We at Thrive hope all of our readers are having a very happy holiday season!  While I am actually on vacation from the office for the week to spend time with the new little addition to our family, Luca, I was reflecting on my intention for next year. As some of you may know, I am in the habit of choosing a word for each year as a symbol or guidepost of something I would like to focus my energy towards or bring into my life. I use this exercise with many of my clients also and wanted to make sure to bring this up before the new year to our blog readers! 
 
Life for me, as a business owner and new mother, has certainly been overwhelming lately. Interestingly though for next year rather than a word like balance or rest, I am choosing a word that helps me lean into the opportunities, experiences, and amazing abundance that has come my way. As I was reflecting on my word from this past year, gratitude, I realized that the trick for me in choosing gratitude over stress or overwhelm is to focus on the reasons behind my stress. I am often stressed or overwhelmed because of the needs of my growing business as well as because of the needs of my growing family. And honestly, I am lucky and blessed to have both!  So, I want to choose a word that helps to remind me of my blessings and that my busy life is amazing, wonderful, and so filled with love and laughter that I wish for more hours in my days. This year, my word is abundance. I will choose to emphasize the abundance in my life and frame the busyness with love and appreciation rather than stress.
 
If you would like to join me in choosing a word and setting an intention that this word represents this coming year, please do.
 
Here are some simple questions and activities that can help you in choosing your word:

1. First, take the time to reflect on the year behind you and the year ahead.
2. Consider what you feel you are needing more of or lacking in your life.
3. If there are stressors in your life, what do you need to get through them more resiliently?
4. Is there a different way to look at situations that are going on for you that have been causing difficulty? (Ex. Perhaps an added challenge is an opportunity to learn or grow in a new way).
5. What word resonates with you and embodies what you are looking for in your life?

 
I hope you do choose to join me in this activity this year!  Each year, the words I choose become my guide and they have been invaluable to me. Hopefully you have a similar experience. Please feel free to share your words in the comments either on our social media post or on our blog here!
 
And most of all, Happy New Year from the Thrive Therapy Team!
 
If you would like to talk with a Thrive Therapist about therapy for adults, your child, or teen attending therapy with one of us, please reach out to us by phone at 858-342-1304.
 
If you would like to receive updated information about Thrive Therapy, please feel free to sign up for our newsletter through the following link: http://eepurl.com/cvGx5n.
 

The holiday season is upon us. And let’s be honest, the holidays can be quite stressful and exhausting! They can be demanding and overwhelming for the whole family. And feeling like you need to do everything to give your kids an amazing holiday can make it even worse. For you and them. Especially when they are displaying challenging behaviors and you start to feel resentful because they seem ungrateful. It is important to remember this time of year is not just stressful and exhausting for you, it is for your children too. Whether it is tests, finals, parties, school performances, extracurricular activities, family visiting, or all of the above, it is a LOT for them. It is a lot for ALL of you.

So try and remember this when your child is giving you an attitude, throwing a fit, wants to stay in their room, or displaying any challenging behavior. These behaviors are likely their way of communicating they are overwhelmed, over stimulated, or tired and in need of a break. And don’t forget about you, when you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, becoming irritable or short with your family members, take a break. Try to model for your family that the holidays should not be about being stressed and overwhelmed. You don’t have to do every trending holiday activity or event. Pick a few, or none. Make family traditions simple, and let them be about who you are as family and what you enjoy, and not what everyone else is doing. Remind yourself of this as many times as you need. Take a moment to look at your beautiful family. Enjoy them this holiday season. Have fun, be playful, and let the small things (or big things that no one cares about anyway) go. Happy Holidays! May this be the best one yet!

I think my best tip for parents on how to best survive, and hopefully thrive, during the holiday season is to manage expectations. So often, we can get so caught up in all of the "shoulds" of the holidays. We should go ice skating, make cookies, have the perfectly decorated home, buy gifts that are just perfect for everyone on our lists, see holiday lights, visit family, etc, etc, etc. The list really could just go on and on!  

I also notice that there is even more pressure on parents to do all. the. things. now that social media is so prevalent in our lives. We see other people posting their perfectly decorated cookies or homes and we start comparing and feeling that we need to do things that way also in order to have the perfect holiday for our kids. Or we see pictures of all the activities people are doing for the holidays and start feeling that we need to do the same. 

All of this combined with our drive to be the best parents we can be creates the perfect storm of expectations and stress. Interestingly, the things we are focused on and stressing about may not even be important to us or our families. Instead of trying to do everything this year, I encourage you to take the time to ask your family members one thing they would really like to include in your holiday season this year and then make your list of "to do" based on that. With all the rest of the time perhaps you can try to just enjoy yourself and even create some time to relax and create new traditions!

As always, we at Thrive hope that our blogs are helpful to you.If you would like to talk with a Thrive Therapist about yourself, your child, or teen attending therapy with one of us, please reach out to us by phone at 858-342-1304.
 
If you would like to receive updated information about Thrive Therapy, please feel free to sign up for our newsletter through the following link: http://eepurl.com/cvGx5n.