Guest – Robin Hardy
How do you deal with family challenges & holiday stress?
Everyone loves the holidays. They’re a wonderful way to pass family traditions from one generation to the next. When we add holiday extras to a busy schedule, it means we’re trying to do too much. It’s easy to end up so exhausted we don’t enjoy ourselves. It's even tougher when challenging family dynamics have to be dealt with amidst company. That’s why we’re hosting experts to share 24 holiday tips. We want to help you enjoy your holidays and hope our tips for handling challenging family members will reduce your holiday stress.
Favorite Holiday Activity
Robin's kids are 4 legged and furry. She loves getting each dog their own Christmas stocking and watching them tear open their gifts, especially the yummy ones. She and her husband also like going to see A Christmas Carole at a local theater.
3 Tips: Managing Family Challenges to Avoid Holiday Stress
Robin Hardy, owner of IntegrityVirtualServices.com helps entrepreneurs juggle the demands of running a small business. It's therefore a bit surprising when Robin finds herself needing to turn to her husband for support when dealing with challenging family members. Robin didn't meet her birth father until she was 30, and while she loves him … she also finds herself dealing with childlike emotions because he's very demanding and not afraid to tell her what she's doing wrong from his perspective.
Robin's had to learn ways to welcome her father into her home, and manage these emotions. He's coming to stay with her for a week and she very much wants to create a warm, family environment. Robin knows it's important to build family traditions and so she's honing her skills to avoid the holiday stress that comes with these visits.
- Identify a safe place where you can go when you need to breathe, read and/or sing to lower your holiday stress to a manageable level. Robin's safe haven is the bathroom for it's privacy, so she decorates the room so she'll enjoy quiet moments there.
- Keep reminding yourself of the joy surrounding the holidays. Make sure to decorate with reminders that will keep your holiday joy in the forefront as you deal with the holiday stress that family members create when they push your hot buttons.
- Get support from someone that understands what you're dealing with. You want someone who can support your efforts to balance action and emotions. For Robin, she's lucky that her husband can play that role as he's right there with her.
If you’d like to listen to Robin and I talking about handling family challenges over the holidays, click to listen to the recording …
Most Important Holiday Goal
Robin clearly understands that the holidays are about celebrating family, and everything good in life. She also feels strongly that you need to give back and she varies how she helps others in her community.
For more holiday tips, click here …
And a Free Gift (click the hands)
Love it!!!!! My favorite!