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Establish Your Time

#27: How To Prevent Holiday Burnout

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To many, holiday preparations start after Halloween, others push it to the start of Black Friday or like us, I start putting stuff up somewhere around the first week or 2 of December because our decorations and tree stay up for a good week into January. Basically after the 6th when we also celebrate Armenian Christmas. However, there are quite a few people, and I know some friends who do this. Their holiday season starts as early as summer vacation is over! That’s a full 3 months of conceptualizing, preparing and implementing!

So, with this in mind, as well as being mindful of my own feelings and reasoning why I wait well into December to put up the decorations, – which I’ll share with you later on. But it got me thinking about the impact this season has on our mental health, emotional wellness and overall well-being. Let’s agree, this is a busy time of the year on TOP of it being the holidays. For many it’s year-end so work is demanding to get all our numbers in, all the sales accounted for and working for that big bonus. This is also a time where the heaviness from losing someone can be felt so deeply or the feelings of guilt and self-worthiness can come creeping in and stinging some of us. It’s enough to get burnout… but let’s not get to that point.

In creating this episode, my hope is to arm you and give you tools and strategies of how to go about the holidays that won’t lead you to burnout. To give you tips and tricks on how to manage the overwhelm and be present and in the moment so that you can enjoy the holiday season amidst all the chaos, demands and spreading the joy.

So in this episode I’ll be talking to you about:
How to set the tone so that your intentions are established and used as your guiding light to get through this season.

With setting the tone, you’ll learn ways to pace yourself so as to avoid the overwhelm that can lead to burnout.

Next, I’ll talk about creating space so that our mental health is always in check.

And finally, I’ll talk about something many of us struggle with and that’s: Setting boundaries because we know what lies ahead of us but how can we manage and control our tendencies as well?

Establish Your Time

Podcast #17: Let’s Talk Mental Health – Stop Spreading Yourself Too Thin

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When I became a mom and went through all the first time mom-feels: joys, discoveries and all the challenges. It REALLY became apparent on my mental load after I had my second baby.

I can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt that I was spread way thin.

I was still adjusting to knowing my daughter, a very different baby than my first, and all the tricks that were working before, didn’t work at all or as effectively with her. I felt, as millions of moms out there also felt: like crap. I had no idea what I was doing. Well, I knew the basics but this was a whole different personality. It’s as though I was starting back at square one; but STILL trying to be present and attentive to my son and at the same time be a loving and supportive wife: 24/7 , 365.

My mode was either OFF, which felt like a blink, or ALWAYS ON: there for everyone AND everything. Doing things on my own and trying to figure things out, is just who I am. It’s part of my ‘being’.

Now, this isn’t to say that my husband didn’t help or wasn’t present. Not at all. He’s a very involved parent and husband. When I was in massage therapy school every second weekend, he was perfectly fine taking care of our son. And our son…. knew no difference!

But, while Onnig was asleep, call it stubbornness on my part or just wanting to ensure he’s at his best for his employees and business partners, I would rarely wake him up overnight. I tended to all the wake ups from either one or both kids.

Now don’t get me wrong, we had many conversations about me needing to wake him up, even if it was to bring the baby to me, wait for the feed, and bring her back to her crib – he was so on board with that. But my thoughts were about taking care of him too.
In hindsight, I wanted and needed to do the work: feel all the feels, gain the experience and knowledge about myself. As much as my babies were growing, I was too.

But my mental health was also taking a toll. I didn’t know or didn’t pay much attention then, but I do remember one night, annoyed after a quick feed, standing by the corner of the bed, awake but exhausted. What felt like months and months and months of trying to keep it all together, while feeling like I was being pulled in all directions, I felt resentment brewing.

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