My Top Three Tips to THRIVE (not just Survive) the Holidays while Looking and Feeling Your BEST

(This is me....just kidding...  Who has time to make snow angels?!?  It's the Holidays for Pete's sake!?!)

How do we survive this holiday season while looking-and more importantly FEELING- our best? If you've read any of my other blogs, you know by now I address not just outward beauty but inner as well. In my opinion if you don't have beauty and peace radiating from the inside out, it doesn't matter what you wear. It's like throwing a new coat of paint on the walls of a house with a crumbling foundation. So in that spirit here are my top tips for surviving the Holiday Season while looking (and feeling) your best:

1. Pay yourself first (daily). I know I have mentioned this before on my Facebook page, but the benefits of paying yourself first are infinite.  As some of you know, I took a two week roadtrip with my family last fall. It sounds romantic and ideal in theory (and for the most part it was HIGHLY enjoyable!!). But let's be real, traveling with 3 kids under the age of 6 and living in a space that's literally 0.05% the amount of space you are used to sharing with your family can kind of begin to wear on you. By week 2 I was feeling the burn-lashing out more at my family, telling my husband I hate RV road trips and that "I'm never doing this again!" It wasn't until we got into a near collision with a semi-truck while I was driving the RV (my mom actually broke her rib in the incident) and I got pulled over (all within 5 mins) that I began to realize just how much my negative attitude was beginning to affect everyone around me. I was just in a negative state that final stretch. When we got home I realized why: I never spent time to recharge Katie's batteries during the trip like: Journaling, praying, working out, listening to powerful affirmations, etc. Instead, I spent all I had on my family. In the end my family and I paid for this crucial mistake. I leaned a valuable lesson: no matter what's going on around me I need to PAY myself first. Investing time in ourselves makes us less resentful, more focused, and more loving to everyone around us. It's like on the airplane pre-flight take-off checklist: put your face mask on first before you even put it on for your children if the plane is going down. The reasoning behind it is if you reach a certain level of air pressure your brain doesn't function the way it normally would and it can no longer perform even the simplest of tasks including putting in air mask on your small children. This analogy is so ironic but so true-if we don't take care of ourselves amidst the craziness of the Holidays, everything and everyone around us (including those we love the most) will suffer. Get up, get moving, go for a walk with your friend, journal with some amazing coffee for 20 minutes, do some pilates, read a book or devotional, anything!

2. Schedule relaxation. Ok who has time to relax during the holidays? There's last minute Christmas shopping to do (puke), presents to wrap (and re-wrap after you kids prematurely open them), parties to attend, groceries to get (ugh), etc etc....we have a never ending laundry list of things we should do. While I'm not going to completely neglect my list (I am a Water after all-lists are my life!), I am going to be be more intentional about it. I know that if I overdo it and neglect rest and relaxation/downtime, things will simply suck. "The best way to protect your health and happiness is to schedule it."-Kris Carr. This is a woman who was diagnosed with a rare and incurable stage IV cancer over a decade ago… So I think she knows a little bit about how to take care of herself. She is leading a healthy balanced life even though her cancer cannot be cured. If she can do it, why can't we? She created a schedule with a daily affirmation and away to plan your relaxation time for yourself every day-because we all know "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail."
You can find the planner here:
http://kriscarr.com/blog/holiday-stress-management-tips/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=facebook&utm_content=holidayselfcareblog112916

Instead of running myself ragged the week before Christmas (like I do every year) I am intentionally choosing to being in bed every night before 11 PM all of next week, and I even scheduled a massage for myself  next THURS (don't tell my husband-let's say "I am grocery shopping"-because I do that all the time with a family of five). Why not schedule some relaxation time for you this season so that you can actually enjoy the holidays?

3. Lastly: WEAR colors that will enhance you, instead of sucking the life (and color) from you. Here are the colors to wear that will work on EVERYONE (even if you haven't been typed by me!): dark plum, dark teal and your eye color. *Note: I DID NOT SAY BLACK.   Black sucks the life and color from almost everyone-there is a small percentage of folks for whom it works, but it's a small percentage.  These colors (dark plum, dark teal and YOUR eye color) work on EVERYONE!!  Did I mention, everyone?  You must have at least one of these colors already hiding in your closet.  I am willing to bet on it.  

Cheers to an Enjoyable, Christmas Season-it will be what you make it....why not make it great?

-K