It’s “almost” here, so stay cool…

Yeh easy for me to say. I JUST finished my Christmas shopping yesterday – that’s 5 days before Christmas. Gah! If you knew me before before kids, you would be shocked; disgusted! Pre-parenting, I would have all my shopping done by September – October the absolute latest!! I am not your typical woman (who ever “she” is) that loves to go to malls and finds perusing through Winners therapeutic. No, I would rather have a root canal without freezing. However, like probably 99% of the mom population, life changed drastically after having children and then once I became self employed, all bets were off.

So I have been having challenges lately dealing with the stress of the holiday season. Making lists upon lists, doing the shopping, running my business, managing the home whilst continuing in my most “important” parenting duties of homework, meals and chauffeur my kids to all their activities. Sigh…

My one and only saving grace that has kept me going these past few weeks is getting up early (and I mean 5:15am EARLY) and dragging my butt to the gym. Not only is it my own caffeine free wake up call but it is also my anti-depressant, stress reliever and therapist all wrapped into one.

When I’m lying in bed in the morning and it’s dark (and I know) cold outside, it’s like a battle of good cop-bad cop in my head. “Do I stay in my warm bed?” or “Get my lazy butt up and just do it for heaven’s sake!”. Because I know that if I don’t, I will feel crappier when I do get up, be grumpy towards my kids and just resent myself for not taking 1 hour to myself. It becomes a vicious cycle and when I am under large amounts of stress I can’t afford to take risks.

Ever heard the expression “stress kills”?? Well it’s true and a few years back I suffered some very serious stress related health concerns and I do not want to go back there. Since then, I have become my own advocate to ensure that I make time for myself EACH AND EVERY DAY. People talk or “dream” about doing it but most don’t. Sound familiar?

For your sake, I hope you find whatever your stress reliever is (and pray it comes from a natural source!) because as much as this is a time for cheer, it can be a lot of other things too. Exercise is a wonderful alternative because it releases all these lovely chemicals that make you feel good, sleep better and and just make the world seem like a better place sometimes, when you really need it.

Try it. You just might like it.

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