7 Little Ways to Take Care of Yourself After the Holiday Season

The holidays can be deeply magical, but they can also be deeply draining. The holiday season plays a huge role in increasing added stress, pressure, and tension. Sometimes, the holiday stress may even keep you up at night. Tossing and turning in your warm duvet won’t help you to fall asleep. Instead, all your thoughts will be in hustle: unsigned holiday cards, unanswered messages, unread invitations, non–bought gifts, undone holiday calls, iMessages... and it is tiring. 

It is tiring bouncing back and forth between thinking about what is ‘Done’ and ‘Undone’ from your holiday ‘To–Do’ List. 

It is tiring to keep convincing yourself that everything is going to be okay, tomorrow you’ll make all that you noted down in your planner, and then have more and more things go wrong around you.

It’s tiring to repeat the same routine shopping sessions, stay in huge ques for gift–wrapping, choose the fireworks and sparkles, sign all holiday cards, answer all missed calls in the evening, tap, type, or swipe multiple emails in your inbox, and add to the online store’s shopping cart some festive fragrances gift sets right now for guaranteed delivery in time as tomorrow it’ll be too late.

And it doesn’t matter how many hours of sleep you get because you still wake up feeling tired. Mentally exhausted. No amount of coffee can cure it. The Steaming Mochaccino trilogy is no more tempting to sip while sitting on the seater. 

It is called Burnout.  

Burnout can start so small. You put your needs on second place once, then twice, and so on. Maybe something happens that causes a major transition in your life. Before you know it, you’re living on what feels like an exhausting and mind–numbing but okay mode.

Little Way #1: Let yourself be burnt out.

It’s no secret that for many reasons, the holiday season can be not only the warmest but also challenging time. Coping with holiday stress & post–holiday burnout can be hard. Feeling like you’re unable to do your routine things can make you feel even worse. 

And a good place to start is to accept that you’re tired and stressed. You’re Just Experiencing Burnout. And You’re Just Experiencing Stress. Let yourself be burnt out and stressed. It’s not for forever, and accepting your current state isn’t the same thing as giving up.

Once you’ve stopped resisting, you might find yourself in a more open frame of mind to try to feel better.

When some time has passed and you’re really feeling better, you can assess the things in your life that might be burning you out. You’ve already gotten more confident in filtering out what you do and what you don’t want to spend your energy on. This is when you can take a deeper look at yourself, your relationships, your job, or whatever else.

Outline all Dos and Don’ts, and note them down. Concentrate on Dos rather than Don’ts. What do you need for your Does? What steps you should follow to get closer to your Dos? Then, work with Don’ts. Some of Don’ts cannot just disappear at a touch. Accept that, set some of Don’ts down, and start stepping into a new version of yourself.  

Don’t think about burning out as an end. Think about it as a new beginning.

Little Way #2: Let yourself be tired.

You were stressed out one hundred percent of the holiday time. Your planner was probably stacked with events, meet–ups, gift exchanges and get–togethers, but there’s no reason to drop self–care from the lineup. You didn’t give yourself a minute to rest. Even your relaxation time was spent multitasking. 

Embrace it all. Let yourself be tired. Let yourself spend a whole day doing nothing.  

Or, let yourself invest some of your time and energy into the things that bring you back to yourself. It can be a meditation in the morning, a beautiful brunch ritual, a session on your hobby, or a grounding walk.  

You need this Day Off. You need this disconnection from the routine. You need this blurred–from–all–tasks time. 

Little Way #3: Let yourself be disconnected.

The holiday season is meant to represent the connection. However, it can often feel chaotic and overwhelming. Added responsibilities and the increased amount of energy that goes into organizing yourself, and making those around you happy, can cause you to want to isolate yourself as a means of protection. 

The holidays may bring more obligations than usual, but you always have the power to take a step back. If you haven’t put a step back or if you were in a constant state of holiday stress like planning, prepping, hassling to be in time, connecting to all, and doing it all in the new ways — it is time for swiping to Disconnected mode. 

Sometimes Disconnection is the new connection to the new yourself. Let yourself be disconnected. 

So instead of habitually refreshing your email and half–watching Instagram stories, simply embrace the opportunity to get disconnected from all spaces and unwind with your loved ones, or get bundled up to something that inspires you.

While it’s challenging to fully resist the post–holiday hustle and bustle, some intentional disconnection–from–all for one day is critical to cope with holiday stress and turn that ‘nice idea’ you have in your heart into a full–blown reality.

Little Way #4: Let yourself be away from little things.

It’s no secret that too many little things can be anxiety–provoking, but sometimes pushing away–mode for them is essential for concentrating on the huge goals. Let yourself switch to an Off–mode for little things for some time.  

When you find yourself obsessing with too many little things, remind yourself to keep your eye on the big picture. Stop giving small nuisances the power to distract you from the end goal. You’re wasting your energy when you obsess over the little things. And at the end of the day, it’s really not that serious. 

This Day Off is here for Something More. For Something Compelling. For Something Beautiful.

Little Way #5: Let yourself be slowed down.

You’re refusing to slow down, even when it hurts you. You don’t want to take a break because you don’t want to fall behind even further. You don’t want to miss out on big opportunities because you are doing nothing. You know you need to put in constant effort to achieve great things. You never allow yourself to take some rest and recharge. 

Be realistic with your expectations. And take a retreat. Let everything fall into its natural pace. Patience is key.

Multiple goals can be exciting, but don’t expect instant fireworks. Your life won’t be magically fixed, and your worries won’t be immediately eliminated. Remember to trust the process, and always anticipate a few milestones when you first hit the road.

Even if you’re the most organized person in the world, you simply can’t do and control everything. Keep planning ahead, but come to terms with the fact that you’ll get thrown off from time to time. And this will be frustrating and you’ll change some of your plans. 

Let yourself be slowed down. Sometimes spending more time than usual on the same things is okay. And it is okay if some of the tasks would be crossed out or completing them would take longer than usual.

Little Way #6: Let yourself sleep enough.

You never fall asleep in time. You never fall asleep satisfied. You never get your sleep in the first place. You always feel like you should’ve done more. Even when you spend the day running around, you still feel like you should’ve squeezed in some more productivity. Thoughts about productivity interfere with your falling asleep. As you feel like you aren’t reaching your full potential. And it’s never just for the night, or even a mere week.

Put your planner away and just take a moment to check in with yourself: what do I need today? Tonight, you will sleep. And the only approval you need to have some sleep — is your own. Listen to yourself and be gentle to yourself. Whether that means meditating in the sunrise or reading a book in the sunset. There is no superior way to spend your day.

Let yourself sleep tonight. Falling asleep earlier than usual and sleeping until noon tomorrow is okay. The key is setting a consistent schedule and sticking to it. There are some weeks where following this sleeping blueprint would be harder than usual. Sleeping isn’t going to magically change anything, but things are going to start getting better.

Little Way #7: Let yourself be on–pointe.

Let yourself have a Day Off with a scheduled workout. Any kind. Anywhere. Anytime. Having a workout is an excuse to disconnect from the world. When you’re in class or having a virtual session, your phone is off…and it’s in your tote all the way across the room. There are no breaks to go and look at it either, so you’re going rogue. Just allow yourself to be alone. Enjoy the serenity, listen to your breath, challenge your body. Doing something you love works wonders. So, tap into the power of what you love. Follow Your Dream. And Grasp Some Inspiration.