Sharing Ideas

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."George Bernard Shaw

You may remember, last week I talked about how I was determined to stand firm against stress over the holiday season. Well, I received a great idea from a reader:   She said, “ I've been trying to think of another word to positively identify that feeling that we call 'stress'. What if I just put a smile on my face, then call it 'energized'?" 

Don't you just love this idea… change the negative word; 'stress' to a positive word; 'energy', and put an action step behind it: a smile! As we all know by now, ‘the words we say create our reality.’

I decided to go in search of more suggestions to help me keep stress at bay and enjoy the season. I goggled, ‘distressing over the holidays’. I found a ton of articles and web sites that promised to lead to a relaxing season.  The first site I clicked on to had 3 simple tips:  1. Meditate.  2. Sip green tea 3. Say 'no'. 

Hmmm..not quite what I was look for..

The next list told me to ditch my Christmas cards, and cut down on my giving list, minimize the entertaining and back off of the baking. … That’s doesn’t sound like fun to me!  I don’t want to have to become a holiday hermit in order to lower by stress. 

I also came across 10 tips for family fun at Christmas: which included going to see the Nutcracker in New York, ice skating in Time Square, and having tea with Santa at the Ritz Carlton???  I wonder how much that would cost.

As I was about ready to give up the search for ideas for destressing over the holidays, I opened up my Sunday newspaper's Parade magazine and saw the titles "Get a Jump on the Holidays: Keep Calm and go Shopping".  The following pages contained over 25 gift ideas including everything from a dog bow tie to an eco-foodle ...don't even ask me??

I had enough of others idea about preparing for the season, so I started to come up with my own list of ideas….But then it came to me….. “Wouldn’t it be cool if my friends and I started our own ‘saying no to stress over the holiday season’ support group’!

Let’s begin by brainstorming and sharing with each other our best tips for a 2012 Season to remember.  Send in your ‘tried, true, and tested’ best idea/s by posting them on my blog or emailing them to me at: smallsteps4bigresults@yahoo.com

Why not work together and share our ideas to make this Holiday season one that is wrapped up in tender moments, and precious memories.