I was thrilled to find Kirsten Dirksen's post on The Huffington Post, How to Have a Slow Holiday: Re-learning How to Play, and the accompanying video, Slow Christmas: how we play (no shopping required), about how her family celebrates Christmas. She writes:
"After all, polls show that 90% of Americans feel anxiety around the holidays. So I'd like to propose a solution: don't shop, play."Love it.
Her family has "shopping-free" Christmases where people give things that they already own. Love that too!
Porter McConnell, of Slow Christmas has some good tips in her post, Down to the Wire: 3 Tips to Christmas Sanity. I particularly liked Tip 2:
"Ask yourself, is this a situation where my need for speed is legitimate, i.e. am I being pursued by bears?"The Psychology Today blog, The Power of Slow, also has a post with Top Ten Ideas to Slow Down This Holiday Season by Christine Louise Hohlbaum. One of my favorites was:
"Busy is a mindset. Try saying the words 'I have time.'"Finally, Slow Family Living has a 14-page Creating YOUR Slow Holiday e-book, which I just downloaded for $7.50. I'm going to hunker down with it this weekend. Most of it is workbook-style, with questions like:
"What messages do you get now from society and from friends and family about what the holidays should look and feel like?"If you're one of the few people who doesn't get stressed out around the holidays, please, share your tips!
Cross-posted from BlogHer.com
Simply brilliant, Britt. thanks so much for sharing your great ideas (and including some of mine!). Indeed we live in a fast-paced world. The holidays are a great opportunitiy to offset that pace with a slower beat. May you enjoy a slow holiday and a terrific New Year!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link Britt. We'd love your feedback on the workbook. We originally made it for ourselves a small group and friends and we're glad now to share it with others.
ReplyDeleteBernadette
You're welcome, powerofslow!
ReplyDeleteBernadette - I found the workbook to be very helpful. It definitely helped me reframe how I think about the holidays. Thanks so much for creating it!
I love that statement - "Busy is a mindset. Try saying the words 'I have time.'" I have to remind myself, there are 24 hours in a day, I can get it done.
ReplyDeleteGenevieve - I think I need to tattoo "busy is a mindset" on my arm!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Britt. Thanks for sharing the resources. It's true, the slow food movement needs to take over the commercialism of the holidays, at least in this country. Happy Holidays!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked the post, Rachel. I think a larger slow movement (beyond slow food) is going to grow over the next decade.
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