A Guide to Deal with Holiday Stress by Jillian Michaels

Holiday season clearly seems to be the perfect time to celebrate day offs from work, and have fun time by going for a day out and partying with family and friends. However, Jillian Michaels has a different view on this! She says, “The holidays… let’s face it, they aren’t all pumpkin spice lattes and Christmas ornaments.”

Well, she is not completely wrong! We do get day offs, but, in a way, holidays become our second shift work, during which we run here and there like crazy beings; buying gifts and trying to please everyone around us.

Jillian Michaels, one of the renowned personal trainers and fitness consultants, offers some guidelines to get rid of the holiday stress. The first thing she mentions that could help overcome the holiday stress is saying ‘No.’

She writes in her blog, “Ah, the power of no. Who’s tried it? I’m guessing not many of you. This is because we get so caught up in facilitating other people’s happiness that many of us forget how to set boundaries. We feel like our value is dependent upon our ability to please. The problem with this behavior is that it leaves us feeling run down, depleted, and in some cases resentful. So, this season I want you to learn how to say “no” and set some boundaries, the first of which is safeguarding your time.”

According to her, saying no to people for going out for partying or shopping might displease them a bit. But, it is as much holiday season for you as it is for others, and you have all the rights to celebrate it the way you want. Your ‘No’ might be disheartening for a few, but the fact is we can’t please everyone in the world simultaneously. She further suggests, “Just tell your friend or family member the truth; that you love them and want to do it for them, but you are spread a bit thin and you have things you have to take care of. If they don’t understand that then honestly that is a relationship that may need some serious rethinking to begin with.”

The second thing she discusses in her blog is the stress of giving gifts to loved ones. It is undoubtedly very stressful to buy gifts for everyone, especially when you can’t afford them. It gives you a lot of mental stress and certainly spoils your holiday season. So, what to do about it? For this, she says, “You don’t need to buy things to show appreciation or love. You can give cards and write something incredibly sincere in them. If you can’t afford to get mom the new laptop maybe, consider having the entire family chip in and get it together.”

According to her, gifts are not necessary to make everyone happy. Buying expensive gifts isn’t necessary to bring smiles on the face of every loved one. Even some small presents can make your loved ones happy. A small token of love such as a greeting card is enough to warm hearts of your loved ones.

The last thing she mentions is the stress from family members. There are times when you have to interact with family members whom you can’t stand or who don’t respect you. This is a kind of stressful and clearly kills your festive mood. On this, she writes, “I don’t recommend fighting with them because everyone loses, but I do recommend avoiding them, shutting negative comments down by saying, “I don’t want to discuss this with you”, walking out of the room and so on.”

She said that if you don’t like someone, you don’t need to stand there and keep getting irritated just for the sake of pleasing someone. You can avoid them or simply walk out of the room to avoid any kind of conversation.

She concludes by saying that people could celebrate their holiday season the way they want to. All they need is to just stop making unnecessary attempts to please everyone. Moreover, one can even save money to celebrate his/her holidays in a better way. At the end, she writes, “This holiday focus on protecting yourself, rejuvenating yourself, and starting 2018 off on the right note!”