The festive season can be exciting, but it can also leave many people feeling overwhelmed, overstimulated or exhausted. Building simple self-care habits during Christmas can help support relaxation, balance and wellbeing.

This time of year normally brings a lot of stress. People are worried about everything, perhaps even worrying about worrying! It is a vicious cycle, isn’t it? As the nights draw in earlier, the amount of sunshine we get is limited. Self-care is an important thing that we all need to practice. Self-care is a very individual thing, someone's idea of perfect self-care could feel like a nightmare for someone else. So here are a few different things you can try to practice self-care over the holiday period. 

Gentle Exercise Is Key

Exercise could be the last thing on your mind, going for a run in the dark? No thank you! But you can still do something and that is the key here. Anything is better than nothing and 9 times out of 10 you will feel better afterwards. You can try Yoga, Pilates or if you have a machine at home you could hop on the exercise bike or cross trainer and just have a more relaxed workout without any pressure. 

Enjoy The Little Moments

It is all about favouring the small things in life that make us happy. The first cup of coffee in the morning, a smile from our children as they look at us lovingly, sitting down for 5 minutes with a cup of tea and Caroboo bar as a healthier snack alternative. But the question here is, orange, mint or coconut? By savouring the little moments in life you are focusing on the good. Not every day is a good day, but there is some good in every day. 

Remember To Look After Your Basic Needs

Life can be busy with work, kids, cleaning and all the other commitments we have. Throw Christmas shenanigans into that and we will get very overwhelmed very quickly so take a look at some of these self care ideas. Unfortunately most of the time the person who gets forgotten about is ourselves. So make sure you are hydrated, fed, showered and have time away from it all to just breathe.