The holidays are traditionally a hard time for families so this week I will dedicate some blogs to helping you make the most of your holiday season.

The holiday season is one fraught with extreme emotions.  These emotions actually go beyond the holiday back to the root of how you saw your holidays as a child.  If you had a great holiday filled with love and laughter than you will be flooded with tons of warm emotions at the holidays.  If you remember the holidays as one filled with pressure and stress, your brain will trigger that emotion in your body and actually have you prepared to FIGHT during the holidays.

So here is how to avoid any fighting with siblings during the holidays:

1 Take frequent 5 mintue “Time Outs”.  This is especially important if you come from a high strung family that is strong in opinions.  Remember if your brain sees the holiday as stressful it will actually be WAITING for a chance to strike out and create a fight.  Don’t give it the opportunity.

2. During your Time Outs do something that relaxes you whether it be listening to music, reading a poem, remembering a favorite holiday event, or thinking about people you love and why you love them.

3.  Breathe in deep- all the way to your toes and then let it out.  Do this three times.  It literally resets your brain to get rid of the negative emotions and stress flooding it at the time.

Tomorrow I will share with you how to re-frame the past in order to not get sucked in to old family habits during the holidays.