Our Easy Way To Beat The Holiday Season Stress
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Do you find yourself stuck in a place between wanting all the joy and delight of this Christmas season and feeling stressed out by it as well?
Around Thanksgiving we speak our gratitude mantras earnestly. Simple leaves filled with “I am thankful” quotes, determined to dwell in the richness of the year. The grateful jar stuffed with handwritten “This year I want to say thanks for…”
The turkey is barely cold before Christmas comes screaming in. Stores proclaim it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Mariah Carey blasts her iconic All I Want For Christmas is You!" But in our heads we are saying “All I want for Christmas is you but with conditions because I just can’t take one more drama filled stressful family interaction after the year I’ve had.” Unfortunately, the holidays and stress go hand-in-hand.
The gratitude list is replaced with the to-do list and a lot of holiday stress triggers. We have lists that feel a mile long. The “most wonderful time of the year” can also be one that brings the most anxiety, stress, worry, and even depression.
But I have learned a secret for handling the stress of the holiday season. It’s an easy and free way to check your worries and get back some of that wonder, peace, and joy you need.
I’ve often thought that Christmas should be in July when nature is at its full radiance. Flowers in glorious bloom, green grass smelling rich of earth and leaves sheltering us as we hike. The sun shining down on us as we make our way through pine scented trails.
Instead, most of us have Christmas in the winter months when everything is bare. The beauty of golden fall is replaced with dormant branches. Brown grass lies waiting for spring life. The landscape paints in brown and white. No wonder we are stressed when the holidays come. Everything turns gray and cold just at the time we are supposed to be bursting with joy and peace.
Perhaps our frantic holiday pace comes because we deeply desire to fill that colorless void with something, anything?
Maybe we are avoiding dealing with the stress by just picking up the pace instead of slowing it down? As a long distance runner and hiker, I can tell you that sometimes you don’t realize you are hurt until the next day. In the moment, we handle holiday stress by running and gunning through life when we should be slowing down for deep and peaceful practices instead.
For us at Colorado Hikes and Hops, Christmas is no longer about excited kids seeing presents under the tree. Having big kids mean shorter but more expensive lists. Instead of 4:00 am Christmas morning wake ups to squeals of delight, 11:00 am brunch with just rolled out of bed teens is the new normal.
The perfect Christmas gift is simple. It cannot be bought or made. It’s free. And you can give it to yourself today.
This magical gift is moments outside, breathing and soaking in all that nature has to give.
Within minutes of stepping on a trail, you exhale. The trail doesn’t have to be hard or long.
The key to this perfect gift is you.
You must choose to walk and breathe, remember and reflect. You can simply show up outside and just go. If it helps, simply tell your holiday stress, “I am done with you now,” and get out there.
It’s the crunch crunch of snow or gravel as we walk along the trail. With each step, leave the worry in your footprints. Look up into the incredible Colorado blue sky taking over the horizon, clouds in shapes of animals.
Nature’s vastness can be in the same place as our smallness. It’s peace can replace our worry and stress. Nature is never worried or anxious about anything. But it will gladly take ours from us and fill us with wonder.
There is something comforting knowing nature stays constant. The sun rises every morning. Birds will fly south, waiting out the cold. Trees will retreat into themselves, storing up for the brilliance of summer. The mountains will stand guard over our city, showing off spectacular shadows.
Nature never judges us.
The shrubs don’t tell us we need to do more, be more. Trails don’t give us “that look” when we glance their way.
Go outside. Take a breath. Say thank you. We are alive at this moment on this day for this reason.
In our CoHH story, this perfect gift became part of our daily practice almost accidentally.
In 2020, during the height of Covid stress and anxiety, we called each other and said, “Let’s take the kids outside.” That one hike in Mueller State Park with our 7 kids began a new adventure. Almost weekly we’d get the kids outside and onto a trail. The complaining was almost nonexistent as the kids hiked and talked with each other. Gummy bears and NUUN water sweetened the deal. There was no Covid on the trail. No lockdown stress and worry anymore.
While that season was filled with so much unknown (and so. much. stress.), we found peace in the swaying of aspen trees, soaked in pine scents, jumped on rocks and sang to music.
I’d like to propose a Christmas song rewrite. All I want for Christmas is a trail to walk and air to breath. Go find your trail and let it keep your stress as you reclaim the wonder of the holidays.
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