Self-Care Is Critical During the Hectic Holidays

Dr. Colleen Cira is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist a trauma and anxiety expert, clinical supervisor, writer, speaker, consultant, and activist. She offers some practical advice and tips to those seeking self-help during the holiday season.

Alone time is beneficial and crucial for everyone! 

If you’re an introvert (defined as someone who gets their energy from solitude), then alone time is a non-negotiable. Introverts will quickly get drained, depleted, overwhelmed and cranky if they aren’t getting enough alone time.

But even extroverts benefit from alone time, because everyone needs to REST. And it’s hard to rest with a lot of other people around. The way we can mitigate stress in our lives is not by eliminating it (not possible), but by making sure we’re letting our brains and bodies reset.

Alone time is a great way to do that.

Determine which activities energize you and which ones deplete you. 

Do you know which activities drain you? If so, here’s what you can then do: 

  • Delegate those ones that tire you out 
  • Ask for help with those tasks 
  • Pay someone else to do it 
  • Put them into your calendar at a pace that seems reasonable to you so that you’re chipping away at it rather than having to do a ton of it all at once. (Can you say laundry?!)

These are just a few of the ways that we can make energy-draining activities have less of a negative impact on our lives.

Dr. Colleen D. Cira, Psy.D. received both her Masters and Doctorate from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology and has been practicing in the field since 2001. Dr. Cira is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and the Founder and Executive Director of Cira Center for Behavioral Health, PC a boutique group practice with locations in Chicago and Oak Park that specializes in Women’s Issues/Health and Trauma. Dr. Cira is a trauma and anxiety expert, clinical supervisor, writer, speaker, consultant, activist, wife, and Mommy to two little ones.

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