Christmas is such a busy time of year! Everyone is rushing around doing all the inevitable last-minute jobs – even though we swore that we’d have them all done by now!
Whilst it’s understandable that we want everything to be perfect for everyone else, it’s really important that we take good care of ourselves during the Christmas season. Otherwise instead of enjoying our time with family and friends when it arrives, we’ll just be exhausted and longing for it all to be over.
Top Ten Tips for a stress-free Christmas
An article in the Daily Mail this week contained advice and tips on How to Stay Sane over Christmas. We have put together Top Ten Tips for a stress free Christmas using some of the advice from this article and adding a few of our own:
- Beware perfectionism. In most cases if you aim to get things 60% right it will be good enough.
- Make sure you include lots of healthy foods – such as nuts – in your Christmas diet.
- Think outside the box regarding gifts: perhaps agree with adult family members either to do a Secret Santa between you or to support a charity instead of giving everyone a gift.
- Be careful not to drink too much as this can have a depressing effect and can adversely influence sleep patterns.
- Keep things as simple as possible: for example why not use paper plates where possible to avoid masses of clearing up.
- Stick to normal routines where you can: for example if your body is used to a particular sleep routine you will feel much better if you stick to it as much as possible to avoid jet-lag type symptoms.
- Breathe! If you feel you are getting stressed, take time to breathe properly. Slow your breathing and make sure that your out-breath is longer than your in-breath.
- Get some fresh air and exercise. Over Christmas we can feel very cooped-up and restless, and a good walk will help everyone.
- Volunteer for something. Even though it’s such a busy time, if you are able to take a couple of hours out to help people that are much worse off than you, it can help to put everything into perspective.
- Look after yourself. Last but not least. What are the things that you enjoy doing and that make you happy? We’ll look at this in a bit more detail below, but one of the best gifts you can give to others at Christmas is the best version of yourself!
Look after yourself
That last point above – looking after yourself – is so much easier said than done! When we are rushing around after other people and there is so much to do, we tend to let ourselves drop off the bottom of the To Do list. But if we are unhappy and stressed it defeats the whole object of Christmas: the people we are doing it all for really would not want that.
So take time to enjoy what you want to do. Whether it is attending a carol service, going for a nice long swim, enjoying a Christmas movie – just do it. This is also where having a beautiful bathroom is such a joy. No matter how busy you are, if it’s possible just to find half an hour for an invigorating shower or long soak in the bath then that has got to be a good thing!
At Stone and Chrome we create beautiful bathrooms that will be that joy rather than just being somewhere functional. A sanctuary where you can relax and regroup whenever you need to. Whatever your taste and style, you can be sure that Stone and Chrome will be able to deliver that bathroom that is right for you and will enable you to retreat from the world when things just get that little bit too much.
If you don’t currently have a bathroom that can do this for you then why not first of all browse through our gallery of bathroom pictures? Then in the New Year come and visit us at our Camberley showroom to see first hand our wonderful range of bathrooms and wetrooms, and picture how beautiful a Stone and Chrome bathroom could look in your home. We look forward to meeting you!
PS the more observant of you will have noticed that all of the images in the first two sections featured prizes in our recent monthly giveaways! For details of the next month’s giveaway see our Competition Giveaway page HERE.