Cheryl Wright

Along with feel­ing ex­cit­ed and fes­tive, you may have be­gun to feel over­whelmed and tired. Re­mem­ber­ing a few im­por­tant things can help you re­lax, main­tain a healthy fo­cus and en­joy the hol­i­days. ?

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Re­mem­ber the rea­son for the sea­son. If you ob­serve the hol­i­days from a re­li­gious per­spec­tive, faith­ful­ly en­gage in the re­li­gious prac­tices that help to make Christ­mas mean­ing­ful to you. If you live on the oth­er side of the fence, make time to un­der­stand the sto­ry be­hind Christ­mas and its tra­di­tions.

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Re­mem­ber to keep it re­al. Re­solve not to wear the mask of Christ­mas–in­sin­cere at­ti­tudes, fake smiles and ro­bot­ic par­rot­ing of Christ­mas jar­gon. If you are un­com­fort­able with some or all that takes place or is ex­pect­ed, hold to your pref­er­ences or con­vic­tions, say so gra­cious­ly and act ac­cord­ing­ly.

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Re­mem­ber it is the thought that counts. A clich� yes, but in the heat of the giv­ing and re­ceiv­ing, the sig­nif­i­cance of this truth gets lost. Re­peat it to your­self, your fam­i­ly and friends and set the ex­am­ple by your own re­ac­tion to in­ex­pen­sive and small gifts you re­ceive. ?

Re­mem­ber those less for­tu­nate. Do your part, how­ev­er small, to en­sure that some­one with lim­it­ed means, ex­pe­ri­ences some Christ­mas cheer.

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Re­mem­ber that in the grand scheme of the hol­i­days, peo­ple are more im­por­tant than things. Most ad­ver­tise­ments push prod­ucts in your face and tug at your pock­et. Your un­con­di­tion­al love, your time, your shoul­der, your ear and a gen­tle touch of em­pa­thy goes fur­ther and means more, long af­ter most gifts have out­lived their val­ue or use­ful­ness.

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Re­mem­ber to keep up with healthy lifestyle habits. The temp­ta­tion to slide in­to ex­cess will be strong. Make a promise to your­self to en­joy all that's good with­out go­ing over­board. More im­por­tant, ab­stain from in­dul­gences, which could have an im­me­di­ate or grad­ual neg­a­tive im­pact on your health.

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Re­mem­ber the glow of the hol­i­days will pass and give way to nor­mal every­day liv­ing. Don't get so caught up in the spir­it of the hol­i­days that you aban­don rea­son and self-re­straint and ex­pose your­self to dire phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al and fi­nan­cial straits in the New Year.

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Re­mem­ber to be good to your­self in the midst of ex­pend­ing your time and en­er­gy on oth­ers. You can on­ly give your best when you are at your best self. And you can on­ly be your best self when you're nour­ished on every lev­el. Set aside time and save some en­er­gy to treat your­self well es­pe­cial­ly if the Christ­mas hol­i­days are a hec­tic time for you.

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Re­mem­ber to dab­ble in your favourite ac­tiv­i­ties. The Christ­mas hol­i­days can over­cast many as­pects of nor­mal life. Ease up on the vis­it­ing and en­ter­tain­ing to spend time in ac­tiv­i­ties you en­joy all dur­ing the year. Keep­ing up with your hob­bies can be a wel­come break from the fes­tiv­i­ties.

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Re­mem­ber to stay clear of feel­ing blue about the loss of old tra­di­tions. How you cel­e­brate Christ­mas to­day may be a far cry from Christ­mases in your past and that may fill you with melan­choly. By dwelling on the loss of those "good old days" you could miss out on the won­der­ful mem­o­ries you can cre­ate in the present.

In­stead of stay­ing stuck in the old tra­di­tions, take the best of them and in­te­grate them in­to your present-day cel­e­bra­tions, put a new spin on some or make your own tra­di­tions based on who you are and how you live your life now.?What­ev­er ob­tains in your life dur­ing the hol­i­days, these re­minders can help to keep you re­laxed, ground­ed, re­al­is­tic and sane. ??