This is the truth about the last two months of the year: they’re hectic, filled to the brim, and downright overwhelming sometimes. What’s my best advice for the season if you’re looking to stay merry and bright? Holistic holiday self-care, of course!
Let’s Grinch-proof your holidays with practical ways to nurture your mind, body, and spirit this season.
Self-Care During the Holidays
I’m sure you’re familiar with the idea of self-care. As homeschool moms, making space for our self-care is a necessity. In doing so, we can best keep ourselves healthy. This means we have more to give as we nurture our children, family, and homeschool.
During the busy holidays, however, self-care becomes even more vital. Unless, of course, you want to run yourself ragged, turn into grumpy mom, and lose your patience with the kids.
No mom is signing up for that on purpose!
But, with a little awareness and intention, we can be mindful of what’s on the horizon and secure a game plan.
As Benjamin Franklin (supposedly) once said: By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. No failing this holiday season! Determine what you need for self-care success during the holidays, and let’s be the healthy homeschool moms we want to be.
Understanding Holistic Self-Care
Holistic self-care simply means you’re considering all the individual aspects of you that make up the WHOLE you. It’s caring for your mind, body, and soul. To phrase it differently, it’s caring for your mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
I intentionally named my website Holistic Homeschool Mom because I passionately believe that to be the best homeschool moms we long to be, we must care for our whole selves. Nurturing the whole of who we are is where we will find a healthy balance.
Our mind, body, and soul are beautifully interconnected. I want to see moms find health and wellness. When we are healthy, we can show up with our best selves.
To be the best homeschool moms we long to be, we must care for our whole selves.
A Practical Example of Holistic Self-Care
Let me give you a real-life example of how holistic self-care plays out in my life. When I honor my body by keeping a decent and consistent bedtime, I wake up more refreshed the next day. When I’m not sleep-deprived and tired, it’s easier to keep a positive mindset when challenges pop up during our homeschool day. I have better energy, too.
Because my energy is higher, it feels easier to do some exercise. Exercising helps me feel better about my body because I’m building strength and working my heart.
When I exercise, I enjoy listening to various podcasts that foster my personal growth and development. When I’m growing personally, this supports my mental health; when my mental health is supported, it affects my body (sometimes on levels I’m not even aware of).
It’s all amazingly connected, with the parts building on and nurturing one another.
How Holistic Self-Care Helps During the Holidays
Amid the holidays, a holistic approach to self-care will help ensure you don’t neglect parts of you that need care and attention. With increased mental loads (gifts, schedules, meal planning, etc), we’re prone to feeling burdened or anxious.
This can affect our ability to relax or sleep. The running around and busy schedules can leave us physically depleted, stressing our immune systems. With little time for rest or a reflective spirit, we can easily miss the joy, instead feeling grumpy, short-tempered, and even numb.
We can be stretched too thin, too fast.
Think of a holistic holiday self-care routine like regular maintenance on your vehicle: small investments consistently made to prevent costly expenses down the road.
Think of a holistic holiday self-care routine like regular maintenance on your vehicle: small investments consistently made to prevent costly expenses down the road.
Nurturing Your Mind: Mental Self-Care
One of my biggest challenges during December is the increased mental load, which can leave me feeling stressed and overwhelmed. In addition to Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we celebrate three family birthdays and a wedding anniversary!
My husband has numerous responsibilities at church during Christmas, so schedules get trickier, and I’m flying solo with the kids while he works longer hours.
Some of the stress is self-induced. I’ve often over-strived (is that a word?) to create the ideals I want for my kids and family. This involves lots of brain work, planning, and implementing.
I’m learning that I only have so much capacity. While all stressors can’t be avoided, consistent stress and overwhelm do not make happy holiday memories.
How can you manage the increased mental stress of the holidays? Here are four practical tips:
- Be aware of your triggers
- Do a brain dump
- Ask for help
- Connect with friends
Practical Tips for Success
1- Be aware of your triggers.
When you’re aware of your triggers, you can plan ahead for how to prevent them, or handle them more healthily.
Here are three questions to ask yourself:
- What holiday-related things immediately cause me stress? (e.g. When your kids start handing you wish lists? When you wait until the last minute for gift shopping?)
- What has caused me stress in past holidays? (e.g. When you gather with extended family and there are lots of people, kids running around, and your introverted self wants to run and hide?)
- How can I be aware of my triggers and handle them better this year?
2-Do a brain dump.
Don’t keep all the to-do’s and tasks floating around in your head. That’s too much work. Get it down on paper. Once all the tasks are written out, try to sort and prioritze them based on their urgency.
These questions can help guide you:
- What needs done today?
- Can anything wait until tomorrow?
- What can be moved to next week?
- Can you simplify and remove anything from the list?
3-Ask for help.
Asking for the help you need can be super difficult for many reasons. I think women in general struggle to do this, myself included. Try to divvy-up tasks between you and your spouse so the work isn’t falling solely on your shoulders.
Also, consider the resources you have with grandparents, friends, or family. Get creative! Sometimes asking for help means letting go of your control over plans and ideals, and letting someone else take the reigns.
4-Connect with friends.
Don’t neglect connecting with friends. It’s hard with busier schedules, but an old-school phone chat or some Voxer messages back and forth are valid options! Besides, they’re probably sharing the same stress you are. Commiserate in your woes if you need to, and then encourage one another. The connection will do your soul good.
Caring for Your Body: Physical Self-Care
These essential self-care tips will benefit you no matter what time of year it is:
- Daily movement
- Limiting sugar and alcohol
- Increasing water
- Plenty of sleep
- Time for rest and relaxation
I try to be intentional with the above, especially during the holidays when it’s winter and cold and flu season is in full swing. I aim to get plenty of vitamin D each day, and boost my immune system with extra vitamins and other immune-boosting herbs.
My final best tip for physical self-care? Laughter. It’s proven that laughter has amazing health benefits. Laughter sometimes truly is the best medicine. Watching a couple of comedy videos on YouTube energizes me, lightens my mood, and even changes the mood in our homeschool.
Supplementing the Soul: Spiritual Self-Care
Caring for yourself spiritually is another essential step towards holistic holiday self-care. There are so many ways to do this through things like prayer, journaling, self-reflection, worship, gratitude, reading, and work with a counselor, pastor, or spiritual director. These are just a few ideas!
Here are a few simple ways to practice spiritual self-care:
Practice Gratitude
One of my favorite disciplines is practicing a daily habit of gratitude. It’s nothing complicated, yet it helps to keep my perspective in check.
I keep a simple notebook by my bed with a running list of gifts that I’m grateful for. I typically list three each evening. This discipline allows me to reflect on the day and the good that it held.
Some days it’s the little things, like a yummy salad for lunch. Other times, it’s something big, like an unexpected gift from a friend.
When I take a moment to recognize the best stuff from each day, I allow my soul time to recognize what is good in my life. Don’t underestimate the power of that!
For more about gratitude, check out the posts: How to Cultivate Gratitude in Homeschool and Family Life and Gratitude Isn’t Just for November.
Use a Seasonal Devotional
A second way I narrow my focus towards what matters to me during the holidays is by using a seasonal devotional. For the past few years, I’ve used Ann Voskamp’s The Greatest Gift. It gives me a chance to focus on my faith, and what I value at Christmas.
Connection with Loved Ones
Finally, connecting with people important to me and expressing love to them during the holidays is very fulfilling. For example, one of our favorite holiday traditions is preparing gifts of cookies for our neighbors, which we deliver house to house as a family.
Making space for special events together allows me to set aside work and distractions and enjoy my family while making good memories. For example, I usually have a movie night with the kids and invite my oldest two daughters (who don’t live at home anymore) over, too. We eat a yummy dessert while enjoying a cheesy and predictable Hallmark Christmas movie.
Connecting with these holiday traditions brings a sense of fulfillment. During a time of year that is easily overshadowed by the commercial side of the season, finding activities that you find fulfilling and purposeful will nurture your soul well.
During a time of year that is easily overshadowed by the commercial side of the season, finding activities that you find fulfilling and purposeful will nurture your soul well.
Practical Tips for Holistic Holiday Self-Care
I’ve already shared practical tips for nurturing your mind, body, and soul during the busy holiday season. However, there are a two more tips for holistic holiday self-care I really want you to remember.
1-Have Realistic Expectations
It’s important to recognize what you are capable of. Sometimes, this means you let go of your ideal visions of the holidays. In the past, I’ve put unnecessary pressure on myself to make the holidays a certain way.
I’ve tried to do too much, and not because anyone was demanding it. It’s kind of silly, but it was more about what I thought would make the holidays special.
We can take things down a notch, and our families will still have wonderful holiday memories. And a less grumpy mom!
2-Have Good Boundaries
What will you say yes and no to? There are a lot of fun events happening! However, when I say yes to too much, my schedule has me running from one thing to the next. My introverted self starts longing for peace and quiet.
It’s okay to carefully consider your schedule, capacity, and desires.
Your time is valuable, and you only have 24 hours a day. As you plan, recognize the time you need for healthy self-care; things like alone time, adequate sleep, exercise, etc.
Remember: keeping healthy boundaries around your self-care time is not selfish. It’s intended to keep your health and wellness on track.
Incorporating Self-Care into Holiday Homeschooling
There are so many exciting ways to include the holidays in your homeschool. There are special activities around town. Perhaps your co-op is hosting a party, or you want to include special books, movies, or unit studies to break up the mundane.
My number one tip is to select just a couple of ways to incorporate the holidays into your homeschool. Then, rest in the fact that it will be enough. You can even narrow it down to a couple of choices and let the kids decide. Whatever you do, don’t let holiday homeschooling become one more way you inadvertently heap extra work or stress on yourself.
It’s okay to take things off the schedule to make room for special holiday fun. It’s even okay to take a break from homeschooling over the holidays! Do what works for you and your family. That’s the beauty and flexibility of homeschooling.
Additional Resources for Self-Care
Be sure to check out my list of 10+ Favorite Self-Care Books for Homeschool Moms. These titles will feed your soul, foster personal growth and development, and even give you a much-needed laugh!
You might also check out these other articles about homeschool mom self-care:
How Can a Homeschool Mom Get Alone Time?
What Is Homeschool Mom Self-Care Anyways?
How to Make Time for Self-Care
6 Strategies to Fight the Winter Blues
25+ Self-Care Ideas for Winter
The Ultimate Guide to Planning a Mom Retreat
Why You Need a Mom Retreat…Now!
A Holistic Holiday Self-Care Toolkit
I want you to have successful holistic holiday self-care. Of course, I can’t leave you without resources to help you make that happen!
Sign up below to get access to My Holiday Self-Care Toolkit located in my subscriber-only resource library.
This 10-page pack includes:
- Strategies for success
- Holiday self-care ideas
- Self-care brainstorming worksheet
- Daily self-care plan
- Goal action planner and tracker
- Brain dump worksheet
- Gratitude journaling sheet
Don’t let the holidays take you by surprise! Don’t let overwhelm and stress steal your joy. Have a plan to keep healthy self-care activities part of your schedule.
Your mind, body, and soul will thank you!
Conclusion
Planning for self-care during the holidays is essential for homeschool moms. This is a very full time of year, and you want to make memories, enjoy the celebration, and embrace all the beautiful things of the holidays.
A holistic self-care approach allows you to usher in the season with more capacity for joy, and less space for stress and overwhelm to steal the show. It’s okay to keep your well-being a priority!
