance to calm yourself before you let the world in, or as you’re getting ready to go to sleep.

So the beginning of your day and at the end of your day, you’re gonna give yourself a little bit of space, create a little bit of a ritual that just helps you feel the magic of the holidays. Maybe that is some instrumental Christmas music as you’re getting ready for bed. Maybe it is some really lively like jingle bell rock happening in the morning as you’re getting ready or making breakfast.

Infuse fun, infuse joy, infuse the magic of Christmas by not just getting up and running through the motions or running through the motions until you literally hit the pillow. In the morning, maybe you’re sipping cocoa in silence. You’re reading some really cute Christmas rom-com book, something that Grounds You.

Maybe a really great personal development book at night. Maybe it is Listening to that Instrumental Christmas music, writing down three things that You’re Grateful Drinking, just a delicious herbal tea. I am a. Obsessed with Bengal Spice. It is so good and I add a little bit of lemon to it and sometimes like a hack, a packet of apple cider and it just tastes Oh, so good.

Taking some time to just breathe before bed. Do a 10 minute yoga stretch. We are talking about a few minutes. It doesn’t have to be huge, but the impact. The way it resets your intention can be so powerful. You will be amazed how much energy returns when you stop letting everyone else’s noise. Set your tone.

So the micro shift for our very first strategy is create a short buffer, anywhere from five minutes to 30 minutes. Before screens in the morning and before bed, protect that window like you would a hair appointment right before the biggest Christmas party of the year. Number two, the two minute reset.

Now we’re talking about energy boosters, and I wanna make sure that I’m giving you things that are quick and easy for you to take action on. Sometimes your holiday energy, it doesn’t actually need a nap, it just needs a reset. Now, it would be beautiful if we had time to take a nap every day, but you know that’s probably not the case.

So when you feel like you need that reset, you can do it in two minutes. Here’s one of my favorite tricks. When I feel myself getting snappy or tense or overwhelmed, I pause. I step out of the room if I can. Then I breathe in for four, hold for four, and exhale for six. This is simple box breathing. I’m sure you’ve heard of it before.

Don’t forget to utilize it. Maybe you’re getting ready to go into an environment that always feels a little stressful, a little chaotic. Maybe you’re in the middle of a family event and you’re feeling that tension and that angst build in your body, step away. Go to the bathroom for a minute. Go run out to your car, sit there, reset yourself.

Breathe in for four, hold for four, exhale for six. Just two minutes of this. Harvard research has shown that even these two minutes of focused breathing can lower your cortisol by up to 20%. Now here’s the thing. The thing that we’re all terrified of is. Being in that moment where things are escalating, things are feeling a little more stressful, a little more anxious, and you accidentally say something or do something that you really did not mean to say or do, or just the entire experience, the evening, the event feels tainted because you were feeling a lot of stress, a lot of frustration.

You can resolve that angst that you’re feeling in your body by just taking two minutes. To breathe in for four, hold for four, exhale for six. And we know based on research that this can literally drop your cortisol by 20%. That is powerful. So do this and then ask yourself one simple question, what matters most right now?

You remove yourself, you breathe for two minutes, and then you ask yourself what matters most right now? That question always pulls me out of whatever frenzy, whatever chaos, whatever stress, and it brings me back into the presence and it helps me to just reestablish and reassess what is my. Core value.

What matters most to me? How do I want to show up and how can I show up as my very best? Whether I am navigating teenage attitudes, burn cookies, running late to an event that I really wanna be on time for, but my family’s making us late, an overflowing calendar, a stressful family activity, whatever it is that you might be coming into that you’re feeling a little bit of stress over, don’t forget the two minute reset rule.

When things feel out of control, just take those two minutes. It’s so easy to say, oh, I need to run to the restroom, pop into the bathroom, and we’re literally talking. You’re gonna be gone for three minutes. Okay? Two minutes of breathing, one minute of asking yourself what matters most right now. Breathe, recenter, and then head back in and you’re gonna be ready to show up the way that you want to show up.

No matter what the situation is. So even if the situation isn’t what you want, you are gonna show up how you want, and that is power. Okay, number three, schedule the magic verse. I talked about this in years past, and I do believe it’s so important, it’s so valuable, it’s so powerful. So I wanna say it again.

We lose. Energy when everything that’s meaningful gets squeezed into the margins. So before your calendar fills up with everyone else’s plans. And it’s not that these aren’t great plans. It’s wonderful to go to the school concerts and the church activities and to do all these, you know, other special things.

They’re great, but before all of your calendar feels like it’s taken up by these other things, schedule the magic that means. Family movie nights for your very favorite Christmas movies or maybe cookie decorating or volunteering, or your annual ugly sweater party. That’s something that we do. We have so much fun.

We host this huge ugly sweater party. We’ve been doing it for, this’ll be year 15, and we go all out like it’s not even sweaters at this point that my husband and I were, it was like full on costumes. It’s so much fun. Make sure that you fit those things in. I literally schedule going and seeing and driving around looking at Christmas lights with apple cider or hot cocoa.

I schedule in making sure that some of the things that just really are meaningful, that I want to be traditions. I schedule them into the calendar before everything else pops in because otherwise you can get through the month and go, oh my gosh, we never did that. So sit down this week and make a short list of holiday must-dos.

This is your holiday Christmas bucket list, and put those in so that they can fill your soul and you can just have so much more joy in this season.

Block them out first. Now you may have to adjust and move them around a little bit because maybe right now you don’t know when the school Christmas concert is, and it turns out it is right on the night that you said you were gonna go do caroling, no problem. You’re gonna move it, that’s fine. But the power is that because it’s there, it doesn’t get forgotten.

It just needs to be adjusted. Now I wanna tell you that what we’re talking about are all things to just help us feel more balanced in our family. If you feel like you need more balance at home, I’m talking about just the way that you organize and systemize your home. We’re talking cooking, we’re talking cleaning, we’re talking laundry.

We’re talking all the things that make your home run. Then I want to make sure that you know about the balanced home. Blueprint. It creates systems that give you time and energy back so that you can actually enjoy your life. The thing is, is most of us don’t need more motivation. We just need better systems for peace, and that’s what the Balanced Home Blueprint gives you.

So I would love to encourage you to go check out the Balanced Home Blueprint. It is a really simple mini course. It’s very quick to get through. It gives you my. Favorite biggest strategies that I have used to be able to have more balance and peace in my home so that it feels clean, it’s organized. I know what’s for dinner without me having to do everything and constantly feeling behind, which is how I felt for years until I implemented these systems.

This would be an amazing gift. To give yourself not only for the holidays, but going into the new year. So the link is in the show notes. Check out the Balanced Home Blueprint. It is a fast, quick, get right to the point workshop that teaches you all of my home systems so that all the things happen even when I don’t have time.

It’s the reset that your home and your energy has been waiting for. Now, here’s what I want to end with. You do not need to do more to feel more alive this holiday season. You in fact, might want to do a little bit less. You do need to stop doing the things that absolutely drain you. Now, we may not be able to get out of all of it.

There may be some commitments that we just need to show up for it because well, that’s what we need to do and that’s okay, right? There’s nothing wrong with that, but how can we do it and show up in a way that we can feel proud of ourselves? Guard your mind space reset when the chaos hits with the two minute reset and schedule the magic before the noise creeps in.

Because balance, it doesn’t happen when everything’s perfect. It happens when you’re present enough to enjoy it. And in the holidays it can be really, really easy to. Had so much going on that we don’t take the time to truly enjoy.

The magic of the holidays, it’s there. Even as the mom, you can enjoy the magic. I want you to schedule in the things that are magical for you. I want you to give yourself permission to walk away, reset when things do get a little bit chaotic, and I want you to just know that you absolutely deserve to guard your mind space and to have that.

Time at the beginning of your day and at the end of your day, and heck in the middle of the day if you need it so that you can just, ah. Feel good and enjoy the power of this incredible season. The reason for this season is the gift of our savior, Jesus Christ. It is a time to reconnect as family. It is a time to celebrate service and kindness and love, and to truly feel joy.

Joy over the incredible gift that we were given. By our savior, Jesus Christ, and the gift that we wanna show up as for our family. Okay? You deserve to love and enjoy the magic of your holidays, and I hope these three tips really help you to do that this season.