This is such a busy time of year for ambitious, loving mothers. Here’s a guide, especially for you, to help you get the best of the season without frustration and burnout.
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Hello, and welcome to Mother of Abundance
The place where ambitious, caring mothers find information on how to live your best life. So whether you’re a mother who’s growing a business, climbing the corporate ladder, studying for qualification or an at home mother, while striving to be the best you can be, you’re in the right place. I’m your host, Xina Gooding Broderick.
Hi, everybody. can you believe we are back and it’s almost Christmas time. Have you heard that tune, that son; “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Yea”r by Andy Williams? Well, it’s definitely wonderful, but it’s also the most busiest time of the year. Most certainly for ambitious, loving mothers who have got lots on their plate, whether it’s Christmas plays, Christmas parties, office parties, sending Christmas cards, which by the way, I am really bad at sending any kind of greeting cards. Yeah, sorry about that! Family gatherings, school meals to order buying gifts. And don’t forget wrapping them, I tried to buy mine gift wrap because I ain’t got time for all of that faffing about.
Yeah, although I did manage to wrap my grandchildren’s presents already. I’ve still got to wrap my son’s presents. But yeah, there’s also children coming back from school for the holidays, decorating the house for Christmas.
It’s really, really important to find balance amidst all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays, whether you’re observing the holiday for religious reasons, or because it’s a time of year, when many people are on holiday and can be together as family. It’s a bit tricky for some this time because, you know, we have the pandemic and we, we’re trying our best to reduce crowding and we’re thinking about social distancing.
But we can work around those things where we’re resilient, right? So I have a few recommendations for you to help make sure that you have balance, amidst the holiday.
I want you to have a schedule for the holidays. For me, it’s a two week holiday, during which we will have Christmas, we’ll have Kwanzaa we’ll have the New Year’s celebration. I know Hanukkah is underway at the moment, I believe. I believe there are a few days of Hanukkah, you can correct me if I’m wrong, feel free to correct me if I’ve gotten that wrong.
But definitely have a schedule. You know how we’re so used to scheduling things for work. And for chores and tasks? It’s really important to schedule for things you really want to do, as well. Like, that’s the priority. Yeah?
So on your schedule, I want you to make sure that you slot in time for yourself, to breathe… Just relax. And breathe. It can be just time for you to sit down, have, you know, a cup of tea or glass of wine, a beverage of your choice, and just relax. It could be just for five minutes.
My next tip is don’t be this super woman we know you are if there’s help in the house, like older kids, ask them to chip in with all that needs to be done for the holidays. So one of my sons does not know that we’ve actually bought him a Nintendo Switch. So my eldest son is going to set it up for him before he receives the gift. So basically, all he needs to do is unwrap it, plug it in and play. Now my eldest son does need to chip in with that because I have not got a clue about games consoles. They’re not my thing. They’re really not. So yeah, it’s just as well. The eldest Malachi is going to help my youngest son Elijah, well he’s going to help me but Elijah is going to get the benefit of that because when it’s Christmas Day, he’ll be able to open it up because it’s big brother will have sorted all of that out for him.
Another thing that you can do to help find balance and amidst the holiday is – take a clear break from your work so that you’re not overwhelming yourself by trying to be everywhere at the same time. So, me for example, I am batching my work up, I’m getting loads done as much as I can to clear my desk, so that during my two week break, and I’m aiming for a two week break, don’t know if I’ll get it. But it kinda, it’s not that pressured if I don’t quite make it because believe me, I have already scheduled in my rest days, I practice what I preach.
So what I’m saying to you is, take a clear break from work so that you’re not overwhelming yourself, by trying to be everywhere at the same time, make sure that you make time to actually recharge your batteries. It’s so important. Don’t go back to work and have the children go back to school after the school break, and think to yourself, oh my goodness, I need to I need to have a break after all of that I’m absolutely exhausted. Yeah, don’t try that.
When you do your “you time”, have a day off from the celebrations, the world will not burn down without you there. 24/7. So I’m serious. Just take a day off a whole day. And if you’re saying to yourself, “Well, I can’t take a whole day because I’ve got little ones I’ve got this”… hand the little one over to your spouse or older children or the rest of whoever is in your home with you. And take some time off. And if you can’t do it that way, work at it in a way that you feel like you’re having maybe a staycation, then. Do some of the things that you would have done if you were on holiday in a nice, you know it did like beach side apartment, just pretend you’re there or do do what you would do on holiday at home.
Create a sanctuary in your house, whether it’s the bedroom, the bathroom, anywhere, where you’re not bothered by anyone and have time for yourself even for an hour just to breathe. I’m a huge fan of baths. And I’m a huge fan of making even my workspace look pleasurable and pleasant. So I tend to even when I’m working, I play spa music,
relaxation and yoga music. I also burn a fragrant candle. I just make it nice. So when I’m doing my spa session in the bath, you better believe I have my candle in there. I even listen to a favourite podcast or I listen to the radio. I’m a huge fan of The Archers, so might catch up on The Archers.
I might listen to my favourite music, I might even put my laptop in there safely obviously not right next to the bat so it can fall in. But I might watch a film in there. I might watch a TV show or a comedy or something if it doesn’t get too steamy in there. But I will chuck in my my bath salts I’m a huge fan of bath salts, any kind of salts, any kind of salts, it can be cheap as chips, Saxa or table salt or it can be you know, high end really expensive dead sea salts and everything in between like Radox, bath salts, or sea salts, any kind of salt, I love Epsom salts, that’s my favourite we buy it literally in the bucket load and chuck a little bit of generous amount of that in the bath, fill it with bubbles, fill it with lovely warm water and just let my worries soak away. It really does reset me so if you can find some time to do that, or something similar, you know, maybe you might want to relax a bit and paint your nails in the bedroom. Dim the lights a little bit. Don’t mess up your toes and fingers though when you do that.
Or you might just want to listen to a book in you know in a quiet room or read your book in a quiet room after the children have gone to bed or something like that. But whatever it takes, make some time to do that for yourself.
Have a stress reliever. You can bake, cook, dance, sing, or I love 80s music it really takes me back to when I was going to school and getting ready to go to school so and I know all of the words. So I might sing along to my 80s pop music or my 80s soul or whatever. And listen to that, whilst having a good dance and sing.
I might have a lie in and sleep, sleep sleep. I don’t skimp on my sleep. And I highly recommend you don’t either. I am an early bird, but I got to bed earlier in order to accommodate and it’s just so important to mental health to have a good night’s sleep, you might want to watch something on Netflix and chill. You might want to go jogging, do yoga, anything that helps you calm down amidst the noise.
The last tip I have for you, and how you spend your time over the holidays and the festive season is please do not run on reserve take time to fill up. And I say an empty lamp cannot shine its light and empty lamp cannot shine, its light. So make sure that you have oil in your lamp so that you can burn brightly for yourself and for your loved ones. And be sure to enjoy yourself and have a fantastic time.
Come back to work nicely refreshed with no regrets about how you spent the holiday season that’s very important. have the best possible time you can have with your loved ones.
Oh, remember, almost forgot this really important thing to say about Christmas. You know, for 2020 make sure that you connect with loved ones, whether they are present in your home with you or not. It doesn’t all have to take place on Christmas Day or during Kwanzaa or on New Year’s Day. You can spread it out across the season, and make sure that you make those very, very important connections. Because being with each other is a little bit more tricky this year than it normally is. Doesn’t mean that we must not connect and make that little extra effort. It’s, I think, even more important.
One of my sons is not going to be with your series. He’s he’s gonna go off and have a nice time in Turkey. And I’m telling you, he really, really does deserve it. He’s a, he’s a good guy. He works hard. He’s a student, he works really hard. And we’re gonna miss him. But at some point, we will without doubt, connect with him and make sure he’s having a good time. He’s got to do the whole quarantine thing either side. So yeah, that will be a bit tricky, but I think he deserves it.
So what I’m saying to you is if your circumstances are the same or slightly different, and you’re not spending Christmas with people that you would normally spend Christmas with this year, please make that extra special effort to contact them at some point over the season, whether it’s by a WhatsApp Video call, FaceTime, Facebook video, a voice message, they are so handy. However you do it, stay connected over the season. Okay.
Right. That’s it from me for now. I hope you have an abundant day and an abundant week.
Thank you for listening to the Mother of Abundance podcast. With your host Xina Gooding Broderick. Sign up at MotherofAbundance.com for your free copy of Planning Your Life and Living It Every Day workbook. See you on the next episode.
