Celebrating The Holiday's From This Side Of Stress

With the start of the holiday season comes the start of holiday stress for a lot of us. Let's try to give ourselves a little bit of grace.

Hi, it's been a while since I've been here on The Mess. Things have been, well you probably guessed it, a bit messy. From what I hear, I'm not alone in that either. I think that's even more of a reason for us to take tonight, at the very least, to take a deep breath and try to reset for this upcoming week.

Each family is unique to how they spend the holiday season, so I don't speak for all, but I know at least for me, Thanksgiving is the start of having to try and catch up and see a lot of my family. We usually have to have three to five different thanksgiving dinners to catch everyone in fact. But even if you only have to do one dinner, it can be a lot. Everyone has their family drama, and normal life struggles don't pause to accommodate for the holiday season. So, the past two years, around this time I would take a break to talk about the additional stresses that can rear their ugly heads during the holiday season. The first year we talked about celebrating the holidays with dysfunctional families. The second year, last year, we talked about celebrating the holidays during the pandemic. And, to be honest, I really didn't plan to talk about this topic again this year. Not that I don't think it's important, it actually wasn't really a conscious decision at all. But then I realized that, I'm pretty stressed...

I reread my articles for the past two years, and I think there is a lot of sound advise there for how to approach the holiday season. With that being said, I don't want to be a broken record on the topic. You can check out those articles (I linked them above) if you want more applicable advice on this, because this year isn't about advise for me. For me, It's about support.

So, here are a few things I want you to hear before you start your trek into the holidays:

1) It's going to be okay. This is pretty basic, but it's true. It is going to be okay. You got through this last year, and the year before that, and before that, you will get through this one.

2) Don't get lost in your own mind. It can get pretty loud and chaotic in there, it's easier to work things out, out here. Just take things one task, one moment, at a time. Don't let all those overwhelming thoughts take you away. Ground yourself. Remember #1) its going to be okay.

3) You deserve rest. This one is pretty simple. Just give yourself a break please. It doesn't need to be "earned", you can rest.

4) You deserve love. I won't clarify this one. There is no if's, and's, or but's. You deserve love.

5) I'm thankful for you. You're enough, you don't have to be more, you don't have to be less. Just be you, and know that I, amongst others around you, are very thankful that you are here.

To be honest there is a lot of things I would like to tell you going into your holiday season, but let's start there. Because even these simple phrases can be hard to hear amongst the stress filled haze. But they are nonetheless true. It's going to be okay, don't get lost in your mind, you deserve rest, you deserve love, and I am so incredibly thankful for you.

This season can be stressful, it can even be painful, and I hope that with the tools we've put in our tool boxes over these past three holiday seasons together makes it better, makes it fun and happy and worthwhile. But if it doesn't, if this year is hard, please give yourself some grace. Give yourself an opportunity to take a deep breath and be safe within yourself, because no matter what, we will get through this season. You got this. You will get to the other side of this.

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Thank you for the grace of so many absences from The Mess! Thing's have been hectic and sometimes you need to take the time where you can get it, unfortunately this time around that meant taking away from my writing time. But I am very glad I got to be here today with you for a pre-holiday pep talk. I always need these just as much (if not more) than you. So, thank you for sharing this with me. I hope you have a wonderful week, I will indeed be here on Wednesday with some Nerdom. Make sure you tune in to part three of our mini series- Alli Predicts. Until then, stay safe and stay messy friends.