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If you are anything like me you’ll spend all year wishing for the holidays to get here and then when they arrive they are never as good as you expected. I’ve learned over the years that I don’t cope with being idle and here are a few behaviours that I’ve adopted to keep me happy through the slower months of the year.
Exercise.
Even it’s a game of basketball with your nephew, or a walk through your local botanic gardens. When you aren’t working everyday you remove at least half of your incidental activity like walking to your building, going up and down stairs and running around your office. I cannot stress enough how detrimental inactivity is for your mental health. Go do a load of washing, walk to get a coffee or have a spring clean. Just go.
Learn a new skill.
Hit up your local book shop, buy a DIY book and learn something. French. Home renovations. Knitting. Sewing. Anything!
Write a list.
Of things that you want to get done over the holidays, of things that you want to achieve in the new year or of things that you want to achieve in five years time. The problem with the holidays is that often we feel purposeless as we are not working or studying. You don’t have to DO anything on the lists just simply writing them will give you a sense of clarity and help you relax.
Volunteer.
Look into local volunteer programs and give some of your time. You have plenty of it right? At the very least give some blood. Just give something.
Eat well.
Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve are your only free days over the holidays. Don’t think that if you eat sugar, refined carbohydrates, salt and fat for your whole holiday that you’ll feel good. You won’t. Eat some salad, have some salmon. Perhaps an apple? I promise you’ll feel better.
Sleep.
I read an article recently on the science of sleep that states that humans need 6 to 8 hours of sleep each evening and if you don’t get at least that each night, EVERY night your body starts a ‘sleep debt’ that you need to pay off one way or another. What a perfect excuse for endless days of sleep ins!
Unplug.
Checking your Facebook, blog, Twitter and email twenty times a day on a public holiday is just sad. Turn the damn things off and get outside, read a book or talk to three dimensional people.
Avoid alcohol.
It’s a depressant. Enough said. By all means have a glass of champers on New Year but don’t waste your yearly recovery time on being hungover
Deal.
Really ask yourself why you’re sad. Most of the time it’s simply because your routine is out of whack. Now compare that to some one who REALLY has a reason to be sad. It’s not the end of the world that your favourite restaurant is shut until mid January and your best friend is in Bali.
Get dressed.
Properly. Every day. There’s something about the holidays that turns even the best of us into slobs. If you look good, you feel good. Oh and just a side note to those in the Southern Hemisphere who spend the holidays at the beach – the ocean? It’s not a shower. So don’t treat it like one.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all that jazz…
love,
Carly
xxx
mail so send me one hello@carlyjacobs.com