Mindful in 5 Podcast

Navigating Holiday Stress

• Spiwe Jefferson • Season 5 • Episode 154

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Tame Stress with the Mindful in 5 Stress to Success Blueprint

What if you could protect your time and energy by simply setting boundaries and communicating clearly with colleagues and clients? Tune in as we share science-backed mindfulness strategies that can be implemented in just five minutes a day, helping you balance your professional responsibilities and personal joy with ease.

Unlock the secrets to a stress-free holiday season at work, and discover how mindfulness can transform your professional life. In our latest episode of Mindful in 5, we explore practical techniques to maintain a sense of calm amidst the holiday hustle. 

Join the Mindful Ninjas community as we journey through the art of holiday boundary-setting. From identifying non-negotiables like family dinners and personal downtime to crafting a prioritized to-do list, learn how to embrace the festive cheer without sacrificing productivity or peace of mind. You'll hear about the importance of scheduling specific times for checking work messages and how this can lead to reduced stress and increased job satisfaction. This episode empowers you to emerge stronger and more resilient during the holiday season, fostering a more joyful and serene work environment.


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Spiwe Jefferson:

Welcome to Mindful in 5, where busy professionals find your peaceful oasis to thrive in complex work environments. I am Spiw Jefferson attorney, certified mindfulness practitioner and author of the Mindful in 5 book series. Here to guide you to a clearer, softer and more supported life. Join me and your fellow Mindful Ninjas as we explore science-backed mindfulness strategies for successful leaders that you can implement, starting with just five minutes a day. Elevate your work, empower your life, work higher, live stronger. Let's go.

Spiwe Jefferson:

Do you find your holiday season at work clouded by stress, yearning for a more peaceful approach to balancing professional demands and personal joy? Holiday stress can disrupt the cheerful spirit of the season, leaving you feeling unsupported and disconnected from the joyful moments both at work and at home moments both at work and at home. So today we are navigating holiday stress at work, exploring how we can bring a clearer, more tranquil approach to your end-of-year professional life. Imagine maintaining your productivity with calm focus while still embracing the festive cheer. By developing effective strategies, you can create a softer, more balanced experience during this bustling time. Let's explore a soothing technique called holiday boundary setting. Here's how this process works. Step one identify your non-negotiables with joyful intention, for example, family dinners, personal downtime. What are the personal boundaries that you are going to set for yourself that you're going to insist on meeting. Step two communicate these boundaries clearly and cheerfully, with a good attitude, to colleagues and clients, so that they know. An easy way that most of us just do this automatically is, when we go on vacation, we put an out of office message, and I have seen some pretty creative ones I am out enjoying my personal time, I am off taking a much needed mental health day. I mean, people say all kinds of interesting things that I personally enjoy reading, and you know a lot of us are not that imaginative. So we simply say I'm out of the office until blah, blah, blah. That's just one example. But you can communicate these boundaries to your colleagues and clients hey, it's holiday time, I've got family visiting, so I'm not going to be available after hours. Or what I will typically do is, if I know that I'm off the grid, I tell my colleagues, I tell my coworkers, I tell my boss, I tell everybody hey, I am going to be off the grid, I'm not going to be checking email. If you need to reach me, then text me or call me, because those will be the two best ways to get ahold of me so that way they know if they send me an email I'm probably not going to see it until the next time I'm back in the office.

Spiwe Jefferson:

Step three create a prioritized to-do list. Approaching tasks with peaceful determination, I am going to get this done. Have you ever noticed how much more productive you tend to be right before you go on vacation, Like the last day before you go on Christmas break? You have a list, boy, and you are clicking through it. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, and you just work through it and hopefully you also find that on days like that you are energized because you were so productive in the time that you had every day, and so you can absolutely create that prioritized to-do list and get at those tasks.

Spiwe Jefferson:

Step four schedule specific times for checking work messages, maintaining that clear separation. And so, even if you're working throughout the day, sometimes it is so distracting to get pinged every time there is an email. It doesn't matter if it's junk email, it doesn't matter if it's important, but it takes your attention away from the thing that you're doing in the moment. So scheduling specific times for checking your work messages, especially if you have the kind of job where you feel like you need to do that even when you're away, that creates a clear separation so that you're not always feeling like I gotta always be on and I always have to be checking. Studies show that setting clear boundaries can significantly reduce stress and increase job satisfaction, fostering a more joyful holiday season. The other thing that I have observed this is true of my boss at my current job, this is true at my boss at my last job it is that I find increasingly that leaders are more supportive of making sure that employees really do unplug.

Spiwe Jefferson:

When we are supposed to be on vacation, I have permission from my boss and my boss is the CEO, so this is like at the top of the food chain. I and all my peers have his unwavering support and consistent permission that when you are on vacation, be on vacation. The world will not stop. We will figure out whatever we need to figure out. We have the resources that we need to figure things out if you're gone. But he is really adamant that you take time off so that when you get back you are refreshed, and you need that time. You need that time to hang out with your family. You need that time to just go do you and do what gives you pleasure and stop thinking about work. Work will still be here when you get back and I love that about him, I appreciate that so much about him and so hopefully you have a boss who's supportive like that.

Spiwe Jefferson:

But sometimes, even when we have that permission from our leaders, we hang on because we just stress ourselves into thinking, ooh, but what if I'm not here? And this thing happens. Absolutely loved it, so much so that it was over decades ago that I heard it and I've never forgotten it. And the saying is the graveyard is full of indispensable men. The graveyard is full of indispensable men. What that should tell you is, since we are all dying not to be morbid, but this is true you and I should understand that there is no space that we occupy today in our working lives that will crumble and die without us. They will continue and the world will continue to spin. The clouds will continue drifting across the sky, with or without you. So give yourself permission to lift your hands off the working steering wheel and just allow yourself the privilege of taking time for yourself and allowing yourself that luxury to be on vacation and off the grid and to stop thinking about work.

Spiwe Jefferson:

The holidays are not just about giving to others. They are about giving yourself the gift of peaceful balance and clear priorities. But only you can give yourself that gift. So here is your cheerful challenge for the week Implement the holiday boundary setting technique.

Spiwe Jefferson:

Notice how it brings a softer, more supported energy to your work and personal life. And if you're ready to master holiday stress, you can check out the Stress to Success Blueprint on spewydeffersoncom in the downloadable section, and there you will find a growing list of blueprints, which are 20-day work books that, or at least work handouts. The books are coming. They're not books yet, but I am converting them actually into books as we speak, but they're 20-day workbooks that will allow you to master, or at least make progress in mastering, a particular aspect of your working life, like, for example, mastering stress, especially as we're approaching the holidays. Remember, managing holiday stress is about making conscious, joyful choices. By taking control of your time and energy with clear intention, you yes, you can enjoy both your work and the holiday season with peaceful enthusiasm. May your holidays be filled with clear purpose and joyful balance Until next week. This is Spiwe saying be mindful and be well.

James@DiscovertheVoice:

Thank you for listening to Mindful in 5. If you enjoyed it, share it with a friend, follow and rate it on your favorite podcast platform. Pick up your signed copy of the book and journal from spiwejeffersoncom, or unsigned copies from Amazon, barnes, noble or wherever you get your books. Visit spiwejeffersoncom to download sample chapters of the book, watch videos and become a mindful ninja. Join us on the LinkedIn Mindful in 5 group and share your thoughts. Until next time, be mindful and be well.