Holidays, Stress & Time Out

Self-employed, small business owner, freelancer, independent contractor, no matter your title, the holiday season brings extra stress to the table.

Financially you want security. The goal of anyone employed or striking out on her or his own.

If you are considering opening a business, working for your self, start part time. This is not the time to jump off the cliff and quite your job.

For those of us who are working on business development this can be a time to flourish, depending on the projects and products you are offering. For many industries this is a slow down time. Money is traditionally diverted to the holiday season.

Loss is another stressor that occurs this time of year. Financial, family and for some jobs are lost.

How you cope with the changes during the holiday season is a personal choice. As a lifestyle coach in my other life, key coping skills are developed with practice.

Here are at least 5 ways you can mitigate the stress:

1. Distract: find what works for you.
   • Suggestions:  Snap your fingers, stand up if sitting, sit if standing, look around the room..
2. Breathe:
   • Inhale through your nose, hold your tongue at the roof of your mouth, inhaling into your toes.
   • Exhale through your mouth, allowing the tongue to rest on the bottom of your mouth. Blow out the candles.  🙂 Let the body relax. Release.
3. Combine the first two.  Use breath as a distraction, focus on the breath, what it feels like.  With practice this will occur in an instant and no one will know.
4. Take a time out:
   • Excuse yourself from the situation.  Go outside, take off your shoes if possible, let them touch the dirt. If not just turn your face to the sun.  Breathe as in #2.
5. Ask yourself:
   • Is what I am experiencing real?
   • What thoughts are contributing to what I am experiencing?
   • Can I change the situation right this minute?  If so, how?
   • Can I accept this situation as it is right now?  How?
   • Can I change this situation in the future?  What steps do I need to take?  How long do I have to complete these steps?

This is a short version of ways to distract, relax and mitigate stressful situations.  There are others.  If you allow yourself to imagine, I am sure you can come up with others.

Learning to create micro-changes in your life is an easy process, not always simple or instant, but easy.  Find what will work for you in your life.

Do not allow others to dictate how to create change or cope.  You have been doing that your entire life.  It is time for a change.

Mitigate, change, don’t just manage.

Management defined:
The process of dealing with or controlling things or people.

Learn to create a shift in your work and personal life.  Don’t just manage, change.

With practice comes perfection.  While writing this my Internet connection began fluctuating, first it is there, then it is not.  I had to put into practice “breath” so I could finish.  For me that is the fastest way to distract.  Do I remember always?  No, I have reminders posted to keep me on track.

Find what works for you, experiment, practice, perfect it, pass it on.  We teach that which we need to learn.  🙂

Have a great day.  Suggestions?  How do you cope with stress?  Share your positive skill sets in the comments.