Mindfulness for Anxiety and Stress During Festive Chaos

Within all the festive chaos and busyness, mindfulness for anxiety and stress can help you to stay calm and feel more on top of things. In this article I’ll be sharing some simple mindfulness strategies to help you stay calm so you can fully enjoy the festive season.

Amidst the celebration of the festive season, it can also be one of the most stressful and anxiety filled periods of the year. With busier schedules, family pressures, social commitments, financial worries and the constant noise and activity, it’s no surprise that you may notice your anxiety and stress levels rising.

If you already experience anxiety, the Christmas period can intensify symptoms, leaving you feeling overwhelmed, tense or emotionally drained. It can turn the festive period from something that should be enjoyable into something to struggle through and endure.

At this anxiety provoking time of the year, you need to have effective ways to manage your thoughts and feelings so that you feel on top of things. One effective approach for anxiety and stress during the festive chaos is mindfulness.

Mindfulness can help you to slow down, manage anxiety in the moment and stay grounded and present. It can help even when everything around you feels chaotic.

Within this busy festive season, you can easily learn and apply some effective mindfulness techniques to help you to feel calm and more in control.

 

What is Mindfulness and Why Is It so Helpful at Christmas?

Mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment with curiosity rather than judgement. Put more simply, rather than letting your thoughts wander over future worst cases, you bring your attention right back to now. It helps you step out of autopilot mode inside your own head, where stress and anxious thoughts can easily spiral and race away.

I’ve covered more about mindfulness here: Mindfulness For Anxiety and Depression and here: Mindfulness For Anxiety, Stress and Promoting Mental Health

During a hectic month like December, mindfulness can:

• reduce anxiety and overwhelm
• improve emotional balance
• increase resilience under pressure
• help you enjoy the moments that matter

It’s also an excellent complement to hypnotherapy if you’re looking to make lasting change to how you handle anxiety. Many of my clients using anxiety hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket find that incorporating some simple mindfulness strategies helps them to start feeling more calm and in control.

Here are some simple techniques for using mindfulness for anxiety and stress during the busy festive period:

 

1. Use Mindful Breathing To Reset

When stress, anxiety and pressure build, your breathing can become faster and shallower. Your body takes in more oxygen to fuel you muscles ready to deal with the threat. This shift in breathing fuels anxiety. To counter this and reset, purposefully slow your breathing. Mindful breathing can interrupt the stress response quickly and effectively.

Try this simple technique: Inhale for a count of 4, hold for 2, exhale for 6. Repeat for one minute.

A longer exhale stimulates your relaxation response and things start to calm. This technique is especially helpful during moments of growing anxiety or rising tension.

You may also want to have a read of my article on Panic Attacks at Christmas if you experience overwhelm during the festive season.

 

2. Ground Yourself In the Present Moment 

Festive period anxiety usually arises because your mind is jumping ahead to what might happen. Your imagination fills with worst cases and this creates stress.

You might wonder whether you will get everything done or what others will think. You might overthink about how you will cope with family stress. And there can be many other what if type thoughts that run into negative future scenarios.

Grounding techniques bring you back into the present moment and how things are right now, rather than anxious imagined future thinking. This can help you to feel more calm and control in the present moment.

You an use the 5-4-3-2-1 method for anxiety to help you:

• Notice 5 things you can see
• 4 things you can touch
• 3 things you can hear
• 2 things you can smell
• 1 thing you can taste

It’s a quick, simple and highly effective technique. I’ve covered it in more depth here: The 5-4-3-2-1 method for anxiety

It can be especially helpful if certain family dynamics trigger you anxiety (something I cover here: Family Triggered Anxiety at Christmas) or if social anxiety fills you with dread before festive events (covered here: Holiday Social Anxiety).

 

3. Create Mindful Festive Moments

Mindfulness for anxiety and stress this Christmas doesn’t have to involve formal practice or specific techniques. It can be any moment where you are present in the here and now, rather than dwelling on the past or imagining the future. It’s about being aware of where you are, what you can see, her and feel and having your focus right here and right now.

It can be woven into small daily moments. Some of these you may experience anyway, but here you are deliberately making sure to have some of these moments, even during such a busy period.

For example, you could take a slow walk where you pay attention to the things around you. You could sit quietly with a warm drink or light a candle and focus on the flame. Some people prefer listening to calming music, or you do a brief gratitude practice each morning or evening (more on this here: The Impact of Gratitude on Anxiety, Depression, Self-Esteem and Well-being).

These simple moments interrupt anxious thoughts and feelings. They help you to regulate your emotions and reset yourself even within the chaos of the festive season.

 

4. Focus on One Task at a Time

Mindfulness is all about paying attention in the present moment. In contrast, multitasking and trying to do everything all at once can be one of the quickest ways to festive overwhelm. When you’re shopping, cooking, organising and hosting all at once, stress and anxiety become almost inevitable.

At this time of year there can and will be lots to sort and plan. Yet you can only ever actually do whatever is the first/next step of this right now. Mindfulness encourages you to do one thing with full attention. This slows down your thinking, improves concentration and reduces the sense of chaos. You actually start feeling more in control as you pay attention to the here and now. You can write down the other things you need to sort but then pick the priority thing and do that with all your focus.

If you find yourself becoming stressed about time pressures or expectations then use one of the mindfulness practices I’ve described here or you can combine it with techniques for End of Year Reflection Anxiety and Overthinking to help you reset mentally.

 

5. Take Micro Breaks Throughout the Day

Even a quick one minute mindful break can lower stress, calm anxiety, clear your mind and improve your emotional resilience.

Set a reminder on your phone for three times a day to remind you to pause. Or put up some post it notes where you will see them. In those moments, slow your breathing, soften your shoulders and tune into the present. During festive chaos, you may not be able to find an extended period to pause, rest and relax through your day. Instead, these smaller moments and resets can have a positive cumulative effect.

If you do have time for a longer pause then you an download a copy of my free relaxation hypnosis audio, or one of my other titles, to help you regain calmness and inner peace: Rapid Relaxation Hypnosis Download

 

6. Set Mindful Boundaries

During the festive period there can be a tendency to try and do more and more and more. You say yes to everything, try to be everywhere at once and you run on adrenaline. You can end up exhausted and overwhelmed.

Mindfulness can help you to develop an awareness of your limits so that you take care of your own well-being.

If too many social events, expectations, family situations or festive pressures feel overwhelming, remind yourself that it is ok to decline invitations, take some time for yourself, leave an event early and to look after yourself.

Boundaries can be can important part of looking after your mental health and making festive events more manageable.

 

7. Be Kind To Yourself

Self compassion is a powerful mindfulness strategy. Far too often people are self critical and criticise, berate and are harsh towards themselves inside their own head. It’s a receipe for anxiety and stress. You set a high bar for yourself, often seeking perfection, and then are unpleasant towards yourself when unrealistic expectations aren’t met.

If things aren’t perfect, you don’t get everything done or you feel stressed despite your best efforts, treat yourself with the same empathy, understanding and kindness that you would a loved one. It’s ok to try your best but also accept that you are only human like the rest of us.

Self compassion can help ease festive overwhelm. There’s more on general self compassion here: Why You Should Be Kind To Yourself – The Benefits of Self-Compassion

 

Mindfulness and Hypnotherapy for Anxiety

Mindfulness technques sit nicely within the framework of hypnotherapy for anxiety. They become useful strategies to bring your attention back to the present and for interrupting some anxious thoughts and feelings.

If anxiety is affecting your enjoyment of the season, or your day to day life, then help is available. Hypnotherapy for anxiety can help you calm your mind and feel better in yourself. You can build confidence, change unhelpful patterns and learn how to take control over your own thoughts and feelings now and for the long term.

If you’d like support, you can learn more about Anxiety Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket or get in touch for a free initial consultation.

To your health and happiness,

Dan Regan

Anxiety Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

 

Find out more about anxiety hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket: Anxiety Hypnotherapy

Could you use some help to overcome panic attacks at Christmas? Struggling with anxiety, stress, worry and fear and need some help? Find out how I can help with a Complimentary Anxiety Hypnotherapy Strategy Session. Learn more here: Appointments

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