Embracing and Savoring an Imperfect Holiday Season

“This year will be different,” author and mom of four Alexandra Kuykendall inevitably tells herself every year as she pulls out her Christmas decorations. This year she won’t be tired or stressed. This year she won’t be ready for the holidays to be over. And this year it is different, because she’s vowed to focus on loving her actual Christmas, to be present in her life as it really is. Which she documents in her new book aptly titled, Loving My Actual Christmas: An Experiment in Relishing the Season. As she writes in the book, “When I consider what I want to remember, or what I want my children to remember, a year from now, 10 years from now, it’s not an exhausted, overwhelmed, slightly crazed Christmas woman who is determined to make every moment magical and in the process gets angry and resentful.” No doubt many of us can see ourselves or parts of ourselves in Kuykendall’s writing—maybe overwhelmed, exhausted and very, very annoyed. Part of the problem is that we cling to certain expectations. Often we don’t even realize we have them—until “we feel the disappointment creep in and then we realize we had some hopes for how things will go down,” Kuykendall said. “I think there are a lot of social and media influences that create a lot of pressure to create the perfect tree, find the perfect gifts, redecorate your whole house to be Instagram worthy, etc.,” said Nicole Archer, Psy.D, a psychologist who specializes in anxiety and stress manag...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Family Friends General Happiness Holiday Coping Self-Help Stress Christmas Family Gatherings Hannukah Holiday Season Holiday Shopping Holiday Stress Source Type: blogs