The Kaizen Plan for Reducing Holiday Stress:

Take Control of Your Holiday Season 10 Minutes at a Time

by Lynn Johnston

Published by Open Clearing Press at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Lynn Johnston

Discover other titles by Lynn Johnston at Smashwords.com:

The Kaizen Plan for Decluttering Your Computer (free)

The Kaizen Plan for Decluttering Your To-Do List (free)

The Kaizen Plan for Healthy Eating

The Kaizen Plan for Organized Authors

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This book includes a series of blog posts about reducing holiday stress that originally appeared on http://www.smallstepstobigchange.com.

Table of ContentsIntroduction

9 Strategies for a Better Holiday Season

Stay Sane While Shopping

Healthy Holiday Eating

If You're Already Stressed Out

More Resources for Reducing Holiday Stress

About the Author

IntroductionThe winter holiday season can be both the most joyful and the most stressful part of the year. You've got presents to buy, cookies to bake, a house to decorate, and travel plans to make. Oh yeah, and that New Year's Eve party isn't going to throw itself!

Does just thinking about your holiday plans make you feel overwhelmed? This book contains tips to help you hang on to your holiday cheer for the rest of the year.

Let's jump right in…

9 Strategies for a Better Holiday Season1. Lower your standards.

It's natural to want the holidays to be special. But when you're stretched thinner than usual, it's easy to lose perspective and get upset over the little things. It's seldom the glitch that ruins the holiday—it's your overreaction to the glitch that brings you (and everyone around you) down.

When things go wrong, take a deep breath and remind yourself of the big picture. What's the point of this holiday activity, and is this problem a big enough deal to derail it? Is it a catastrophe that you forgot the onion dip? I bet you could have a good conversation with your favorite nephew anyway. Did you only manage to get the house half-decorated before your in-laws arrived? Why not invite them to hang a few ornaments on the tree?

2. Simplify.

The winter holidays tend to be a time of excess, and it's easy to overcommit. It's a cliché in holiday movies—neighbors competing to outdo each other with the biggest, most elaborate decorations. But you might find that you're happier when you scale back the holiday chores.

Instead of decorating the whole house, how about just the living room and dining room where you'll be entertaining? Also, do you need to buy new decorations, or will last year's decorations work just fine?

Do you have to host a huge holiday party, or could you just have a few friends over? Instead of visiting every family member in a 50-mile radius, could you all meet at a centrally-located restaurant for dinner?

How about limiting your holiday feast to a few favorite dishes? Not only will you spend less time in the kitchen, you'll also have fewer leftovers.

3. Buddy up.

You could get together with a friend to throw a holiday bash and split the work of hostessing. Or turn your party into a potluck. Or if the people you want to connect with are all members of the same group, like your church or your karate dojo, how about inviting them to go out for coffee after the group's holiday party?

4. Don't try to recreate the past.

We've all probably got at least one holiday memory that stands out—the Christmas dinner where everyone got along, or the Hannukah where your parents surprised you with the toy you'd been wanting for months, or that amazing pecan pie that no one has managed to duplicate because Grandma never wrote it down. The feelings around that memory are so strong that we want to go back and relive those perfect moments. Often these happy memories get associated with holiday traditions.

But life moves on, and you're a different person now than you were then. Traditions can be fun and comforting, but it's possible to be so determined to recapture the past that you forget to enjoy the present.

5. Don't try to force it.

There's a lot of social pressure to be "up" during the holidays, regardless of what's going on in our personal lives. And since everyone else is feeling that same pressure to catch the holiday spirit, it's easy to feel more isolated than usual. But life's problems don't go away just because it's Christmas. Putting on a happy face and bottling up those negative emotions isn't the answer.

Find an outlet for those emotions instead. Talk to a sympathetic family member or friend, or if that's not an option, set aside a few minutes to write about how you feel in a journal. Then after you've had a chance to get that stress out of your system, take a minute to count your blessings and remind yourself that you do have something to celebrate.

6. Recognize that other people don't change just because the calendar says it's a holiday.

In the same way that life problems don't magically disappear at this time of year, neither do interpersonal conflicts. Don't expect family members to suddenly make peace and don't try to force them to. If you have fantasies about relationships suddenly healing around the Yule tree, you're probably going to be disappointed.

But that doesn't mean you have to let family conflict make you miserable either. Take a little bit of time preparing mentally for the behaviors you know are going to rub you the wrong way. What are you going to say when Aunt Martha asks if you've gained weight and when you're going to get married? Are you going to change the subject? Calmly but firmly tell her that you're not interested in discussing it? Deflect the comment with a joke?

To help you prepare, here's Elizabeth Scott's excellent article on strategies for dealing with difficult people: http://stress.about.com/od/relationships/ht/difficult.htm

7. Make a plan for how you're going to take care of yourself physically.

More stress, more junk food, and more viruses being passed around—it's no wonder we tend to be physically depleted during the winter holidays. Even if you don't suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder you may find yourself feeling physically and emotionally exhausted.

Pay attention to nutrition (for some help with that, read Healthy Holiday Eating). Stick to your usual exercise routine, try to get extra sleep when you can, and try to spend a little time outside when the sun is out or buy an inexpensive full-spectrum lamp.

8. Prioritize your social calendar, and include some downtime.

It's tempting to say yes to everything, and end up feeling so worn out by New Year's that you need a vacation to recover from your vacation. You'll enjoy the holidays a lot more if you're selective about which activities you commit to and schedule some quiet time in between social engagements.

What's really important to you? Which holiday traditions and events are you genuinely excited about, and which do you feel obligated to attend? You might not be able to get out of the company holiday party, but there are probably events that you could miss without fear of social reprisal.

Need help saying no gracefully? Here are a few articles that may help:

http://www.wikihow.com/Decline-an-Invitation-to-Dinner-or-Other-Social-Event

http://www.hitchedmag.com/article.php?id=1088

http://thehalfwaypoint.net/2010/02/fifty-ways-to-say-no/

9. Focus on what the holiday means for you personally.

I'm not knocking peace on earth and goodwill toward humankind, but that's very abstract—it's hard to connect with those words emotionally. What do they mean in terms of our actual behavior?

For me, the winter holidays have multiple meanings. As someone who suffers from seasonal affective disorder, I'm genuinely excited that the winter solstice marks the switch from longer nights to longer days. I enjoy exchanging Christmas cards and phone calls with people who I haven't heard from all year—it's a season of reconnecting with family and friends. It's also a time to make a deeper connection with my husband; we use the vacation to spend some quality time together, whether that means going out on a date, tackling a small home improvement project, or taking a day trip. And finally, it's a time of re-evaluation and renewal: we have a tradition of making a list of our achievements and happy events from the previous year, then talking over and setting our goals for the upcoming year. These are the things that make the holidays special for me.

Not sure what the winter holidays mean to you personally? Ask yourself, "What are my values, and in what concrete ways would I like to celebrate them?"

Stay Sane While ShoppingHere are some tips for getting it done without going nuts:

Manage Gift-Giving

Coordinate gifts. If you know that your sister is going to give Mom a Nook for Christmas, you could give Mom a B&N gift certificate, so she can buy some books and start using her new ereader right away. Or if your nephew wants something expensive, like a bike or a Wii, go in on it with others. (Caution: in some families, coordinating gifts saves stress and in other families, it creates stress. You probably already know if this is a good strategy for you.)

Organize a gift exchange within the family. This not only allows you to reduce your overall budget for holiday gifts, it also means that you can spend more on the one gift you are giving. Isn’t one really cool present better than getting a whole bunch of little presents that you’re not that excited about?

Give gift cards. As long as you know that the recipient will want to shop (or eat) there, gift cards are great presents. Let them buy what they really wanted but didn’t get for Christmas.

If you’re going to make gifts, you still need to include the materials in your budget. Have you ever decided to make Christmas cookies as presents and then realized you spent $150 on cookie cutters, tubes of frosting, and other supplies? And then you still had to buy the actual cookie ingredients? Making gifts doesn’t automatically save you money.

Give the same gift to a group. Would the adults in your family enjoy a day at the local museum or a night out to see a particular performance? Would all the kids have fun with a trip to the amusement park? Is there a great gourmet treat that several of your friends would love?

Set a limit on the cost of gifts. Talk to friends and family. We all know that the economy sucks, and most of us could use a financial break. Why not agree that this year, everyone will keep the gifts under a certain price, so that the holidays are more affordable?

Agree not to exchange gifts. My husband and I have done this for years–instead of giving each other presents, we spend time together. Sometimes the money we saved on gifts gets spent on going out on a date, sometimes it gets spent on something we’ll both enjoy, like an improvement to the house or garden, and sometimes it just gets saved.

Manage Your Shopping

Decide how much you can afford to spend. A significant chunk of holiday stress is actually financial stress. We’re buying extra food for parties and putting extra gas in the car to get there, so our December budget is already tighter than normal, and we haven’t even started buying gifts yet. Setting a limit on what you’re able to spend and sticking to it means you won’t wake up at 2 a.m. wondering how awful your credit card bill is going to be in January.

Make a list of all the people you want to give gifts to. It works for Santa, doesn’t it? Don’t forget the work holiday party, school parties for children, and your book club’s gift exchange. If you already know what you’d like to give that person, write that down too.

For each person on the list, have a backup gift. Sure it’s wonderful to be wandering through the store and find the perfect present for Aunt Sally. But you don’t want to be wandering the mall on Christmas Eve because you still have no idea what to get her. Spend a few minutes deciding what you’ll get her if you don’t find something better during your shopping–a gift certificate for her favorite restaurant, a bottle of her signature cologne, a gift basket full of her favorite treats.

Plan your shopping trip. Go down your list of people to buy gifts for and make a note of the store where you’ll buy each one. Is there a logical order to the stores that could save you time driving around? Can you save time by buying multiple gifts in one place? Can you call ahead to verify that an unusual item is in stock? How about browsing your local stores’ websites to get a better idea of what they’re carrying this season or to compare deals? And don’t assume you’re going to have time on the weekends here and there to hit the mall–actually schedule the shopping trip on your calendar.

Separate browsing and targeted shopping. Do you like roaming the mall in search of gifts that you would never have known existed? Schedule some time to do nothing but browse before your official gift-buying excursion. Take your list with you, of course, and cross off people who you buy presents for. When it’s time for your targeted shopping trip, stick to your plan as closely as possible, knowing that you’ve already browsed and didn’t find anything better than the gift you’re planning to buy.

Set aside time for a backup shopping trip. If your primary gift-buying excursion goes perfectly, then you’ll have some free time to yourself for socializing or recharging. And if you need more time to finish shopping, you’ll have it.

Can you buy some of your presents online? How strongly you feel about supporting the local economy may rule this out. But the internet does give you access to a lot of gifts you simply couldn’t buy from your local stores and offers the convenience of having someone else wrap and deliver the gifts for you. If you’re not sure about an online merchant, web searches for complaints against them and negative online product reviews can help you avoid disappointments.

Have a budget for impulse buys. You see an adorable Christmas ornament, or strings of LED lights are on sale, or that hilarious mug with the elves on it is calling your name. But these little extra purchases are one of the reasons we end up spending more money than we intended during the holidays. If you know you’re going to be unable to resist some holiday impulse buys, include them in your budget and stick to the limit you’ve set. How much money should you reasonably spending for holiday decorations? Do you really need another coffee mug? Remember that every item you bring home with you is potential clutter, so don’t buy it unless you’re sure it’s worth the money you’ll spend.

Thinking Ahead for Next Year

If you haven’t been saving for the holidays this year, it’s probably a little late to do much good. But how about setting aside $50 per month starting in January? You can take the cash out and stick it in a jar (and add to it by putting spare change in there too), or set up a special savings account and have the money automatically debited from your account each month.

Also, why not start next year's holiday shopping list in January? Did your niece suddenly develop a fascination with Paris? Is your husband musing wistfully on the possibility of learning to scuba dive? Did your best friend just discover paranormal romance as a genre? When ideas for gifts come to you, send them to yourself in an email and then save those emails in a folder. Next November, when you’re ready to get started on the holiday shopping, you’ll have a ton of ideas to inspire you.

Healthy Holiday EatingThe winter holiday season can be a difficult time to maintain healthy habits. We’re extra-busy with Christmas shopping, putting up decorations, and making travel preparations, and we’re more social than usual, going to family gatherings and parties that keep us up late.

But lack of sleep has been shown to increase cravings for sugary and high-fat foods (especially sugary ones). And what are we bombarded with all season? Cookies, pie, candy and cake, which not only sabotage our efforts to eat healthy and manage our weight, but also reduce the effectiveness of our immune systems.

Not so good, considering that the holidays also coincide with cold and flu season.

So how do we keep our holiday eating habits from spiraling out of control?

First, let’s get some perspective on our traditions. A lot of the sweet and high-fat treats that we associate with the winter holidays were foods that our ancestors only ate a few of times a year. Pumpkin pie, gingerbread and candies were made from expensive, harder-to-come-by ingredients that were saved for special occasions. And they were eaten in smaller portions, because those rare treats were shared among a lot of people.

We, on the other hand, have easy access to more sugar than a human being should ever eat. The dietary landscape has changed in the last couple millennia, but our bodies are still wired to live in a world where fruit and honey were the sweetest things around and we had to work hard to get them. We have no inherent mechanisms for regulating our sugar intake.

Where does this leave us?

I searched for tips on how to avoid overindulging in holiday treats, and the tips fell into three categories:

- Managing your behavior

- Managing your biochemistry

- Managing your thinking

Managing Your Behavior

Focus on conversation, not cuisine. The more time you spend talking to people at a party, the less time you’re likely to spend eating.

Hold a low-calorie drink in your dominant hand and sip it slowly. You’re less likely to mindlessly reach for food with your non-dominant hand. If temptation strikes, you’ll have to put your drink down to accept the treat, and that gives you a moment to think about whether you really want it.

If you have a choice between a bigger and a smaller plate, choose the smaller one. Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that when you’re using a smaller plate, you eat fewer calories during the meal.

Serve yourself small portions, and prioritize what you sample. If there are healthy options available, eat those first before you go back for a treat.

If you’re drinking alcohol or other high-calorie drinks, alternate with glasses of water. If you can manage to stick to water altogether, that’s even better. Not only is alcohol high in calories, it also reduces your impulse control, making it even harder to resist temptation.

Eat slowly and chew thoroughly. Not only will you feel full on fewer calories, but you’ll enjoy the treats that you’re eating more.

When they’re available, choose healthier treats. A strawberry dipped in dark chocolate is healthier and lower in sugar than a frosted cookie decorated with sprinkles.

Chew gum during the times of day when you’re most likely to snack on holiday junk food. Keeping your mouth busy with something sweet but low in calories makes it easier to pass up your coworker’s bowl of Christmas candy.

If it’s appropriate, bring your own snacks. If your work environment is packed with junk food brought by well-meaning coworkers, consider bringing in a healthy alternative (nuts, crudites and dip, sliced fruit, hummus and pita bread, low-sugar muffins).

Schedule yourself some down time. Taking a day off from parties, family gatherings and other social obligations not only gives you control back over what you’re eating, it also gives you a chance to catch up on sleep and decompress from the rush of festivities–essential if you’re going to keep up your willpower.

Managing Your Biochemistry

Don’t skip meals to make up for what you expect to eat at a party. Studies show that starving yourself like this results in eating significantly more calories than you would have if you’d eaten normally throughout the day. Instead, eat a healthy, high-fiber breakfast and lunch, and if the party starts later than you normally eat dinner, have a small snack before you go so you’re not starving.

Make a point to get as close to a full night’s sleep as you can. Studies show that sleep deprivation (less than seven hours) can cause sugar and carb cravings to flare up. In one experiment, students deprived of sleep for a week actually entered a pre-diabetic state–the effect on your metabolism is that strong.

Keep up your exercise routine. Exercise raises your metabolic rate, which means you burn more of the calories you eat. It also helps protect you against blood sugar fluctuations that can trigger sugar and carb cravings.

Managing Your Thinking

Separate the memories from the food. We all have foods that remind us of good times. Just the smell of almond coffee cake makes me think of Christmas breakfasts past. But it’s not the food that’s creating the emotional charge–it’s the memory. Take some time to revisit your happiest holiday memories, by yourself or by reminiscing with a friend or family member, and recapture that glow without the extra calories.

Hold out for your favorite holiday treats. If sugar cookies are just okay but gingerbread makes you warm and happy inside, then make a conscious decision to pass on the sugar cookies and indulge in gingerbread as your holiday treat.

Have a plan. Set a limit of one treat per day, or decide that you’ll allow yourself a cookie and a petit four at the office party.

Don’t be fooled by the decorations. A lot of holiday treats are just slightly different versions of foods that you can eat any time of year. A cookie doesn’t become any more special because it’s shaped like a Christmas tree and peanut butter cups taste the same no matter how they’re packaged. Ask yourself, "Would I eat this food if it wasn’t wrapped in green and red foil?"

If you’re already keeping a food journal, be sure to continue that practice through the holidays. (If you’re worried about being obvious about it, you can always text what you’re eating to yourself, to record later.)

Decide that you’re going to say no to some treats ahead of time, and practice. Look in the mirror, smile, and say, "Those cookies look delicious, but I’m a little sugared out right now." Or whatever your go-to excuse is going to be.

If you’ve been on a weight loss program, remind yourself how hard you've already worked to reach your current weight. Is pleasure of eating an oversized slice of rice krispie treat worth gaining some of that weight back?

Recognize when the temptation to eat treats is really a coping mechanism for holiday stress. Family conflicts, financial stress, feelings of loneliness, and physical exhaustion can all make you reach for comfort food. But eating a treat will only make you feel better for a few minutes. Consider reaching out to a friend instead for some compassion and perspective, or fall back on whatever stress management techniques have worked for you in the past, like meditation, journaling, yoga, or acupressure.

Buddy up. Find a friend who’s also determined to eat holiday treats in moderation, and give each other moral support. If you’re the only person you know who’s resisting temptation, you’re going to feel more deprived.

Accept that you’re probably going to eat more than you intend at least once, and forgive yourself. Just don’t fall into "all-or-nothing" thinking and rationalize, "I’ve already eaten a piece of cheesecake, I might as well eat some of that pie and some cookies too."

Adopting even one or two of these strategies could make a big difference in how happy you are when you step on the scale January 1st.

If You're Already Stressed OutHas your list of holiday to-do's already got you feeling overwhelmed?

Use Acupressure to Clear Your Head

I’m a big fan of meridian therapy, and I use the Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT) whenever my thoughts and emotions are so turbulent that I’m having a hard time getting a handle on them. TAT can be used for everything from overcoming phobias to treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to stress management. It’s simple, it only takes a few minutes, and you don’t have to know anything about acupressure to give yourself a treatment.

How it works:

Place one hand on the back of your head, so that the center of your palm is resting on the bump at the back of your skull.

Take your other hand and pinch the corners of your eyebrows (at the top of the bridge of your nose) with your thumb and your ring finger, while placing your middle finger over your third eye point.

Once your hands are in position, close your eyes and think about whatever’s bothering you for a few minutes–a fear that won’t stop nagging at you, a problem that you haven’t been able to solve, a situation that makes your blood pressure rise.

Within a minute or two, you’ll start to feel calmer, and in a few more minutes, you’ll be able to think more clearly about it. Keep holding the position until you feel better. (Don’t be surprised if you find yourself coming up with a solution and wondering, "Why didn’t I think of that before?")

Want to see it done, so you can find the points more easily? Here’s a video demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc5_mdo51wM&feature=related

And here’s the official website (with more detailed information): http://www.tatlife.com

Go For a Walk

Mental stress creates physical stress–your unhappy thoughts can actually cause your body’s chemistry to change, and vice versa. Exercise resets your biochemistry to a state that supports a calmer mood, by using up cortisol and generating mood-lifting endorphins. You can literally make it harder for your brain to think stressed thoughts by walking around the block a few times. Let your thoughts ramble as your feet do the same.

Breathe

You’ve probably already heard that stress affects how you breathe: as you become more stressed, your breathing becomes faster and more shallow. But did you know that if you’re in the habit of taking fast, shallow breaths, you’re keeping your body in a state of stress?

Deep, slow breathing, on the other hand, activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which turns off your stress response so you can relax.

Deep breathing has many benefits:

More energy. Most of the blood flow in your lungs happens in the lower lobes, so getting more air down deep into your lungs means more oxygen gets into your blood.

Better mood. Deep breathing releases endorphins, the same chemicals that your body uses to kill pain and to produce a "runner’s high." Studies show that yogic deep-breathing techniques can reduce the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders.

Mental clarity. An underoxygenated brain is like an engine that’s not firing on all cylinders.

Less stress. If you’re physically relaxed, you’re less likely to overreact to problems–and if you’re not panicking, you're more likely to see the solution.

Cleaner body. Lymph (and all the metabolic waste that your body dumps into it) is circulated through your lymphatic system by the movement of your breathing. An inefficient lymphatic system puts a strain on your liver and kidneys.

Healthier heart. Your respiratory and circulatory systems are linked through the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Breathe like you’re in danger, and the resulting stress response causes your heart to beat faster, as part of the fight-or-flight response. Slow, deep breaths, on the other hand, lower heart rate and blood pressure, and help your heart work more efficiently by increasing the amount of oxygen it gets.

Stronger core muscles. Deep breathing exercises your abdominal muscles.

Better posture. It’s hard to take a complete breath when you’re slouching–just making the attempt to breathe deeply causes you to instinctively stand or sit up straighter.

Here are some resources if you’d like to try a breathing exercise:

More detailed information on how breathing affects your body: http://www.womentowomen.com/fatigueandstress/deepbreathing.aspx

Some breathing exercises to try: http://cas.umkc.edu/casww/brethexr.htm

A simple breathing exercise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3k_-mciE6o&feature=related

A video that teaches a yogic diaphragmatic breathing exercise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtAqiVJn9BA&feature=relmfu

Stretching

Relieving muscle tension promotes psychological relaxation. But stretching doesn't just make you more flexible, it also offers a tremendous range of health benefits:

Reduces stiffness and pain from sitting. Sitting still in chairs, even when those chairs are ergonomically designed, takes its toll on our bodies. And the less comfortable we are sitting at the computer, the less productive we're likely to be.

Improves your range of motion. In general, the older we get, the stiffer we get, and that loss in range-of-motion not only means we can do less, but it also contributes to injuries that are harder for older bodies to heal. Staying flexible helps keep you moving like you’re younger than you are.

Promotes relaxation. When we stretch, we release muscle tension, which makes it easier to relax.

Makes exercise easier. If you’re stiff or sore from sitting all day, psyching yourself up to exercise is even harder than if you feel okay. And stretching after exercises reduces the amount of stiffness and soreness you’ll feel after your workout.

May make you a better brainstormer. Yoga practitioners believe that increasing your physical flexibility also increases your mental flexibility.

Improves your posture. Why do we care about posture? Not only does better posture make you look thinner and more confident, it also reduces back and neck strain, and keeps your internal organs where they’re supposed to be, so they work better.

Makes you tougher. A study by Dr. Arnold Nelson at LSU: Baton Rouge discovered that participants who stretched not only increased their range-of-motion, but also had gains in strength and endurance. That’s right, stretching didn’t just make them more flexible, it also helped them lift heavier weights and walk farther! Dr. Nelson recommends stretching as the perfect start for someone who’s too weak or ill to do strength training or aerobics.

You don’t have to spend a lot of time stretching, a few minutes will do. Here are a few resources to get you started:

5-min youtube video with stretching routine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iY5V0xiiKw

Basic Stretching Routine (only 7 stretches, designed for beginners, printable): http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=1261

Total Stretch for Beginners with Tamilee: http://amzn.to/rAuUdC

10 Minute Solution-Yoga: http://amzn.to/v62Aky

Search Google Images for "stretching routine" and you’ll find a number of printable graphics showing stretching routines of various lengths

And finally, a few tips to help you get more out of your stretches:

- Don’t bounce. I know your high school gym teacher told you to (mine did!) but current research indicates that bouncing while you stretch increases your chances of injury.

- Don’t stretch until it hurts. You should only stretch to the point of tightness, and stop there.

- Don’t hold your breath. Breathe as deeply as you can while you hold the stretch.

- Hold the stretch for at least 30 seconds.

More Resources for Reducing Holiday Stress

Managing Stress

HelpGuide.org's detailed article on understanding and managing stress: http://helpguide.org/mental/stress_management_relief_coping.htm

The Mayo Clinic's collection of articles about different aspects of stress management: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-management/MY00435/TAB=indepth

10 Tips for Beating the Holiday Blues: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-therapist-is-in/200911/10-tips-beat-the-holiday-blues

Holiday Depression and Stress: http://www.medicinenet.com/holiday_depression_and_stress/article.htm

National Hotlines (if you find yourself seriously depressed): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Suicide_Prevention_Lifeline

Travel

Independent Traveler's tips for holiday travel: http://www.independenttraveler.com/resources/article.cfm?AID=625&category=13

The Universal Packing List – you fill in the details (who's going, what you plan to do when you get there, expected weather, etc) and it generates a customized list of suggested items to pack: http://upl.codeq.info/

How to Pack Light: http://www.career-intelligence.com/management/HowToPackLight.asp

Stress Reducing Holiday Road Trips: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorzelany/2011/11/14/stress-reducing-holiday-road-trip-tips/

Entertaining

Real Simple's Party Planning Checklist: http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/entertaining/party-planning-checklist-00000000000931/index.html

10 tips for dinner party success: http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/807465/10-tips-for-dinner-party-success

Healthy hors d'oeuvres you'd actually want to eat:

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/healthy_thanksgiving_appetizer_recipes

http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20410440,00.html

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/healthy-italian-hors-d-oeuvres

http://www.epicurious.com/tools/searchresults?search=healthy+hors+d'oeuvres

Non-alcoholic drink recipes:

http://www.drinksmixer.com/cat/8/

http://www.thebar.com/en-us/search/drinks-by-type/Non-Alcoholic.aspx?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Drinks_By_Type_Exact&utm_term=[non%20alcoholic%20drinks]

Socializing

How to survive the office Christmas party: http://www.askmen.com/money/career_100/100_career.html

Socializing when you're going to a party alone: http://www.essortment.com/socialize-party-alone-64423.html

Some tips for those of us who are shy but still want to go to the party: http://www.wikihow.com/Socialize,-Be-Funny-and-Make-Friends

Gifts

Real Simple suggests some home-made treats: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-favorites/easy-recipes-handsome-holiday-gifts-00000000023442/index.html

How to choose a gift: http://www.wikihow.com/Find-the-Perfect-Gift

Christmas for Non-Christians

If You Don't Celebrate Christmas: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lea-lane/if-you-dont-celebrate-chr_b_151970.html

Non-Christians Take a Different Approach to the Holidays: http://www.michigandaily.com/content/non-christians-take-different-approach-holidays

The Atheist's Guide to Christmas: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002TU1Q5M

Atheists and Christmas: http://atheism.about.com/od/christmasholidayseason/p/AtheistsXmas.htm

A Jew at Christmas: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arnold-m-eisen/a-jew-at-christmas_1_b_796426.html

About the AuthorLynn Johnston blogs about how to take control of your life 10 minutes at a time using the kaizen approach:

http://www.smallstepstobigchange.com

Each week, readers of her blog receive a small, simple step they can use to improve some area of their lives.

She’s also the author of several books on the kaizen approach, including:

The Kaizen Plan for Organized Authors: Take Control of Your Writing Career 10 Minutes at a Time

The Kaizen Plan for Healthy Eating: Take Control of Your Diet 10 Minutes at a time

Connect with Lynn:

Email: kaizenlynn@gmail.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kaizen-Plan-Take-Control-of-Your-Life-10-Minutes-at-a-Time/128938320505399

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/TheKaizenPlan

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