This avoids build up of resentment, and stress and helps us chose which things to drop, which in turn adds real quality to the things we chose to include in Christmas.
2 By being aware of our emotions and having the confidence to feel them.
This means that we can work out what are expectations of others, idealisations by ourselves, old rules that we dare not disobey. In having choice, we have our feelings but they no longer control us.
3 Through body care and awareness
it’s much harder to manage our emotions if we have poor sleep, diet and exercise. Through self kindness we provide warmth and day light (or day light mimicry), we attend to the impact on our mood in things we eat and drink, we try to move gently when we can to increase our production of serotonin, we take supplements and medication where appropriate and we keep our sleep hygiene routines.
This is the basis for reducing stress in the BODY which links to our mood.
4 By planning our activities according to the priorities in 1, 2 & 3
We never, have never, will never, finish everything on our list of jobs, so we have to limit what we do. This part of our solution involves planning our activities based around our true needs instead of social expectation.
It also means we have to do less than we probably desire. By limiting what we do we can avoid PARALYSIS and OVERWHELM.
5 By exploring why Christmas has such a hold over our lives.
Learning to understand the positives and the magic of Christmas, as an anti-dote to the winter blues, plus the problematic associations with memories, childhood, bereavement and so on, is central to freeing us to choose.