This Slow Holidays episode is all about The Pre-Holiday Catch Up, and includes complimentary Christmas puns, now even earlier in the year!

We all know the drill: “Oh, we must catch up before Christmas”, says your well-meaning long-lost friend/colleague/distant cousin/neighbour. Text messages are flying back and forth, and everyone you run into makes the same suggestion. Sometimes you even find the dreaded words coming out of your own mouth.

Work winds down and our social lives ramp up at this time of year. But the reality is, we put so much pressure on ourselves to commit to all these social engagements in such a short window of time that it can make this period a lot more frantic than it needs to be.

Of course there will be end-of-year concerts, assemblies and catch-ups that we have to (and want to) commit to, but now is a great time to start to alleviate the pressure on ourselves before the silly season starts.

Brooke and Ben outline some great steps to take to start to make changes:

1. Accept that it will be a busier time, no matter what steps we take
2. Remember that it’s fun! Enjoy it for what it is
3. Think about what you did last year and will have on this year, write it all down and see if you can combine events or postpone them to the New Year
4. Acknowledge that you can’t do it all and give other people permission to feel the same way
5. Be honest when responding to invitations - say how you feel!
6. Look at your energy requirements and question how much of your energy you want to commit to social events at this time of year

The action for this week is step 3 - write down everything you think you’ll have on this year and start think about ways you can simplify before the time comes. Prepare to be the person in your social group driving change in order a create a slower holiday season for you and your family.

Head over to http://slowyourhome.com/212/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the blog post.

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