How are you feeling about the holidays? Do you have everything under control? Got all your shopping done, meals are in the freezer and your volunteer work is going great? Please tell me you are struggling! Even if it is just a little! I am totally stressing out! Every time I think I have a handle on it, I find another gift to buy, an invitation I forgot or a function I am not ready for. What I need is to find something to help me step away from the panic attack that is lurking behind the door or around the corner! So, I took a deep breath, did some surfing on the web and came up with a few great ways to feel more relaxed about the impending holidays! Here’s what I came up with!

Seven Ways To Lower Your Holiday Stress

1. Take a Break: When you start feeling the pressure of the holidays, just take a break. Go for a walk, get out in the sun and in 10 minutes, you will feel so much better!
2. Have a Drink: There! I said it! Nothing wrong with a glass of wine or a cocktail, right?! In moderation, this is a perfectly acceptable way to lower your holiday stress!
3. Nobody’s Perfect: This is one I need to remind myself about. I always want everything to be just right, make sure everyone is happy and smiling, all the time. How unrealistic is that?! No one is happy all the time! I need to take a chill pill and get over myself!
4. Less is More: I was asking my mom for advice on what to get my oldest daughter for Christmas. Mom said if I listened very closely, Cheslea would tell me what she really wanted. There would be that one toy that she would not stop talking about. That year it was a tea set that changed color. Among the pile of gifts we got her that year, the tea set is what she played with over and over.
5. Less is More: OK, so this one goes for the grown ups too. Not about gifts though. This is more about what is on your plate. You do not need to join all those cookie swaps, or sign up for all the volunteer opportunities or host all the family parties. Try saying no! It is actually quite freeing!
6. Get Your Sexy Back: When we get busy, we tend to let other areas of our lives fall to the wayside. With the holidays, I always fall into bed exhausted. Even more so than I usually am. And when it comes to sex, I am not even thinking about it. But like a good walk, a little sex can go a logn way! It is a great stress reliever!
7. Color: There is a lot of talk these days about adult coloring books. I didn’t put much credence into them, thinking they were silly. Until I colored in one!! Talk about lowering your holiday stress! These books are the best thing since sliced white bread y’all!

I received Tangled Treasures Coloring Book and Tangled Gardens Coloring Bookby Jane Monk. Both books, which sell for $20, are packed full of beautifully intricate designs that are aching for you to color with your pencils, crayons or markers. My youngest daughter had surgery and while she was recovering, I gave her one of the books. She laid next to me and colored for more than an hour! She smiled up at me and told me this as the smartest thing ever invented! Oh, and these are not your crappy kid’s coloring books either! The pages are of a nice weight, the printing is impeccable and the binding isn’t going to come apart after you color a few pages!

These, as well as so many other books, are from The Quarto Group. They are the leading global illustrated book publisher and distribution group. Their aim is to educate, entertain and enrich the lives of their readers. From a person who descends of a long line of bookworms. They create over 1,500 adult and children’s books a year, which are sold into 35 countries and in 25 languages. You can find books from Art ‘How-To’, Graphic Design, and Home Improvement, to Cooking, Gardening, Motoring, and Crafts. I fell in love when I read this: “We love making great books and we love selling lots of them to readers as passionate about our subjects as we are.” Get social ad follow The Quarto Group on Twitter and like them on Facebook. One USA reader will win the Tangled Treasures and Tangled Gardens Coloring Books ARV $40.

What is your best tip for lowering your holiday stress?

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