You know you can buy those cookies, don’t you?

We put so much pressure on ourselves.

We can put so much pressure on ourselves to make everything perfect, to make everything magical. The holiday expectations can add to the already overstressed workplace. Did you know:

• 1 in 4 Canadians admit to leaving their job due to unbearable work related
• Thirty-six per cent of Canadians admitted that several times throughout the year, they feel stressed to the point where it impacts their daily lives.

What happens to your brain under stress?

Chronic stress reduces brain capacity. It actually kills brain cells and shrinks the brain. Chronic stress inhibits our ability to learn, makes us more emotional and irritable, causes us to unfocused and depressed. Chronic stress interferes with our ability to stay on task and get things done.

Want to learn more?

Here is a short (4minutes, 15second) Ted Ed you can watch called How Stress Affects Your Brain.

So what can you do?

Here are some easy ways to control stress:

• Breathe. Take a conscious breath or ten.
• Be easier on yourself. You are doing incredibly well under the circumstances.
• Remember the only person you can truly control is yourself. Don’t let the behaviour of others get you down.
• Go outside into nature and be.
• Get some exercise. The kind that you love, not the kind you think you are supposed to do.
• List out loud everything that you love (to taste, to hear, to see, to feel, to smell, to do, to experience).

Here are some things that will control stress in the long term:

• Know what is really important to you and make what is important to you a priority.
• Take a look at the beliefs that you have about work, about leadership, about family, and about yourself. Look to what you learned from your culture, your family, your spiritual upbringing, and your schooling. They may be adding to your stress levels.
• Recognize how these uncovered beliefs no longer serve you and in fact just add to your stress level.
• Rewire the beliefs you have been caring to something that will lead to less stress, a healthier brain and a happier life:
• Really practice the concept of looking after yourself first (put your oxygen mask before you help someone else).

Here are some beliefs that can add stress:

1. I have to make everybody happy.
2. I can’t make a mistake.
3. If I stay another hour, tomorrow will be less stressful.
4. I need to rescue everything and everybody because nobody else will do it.

Here’s how you might rewire them:

1. When I am happy, people around me are happier.
2. Nobody is perfect and I learn from mistakes.
3. Taking time for myself by scheduling time to exercise and get a good night sleep will make me more productive in the morning.
4. I need to hold others capable. I raise my concerns and allow others to learn from their mistakes.

And celebrate this season for what it is meant to be “On earth peace, goodwill towards people”.

Wishing you and your family so much joy for the holidays and of course a much less stressful 2018.

Alison