Subscribe To This Site
|
Holiday Stress ManagementWith the holiday season approaching, now is the time to start creating your holiday stress management strategies.The holidays can be a treasured time rich in family and historic traditions. For many, they are a time of heightened anticipation for getting together with loved ones that otherwise you may not see throughout the year. And, the holiday season is one of the most stressful times of the year. Your regular routines and daily expectations begin to change, and change is one of the biggest stressors in our lives. Holiday StressorsThere is probably an endless list of holiday stressors that you are already anticipating. Top amongst those stressors are:Increased
Fine line between stress and joyful anticipationWhen you think about stress most will think of bad stress – the kind that damages the body and creates emotional anxiety and depression.The body functions optimally when in balance. The benchmark of holistic balance within your thoughts, body, emotions, and behaviors is typically a sense of feeling peaceful, calm, and without tension in your body. However, even good stress creates an out-of-balance condition in your body. Even good stress is stressful. Think about the times in your life when you were really very happy about something that has happened in your life. There is such an inner jubilation and joy, but that feeling doesn’t last, does it? No, it doesn’t. Eventually, the body will come back into that place of peace and calm found within balance. That is the beauty of the dance that is done automatically within the body between the stress response and the relaxation response. Holiday stress management strategiesAs you begin your preparation for holiday stressors, most of my clients share that there is usually “one” thing that they knew if they did that differently then the holidays would be less stressful.So from a holistic perspective (BEST) of who you are:
Once you have that ONE thing in mind, look through the following holiday stress management strategies and see how you can make a different choice, or to nurture yourself through it in a different way.
This is a time to create as much balance for yourself in a nurturing kind of way that you can. Set realistic goals for yourself with how much you eat, drink, and spend. Being more conscious of moderation is important. Honor yourself while having fun in moderation. Avoid procrastination Early preparation can be very effective in relieving stress. Do those things you can do ahead of time. Re-evaluate expectations Become aware of the expectations that are both internal and those that you feel are external to yourself. Create new holiday traditions that feel equally as sacred and joyful, but less stressful. Volunteer Create an opportunity for you and your family to volunteer in the community during the holidays. There are great inner rewards that are borne out of volunteering to help another sacred human or animal. Pay it forward during the holidays. The time to start is nowEffective stress management is about adapting to a stressor.As you look ahead into your own holiday stress management stressors, begin developing your adaptive strategies now. In this holiday season, give yourself the gift of choice. Give yourself the gift of inner joy this holiday season. If you need a little help getting started, contact me for a FREE 1/2 hour stress consultation with me! For more information, please see: Return From Holiday Stress Management To Stress Management Activity Return From Holiday Stress Management To Coping With Stress Home Pay it forward!There a lot of people who have become overwhelmed by stress and how to get rid of it. I can understand this feeling. But it does not mean that good information is NOT out there. It is.Please help a friend or loved one by sharing this information with them. Email this link to them or submit this page to your Tweet account, or Facebook or your favorite social bookmarking or networking site. Use the links below to pay it forward. |
Looking for a specific topic?
Search for it here:
- FREE -
Control My Stress
stress management tools!
Abbie K. – Minneapolis
K., age 45, is a long term chronically PTSD disabled patient. She has had daily headaches for 20 years. Two weeks ago she reported that she had had 4 days of pain free time, and was having the exceedingly odd sensation of "smiling all the time". She and Cathi have made extraordinary fast progress together.
Dr. Cole
I referred C.L., age mid-forties, to see Cathi after a life of suffering the post traumatic stress disorder of parental sexual abuse over many years of her childhood, with major dysfunctions of alcohol and drug abuse, and with the disabling symptoms of migraine that have for more than twenty years become chronic.
She has lived with daily headaches that have not responded to any of the several drugs which have benefited many such suffering patients. She has needed chronic opiate treatment of her chronic pain syndrome.
In the few weeks that Cathi has worked with her, C.L. has begun to experience days without pain, periods of happiness, and a reduction in her opiate dosage requirements that represent a breakthrough in her stalled-out life as a single mom raising a teen-age daughter with only social security income resources.
Dr. Racer
“I first met Cathi Churchill eight years ago when she effectively helped my work unit through the stress of a hospital-wide layoff. I was impressed with her clear-minded approach and willingness to listen.”
Andy R.
N., age 60, is a hard driving attorney twenty year patient of mine who hit the wall with chronic fatigue four years ago, and began to realize she had to learn to rest. She recovered enough to return to her workaholic lifestyle when she was stopped by a herniated cervical disc and resumption of her chronic colitis.
Working with Cathi, she is discovering "the way she does life" and learning to make choices about it. She came in last week, having "danced until dawn". She is learning to dialogue with her body in effective ways.
Dr. Cole
“I stumbled upon Cathi after my recent heart attack that was brought on by stress. I was scared of having another one, and didn’t know what to do. I had lost hope. Working with her has changed my life. I’m so grateful."
Debbie – Canada
M.S., a woman in her late forties with progressively more and more disabling rheumatoid arthritis since childhood, whose most recent problems have arisen over the last two to three years as complications of immunosuppressive therapy for her disease. The complications have been associated with the severely disabling chronic pain of recurrent herpes neuralgia for more than three years, and for the past 15 months, recurrent osteomyelitis in her right lower mandible.
The second, more alarming (even life-threatening) problem has caused months of diagnostic and therapy confusion among her many consultants, three successive resections of the bone over the last six to eight months, and the still ongoing threat of more relapses of the smoldering bone infection and chronic pain only made bearable by chronic, massive doses of opiates.
In the few months since M. began to work with Cathi with several modalities: stress management, therapeutic touch, guided imaging, and others, her life has become more livable, as she has become able to bear the pain and the discouragement of unresolved disease.
She has relied on many of the methods for maintaining hope and getting through overwhelming discouragement by using the inner resources she has learned with Cathi.
My hope as her primary physician, is that Cathi and M. will be able to continue to work together to maintain that inner strength and hope as she faces yet more months of pain, and further repeated surgery.
Thank you for the healing guidance you've been able to give her thus far.
Dr. Racer
“I sought out the help of Cathi during my divorce, and found her to be an insightful and compassionate coach. Her ability to see deep into the heart of an emotionally stressful problem is, I believe, unique and I would highly recommend her service to anyone.”
P.R. – Brooklyn Center
S., age 48, is a Laotian patient of mine with 15 years of chronic abdominal pain. She has had an extensive medical worked up, and nothing ever worked. Cathi saw her over several months.
S. has improved! Cathi established a trusting relationship with her, and helped her to effectively break through her wall of silence and grief about her son's mental illness, and taught her how to "change her thinking".
S. now comes in smiling, notes some unusual continued symptoms, but no longer has chronic abdominal disabling pain.
Dr. Cole
“Control My Stress is so amazing. I want to thank you, again, for such a valuable resource.”
Tony.
Search for it here:
| site search by freefind | advanced |
- FREE -
Control My Stress
stress management tools!
Testimonials
“Ms. Churchill is the unique health care worker everyone hopes to encounter, but rarely does. She has an extraordinary gift that allows her to do much more than diagnose and treat.”Abbie K. – Minneapolis
K., age 45, is a long term chronically PTSD disabled patient. She has had daily headaches for 20 years. Two weeks ago she reported that she had had 4 days of pain free time, and was having the exceedingly odd sensation of "smiling all the time". She and Cathi have made extraordinary fast progress together.
Dr. Cole
I referred C.L., age mid-forties, to see Cathi after a life of suffering the post traumatic stress disorder of parental sexual abuse over many years of her childhood, with major dysfunctions of alcohol and drug abuse, and with the disabling symptoms of migraine that have for more than twenty years become chronic.
She has lived with daily headaches that have not responded to any of the several drugs which have benefited many such suffering patients. She has needed chronic opiate treatment of her chronic pain syndrome.
In the few weeks that Cathi has worked with her, C.L. has begun to experience days without pain, periods of happiness, and a reduction in her opiate dosage requirements that represent a breakthrough in her stalled-out life as a single mom raising a teen-age daughter with only social security income resources.
Dr. Racer
“I first met Cathi Churchill eight years ago when she effectively helped my work unit through the stress of a hospital-wide layoff. I was impressed with her clear-minded approach and willingness to listen.”
Andy R.
N., age 60, is a hard driving attorney twenty year patient of mine who hit the wall with chronic fatigue four years ago, and began to realize she had to learn to rest. She recovered enough to return to her workaholic lifestyle when she was stopped by a herniated cervical disc and resumption of her chronic colitis.
Working with Cathi, she is discovering "the way she does life" and learning to make choices about it. She came in last week, having "danced until dawn". She is learning to dialogue with her body in effective ways.
Dr. Cole
“I stumbled upon Cathi after my recent heart attack that was brought on by stress. I was scared of having another one, and didn’t know what to do. I had lost hope. Working with her has changed my life. I’m so grateful."
Debbie – Canada
M.S., a woman in her late forties with progressively more and more disabling rheumatoid arthritis since childhood, whose most recent problems have arisen over the last two to three years as complications of immunosuppressive therapy for her disease. The complications have been associated with the severely disabling chronic pain of recurrent herpes neuralgia for more than three years, and for the past 15 months, recurrent osteomyelitis in her right lower mandible.
The second, more alarming (even life-threatening) problem has caused months of diagnostic and therapy confusion among her many consultants, three successive resections of the bone over the last six to eight months, and the still ongoing threat of more relapses of the smoldering bone infection and chronic pain only made bearable by chronic, massive doses of opiates.
In the few months since M. began to work with Cathi with several modalities: stress management, therapeutic touch, guided imaging, and others, her life has become more livable, as she has become able to bear the pain and the discouragement of unresolved disease.
She has relied on many of the methods for maintaining hope and getting through overwhelming discouragement by using the inner resources she has learned with Cathi.
My hope as her primary physician, is that Cathi and M. will be able to continue to work together to maintain that inner strength and hope as she faces yet more months of pain, and further repeated surgery.
Thank you for the healing guidance you've been able to give her thus far.
Dr. Racer
“I sought out the help of Cathi during my divorce, and found her to be an insightful and compassionate coach. Her ability to see deep into the heart of an emotionally stressful problem is, I believe, unique and I would highly recommend her service to anyone.”
P.R. – Brooklyn Center
S., age 48, is a Laotian patient of mine with 15 years of chronic abdominal pain. She has had an extensive medical worked up, and nothing ever worked. Cathi saw her over several months.
S. has improved! Cathi established a trusting relationship with her, and helped her to effectively break through her wall of silence and grief about her son's mental illness, and taught her how to "change her thinking".
S. now comes in smiling, notes some unusual continued symptoms, but no longer has chronic abdominal disabling pain.
Dr. Cole
“Control My Stress is so amazing. I want to thank you, again, for such a valuable resource.”
Tony.