Stress Tips for Thanksgiving

By Lori Lite

Thanksgiving is a family holiday meant for relaxing around a leisurely meal with friends and loved ones. A few easy tips can get your family to the Thanksgiving table with more smiles and less stress.

Prepare Your Children For Gatherings: Eliminate unnecessary anxiety associated with family gatherings. Look through photos of relatives the day before your event. Play memory games matching names to faces. This will help your children feel more comfortable with people they may not have seen in a while. Aunt Mary won’t seem quite so scary.

Write Things Down: Getting the constant chatter and lists out of your head decreases stress and anxiety. Kids love making lists. Give them a clip board or dry erase board. Assign them each a list. This will help you relax and help your children feel involved. Make sure they write “take a deep breath” and “laugh” somewhere on your list.
Incorporate Affirmations Into Your Thanksgiving Dinner: This is empowering and reflective. Have each person at the table state an attribute of their own that they are thankful for. For example, “I am thankful that I am creative.” Feeling stressed? Try, “I am thankful that I am calm.”
Don’t Rush: It’s simple; none of us are very good at rushing in a relaxed way. The two just do not go together. It is impossible for children or teens to rush. Make sure you leave enough time to enjoy the journey.

Schedule Downtime: Don’t overbook your children. It's important to use this time for relaxation. Try staying in pajamas till noon. Pop your favorite popcorn and watch a movie when you wake up. You’ll be surprised how an hour or two of relaxing can rejuvenate your children’s bodies, minds, and spirits.
Shopping: Avoid taking your children shopping on the busiest shopping days of the year. The chaos, noise of large crowds, and long lines will definitely add stress to your life.

Be Flexible: Don’t argue with your relatives just to win small arguments. Be an example of calm and peace to your children. Tell them what you are doing. Ask them to be flexible with the other children at the gathering. Discuss possible issues you know will come up, like sharing. Role-play solutions. Remind teens to be patient when listening to stories from Uncle Joe.

Let The Children Participate: Let your teen create place cards or a centerpiece. Let you little ones put the forks and napkins out. Let them draw a special Thanksgiving picture to place on your guest’s chair. Be prepared to accept their interpretations as perfect and wonderful.

Share Memories: Take a stroll down memory lane. Laugh at Thanksgivings past. Think of some of your favorite things you did as a child during fall. Go outside after dinner and step on leaves and crunch acorns with your children. Help them make a pile of leaves and jump in with them.

Remember: Lots and lots of hugs!

Happy Thanksgiving from Indigo Dreams!