Feeling the holiday stress creeping up? Wishing for a way to transform that anxiety into confidence and joy? Join me, Jason Phillips, your trusted therapist, and confidence expert, as we redefine what holidays should feel like. This episode of Peace and Prosperity is all about understanding why we feel this holiday stress and more importantly, crafting strategies to let go, and embrace the holiday cheer.
Let’s have an open conversation about the pressure we put on ourselves to make everything perfect during the holidays. Dive into the art of including yourself in holiday conversations and ensuring your desires are fulfilled too. Discover practical strategies like effective budgeting and thoughtful gift-giving, and learn from my personal experiences navigating the holiday whirl. Let's dismantle the myth of the 'perfect holiday' and instead, focus on creating a season filled with love, laughter, and confidence. So, sit back and join me on this journey towards a stress-free, enjoyable holiday season.
Feeling the holiday stress creeping up? Wishing for a way to transform that anxiety into confidence and joy? Join me, Jason Phillips, your trusted therapist, and confidence expert, as we redefine what holidays should feel like. This episode of Peace and Prosperity is all about understanding why we feel this holiday stress and more importantly, crafting strategies to let go, and embrace the holiday cheer.
Let’s have an open conversation about the pressure we put on ourselves to make everything perfect during the holidays. Dive into the art of including yourself in holiday conversations and ensuring your desires are fulfilled too. Discover practical strategies like effective budgeting and thoughtful gift-giving, and learn from my personal experiences navigating the holiday whirl. Let's dismantle the myth of the 'perfect holiday' and instead, focus on creating a season filled with love, laughter, and confidence. So, sit back and join me on this journey towards a stress-free, enjoyable holiday season.
Ask yourself what you want. Oftentimes, during the holidays, we are looking to please people, please our families, please our coworkers, which there's not a problem with, that, it's not a big problem but I want you to include yourself in the conversation when you do that. That's how you show up with confidence. Welcome back to another episode of the Peace and Prosperity podcast. I'm your host, jason Phillips, licensed therapist, confidence expert, and we are talking about how to manage the holidays with confidence. Yeah, y'all know the holidays can be very overwhelming for a lot of us, and as we talk about these different ways to manage the stress, I'm going to share some things that have worked for me, like what I remember growing up, and then, hopefully, you can apply this to your life as well, or your individual situation. So let's talk about it, because the holidays coming up we have Thanksgiving, christmas, new Year, all of that stuff and whatever other holidays that you may celebrate. Why is it stressful? So one before we even get into how to manage the stress. It's stressful a lot of times because the pressure that we're putting on ourselves. It's like as soon as we know Halloween just passed and we know, ok, thanksgiving is coming up and automatically you feel like. I want to make sure I do this right For myself, for my family, for my partner, for my kids. I want to make it right Now.
Speaker 1:
Who said there was a wrong way of doing the holidays? Nobody right. Nobody said that. But we innately oftentimes equate the holidays with stress, pressure and the need to perform. We got to stop that. We have to let that go. We can't keep making the holidays a busy type of season. Well, it's going to be busy, but busy to the point where it causes us stress. Now we're more anxious. We're thinking about did I do this? Did I miss that? How can I manage going to all of these different places? Do I travel, do I not? All of these questions come up and that becomes very overwhelming.
Speaker 1:
So the first thing that I want you to do when you think about managing the holidays with confidence, is stick to a budget. Yeah, before we even talk about who did you go see and what do you do, stick to a budget. This is so important. We heard the term before Don't cheat yourself, treat yourself, and I'm not going to lie, I definitely have lived by that term quite a bit, but it can get you in trouble. Right Bills become due. You may overspend on some gifts. You rob importer to pay Paul. That's not cool. So I want you out the gate to stick to a budget. So think about how you want to give gifts. Do you want to travel? Is this in your budget? Have you appropriated funds to do this? Or are you just trying to wing it and hope you can figure it out later? Like, don't do that, y'all, we've done that before, or I know I've done that before. But when you know better, you do better. So please let's not just wing it. And I can say sticking to a budget is critical, especially for parents.
Speaker 1:
When I was growing up, my mom made sure every year Christmas was dope. So people who are close to me, like friends, family if y'all were ever around, you know my house. During the holidays there was a lot of love, laughter and gifts. Right, we had a couple of trees in the house Christmas trees, and the trees had gifts around them. If they didn't have them leading up to Christmas, definitely on that morning. And then, as we got older, I'll never forget one Christmas.
Speaker 1:
We were in high school. So at this time in high school, you don't necessarily need the. I mean, you don't want the clothes or the pajamas, or even the toys and plus. At this age, my mom didn't know what to get us, or not particularly me being a man or male boy, whatever however you wanna frame it. She didn't know, so she would just give us money and we were not rich. We weren't poor, but we weren't rich. But we, I definitely felt rich around the holiday time.
Speaker 1:
So, going back, if I could ask my mom, did she stick to a budget back then? No, her budget was making sure her kids were happy, which I benefit it from greatly as a kid, right? I remember my birthday is in December, so two weeks actually two weeks to the day of my birthday is Christmas, so I would give Christmas gifts I'll be birthday gifts and Christmas gifts that's a lot. That's a lot. Y'all Single parent, that's a lot. Even dual households, that's a lot.
Speaker 1:
But you want to stick to a budget? Don't just act solely out of emotion, because, trust me, your kids, your partner, your friends, your family, they're still gonna love you regardless. Oh, they should, right? I don't know, sometimes we get things become they become very transactional, but they should still love you, even if you cannot, you know, get the certain bag or take the trips. I mean, I don't even know what the limit is now because things have gotten so out of hand. So as I got older, I started telling my family like look, we don't need to go all out like that anymore. It's getting to be a little stressful Not necessarily just for me, because I did enjoy giving gifts, but I knew the next month when bills are due or the next check. You know you're trying to catch up, but we don't want to go into the new year like that. So number one stick to a budget.
Speaker 1:
Today's episode is brought to you by blank wardrobe. Blank wardrobe is a lifestyle brand that features women's apparel. They're all about making style effortless and functional. Blank wardrobe Understands that building a foundational wardrobe is key to expressing your unique style. They offer a carefully curated selection of edgy basics that are sure to elevate your style game. What sets blank wardrobe apart is their dedication to educating women on how to build a wardrobe that truly reflects their Individuality, which allows women to feel empowered and confident. It's all about versatile pieces that can be mixed and matched to create countless different looks. Visit their website at wwwblankwardrobecom and be sure to catch up with them on Instagram at the blank wardrobe, to shop and for outfit inspo.
Speaker 1:
Number two set realistic expectations, and this means around who you visit, what you celebrate, how much time you spend when you go places. You can't be five places and what, or you can be five places in one day, but is that gonna be healthy for you? Do you really feel like, with you bouncing around Trying to go to this side of the town, that side of the town, that, at the end of the day, you're gonna fulfill by doing that right? You, you can plan ahead. So set the realistic expectations. One thing that my family does, or we would do sometimes we may hit some family members house on Christmas Eve or the day after. This was helpful because it took some pressure off of Feeling like I had to do everything on that one particular day. Y'all know I'm from Detroit too, so, depending on how the weather is laying, that definitely might not be the best idea to try to Go everywhere, everywhere in that same one day. So set realistic expectations.
Speaker 1:
Number three ask yourself what you want. Oftentimes during the holidays, we are looking to please people, please our families, please our co-workers, which there's not a problem with that, it's not a big problem but I want you to include yourself in the conversation when you do that. That's how you show up with confidence, being able to say you know what, yeah, I can do that, or no, I can't, because I want to do this for me, particularly if you have time off around this time of the year, sometimes companies are more generous. If you work for yourself, you may plan to spend that you know one or two weeks without your clients and customers. You don't want to do that, thinking about what you need to do for everyone, for everybody else, and not thinking about yourself. So think about you too. You are important, you All right. Number four I want you to rest, yes, as you think about what you want. I want you to make sure that you're planning downtime too.
Speaker 1:
Often we'll go, go, go, go, go, and then we'll end up burning out, and this is even if you're having fun. So sometimes you can be having fun during the holidays. You're laughing, you're joking, you know you fellowship or fellowshiping, which is all fine and it's good, and you may feel overwhelmed with you know, positive emotions, but then the next day you drain. You're like man that was dope, you know, kicking it. I haven't seen cousin in a while. Haven't seen this person in a while we haven't done girl's night and you get a chance to do that, but then you feel like you need another vacation after you've been off for two weeks because you went so hard. Think about it right.
Speaker 1:
It takes time to build up the PTO to schedule. If you gotta drop kids off somewhere or get a dog sitter or you know, just clear off your schedule. Clear off your schedule for you two and make sure you are resting and relaxing. And this is particularly important for my high achievers, my high performers, those of us who just go, go, go, go. You get off work, you hit an airport, you hit your destination, you're having fun, mixing, amingling, you get back home barely unpacked and you get right back into it. Let's not do that. Let's plan for some rest. That's number four. Number five this is gonna really help you manage the holidays with confidence.
Speaker 1:
Think about your values. So, as I'm talking about setting a budget, being realistic with expectations, thinking about what you want, planning your downtime, what do you value? Because I wanna make sure that whatever it is that you value if it's financial security, if it's peace, if it's family it's incorporated into how you manage these holiday season or this holiday season. If you're not careful, the holidays will fly by and you will feel like man, I'm glad it's over. I don't want you to feel like that. I want you to be proactive, think these things through, and because of that I wanna give you one more tip.
Speaker 1:
Be open to setting new traditions and this can seem a little bit not cheesy, but it can seem uncomfortable in the beginning Even thinking about doing something new. I know, after my mom died back in 2019, the Christmas we were in Florida Maybe not on Christmas day, but around that Christmas time and that was very, very new, and it just happened to be right before the pandemic hit. So that was cool for me to get a chance to unwind. Do something different. Do I do it every year? No, was it cool that year? Yeah, would I do it again? Of course I would, but be open to the idea of doing something new.
Speaker 1:
Change of scenery can help you feel better, can help you relax. If you don't feel like maybe the holidays are a tough time for you, so you're not necessarily in the holiday season. Being in a different environment can help you change how you feel, how you think, and just doing that, having that change of scenery, can add a new layer of motivation or serenity. So let's not sleep on doing something new. Be open to it and again, check in with yourself, because you may have already been thinking about it, but you've been a little nervous about pulling the trigger.
Speaker 1:
All right, y'all, we are wrapping up another episode of the Peace and Prosperity podcast. Hey, let me know which one of these tips is gonna help you better manage the holidays with confidence. All right, y'all. Peace ["Peace and Prosperity"]. Thank you all for listening to another episode of the Peace and Prosperity podcast. Again, if you are feeling like, hey, I'm experiencing high functioning anxiety, don't beat yourself up about it. It is okay. We all experience anxiety from time to time and I gave you a couple of things that you can do on your own, but don't hesitate to reach out to a professional to better manage what you're going through. Okay, and lastly, make sure, if you have not like share, subscribe to the podcast and send this out to a friend. And if you wanna hear certain episodes or have certain conversations, let me know. You can shoot me a DM or just leave a review and I will definitely follow up. All right, y'all. Be blessed. Peace. ["peace and Prosperity"].
