Holiday Stress

Happy Monday!

GASP, we (teachers) are so very close to the end of the semester, and the buzz is in the air (making it hard for wee scholars to focus and for me to stay patient.)

With the holidays approaching, I decided to dedicate this Mindful Monday lesson to holiday stress and shared a couple of delightful videos from Head Space with my class.

At first I wondered if "holiday stress" was an adult emotion, isn't the holiday season all about sleeping and movies and sugar and presents when you are a kid? What do they have to be stressed about? But I was surprised by some of the responses I got when I asked my students if they felt stress during the holidays. This is what a few of them said:

"The most stressful holiday for me is Christmas because I need to know what to get my family and I need transportation because I can't drive, so it's hard." - H, 6th grade

"It gets too crowded and I feel stressed and everyone is relying on me to do everything." - G, 6th grade

"The most stressful thing for me is that no one gets along, and to not eat too much food." - D, 6th grade

"The most stressful thing is I don't get to spend Christmas with my dad." - K, 6th grade

Thinking back, I remember feeling some of the same emotions as a kid. Joy and excitement, but also overwhelm and guilt and sometimes an inexplicable sadness.

I think most of us try and deny any negative feeling we have during the holiday, because we are "suppose to" be having a good time. But the truth is, the quicker we are to accept our negative emotion, the more likely it will move through us.

The holidays are just a super-charged time of year, no matter who you are. So it becomes that much more important for us to try and take even two minutes to refocus.

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season.