Self-care and Christmas don’t usually go hand in hand. It’s not an obvious combination. So every reason to make sure self-care and Christmas fit perfectly together for you and your family this year. If you are already feeling fresh, happy and recharged then you can skip this post. But highly sensitive people need self-care even more than other people do. Read on for why and how to plan that self-care Christmas to nourish your highly sensitive soul.

Highly Sensitives Need Time to Recharge

Elsewhere on the blog you will see this referred to as bucket time. Time to recharge, process stimuli, reduce overwhelm and take time for yourself. For a highly sensitive person, this is not a luxury, it’s a necessity if you are to avoid burnout or worse. And we all know that the festive season brings a lot of stress with it!

So, write down bucket time in your agenda. Get everything in house you need beforehand to give yourself the ultimate self-care Christmas time, whatever your idea of self-care may be. As long as you put yourself (or you and your family) centre stage.

Involve Your (Highly Sensitive) Children

If your home is anything like mine right now, your whole family is ready for a little self-care and attention. We’re wrung out here from back to school, starting secondary school and various viruses that have hit with a vengeance. I definitely plan to ensure the Christmas break is relaxing for my three sons too. So I plan to make their Christmas break about self-care, as much as mine. How can you help them empty their buckets in the coming month?

Relaxation

How do you relax? Some people can slip into a relaxed state with no trouble at all. For others, a little more effort is required. So, if it helps, make a list now of things you do that help you empty your bucket, that make you feel relaxed. Here are some ideas for ultimate relaxation

A Bath

Sounds simple enough, but if you have a bath in your home use it this Christmas time. I mean really make the most of a winter evening in a hot bubble bath. Luxury (climate pledge friendly) bath salts, lovely scented candles and a great book.

Stress Reducers

Get yourself a weighted blanket or lap blanket: you can read all about the benefits of a weighted blanket for highly sensitive people here. These are great tools for reducing stress and getting a better night’s sleep.

Or a massager. If getting to a masseur isn’t an option, then get the next best thing – a massager you can use in the comfort of your own home.

Relax the Senses

Switch off. Particularly your mind. Choose your favourite series, or book (I am loving Colleen Hoover books at the moment) or music and just watch, read or listen.

My Tip: If you haven’t already seen it then make this Christmas about watching This is Us on Prime Video whilst chomping a responsible but festive amount of comfort food. Create a watch party and watch it with your best friends. Chill.

Reflective Self-Care

Self-care can also be about reflection. Self-reflection. Particularly with a new year on the horizon, this is a great time to reflect on where you are in life, where you want to be and what you want to change or achieve. There are great tools to help you on your self-reflection journey. Just take a pause and reflect on where you want to go.

Reading Tip – Embrace Who You Are

I loved this book – The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown – this is a great read if you are battling with the images and messages your environment sends you about how you and things should be. This read is a reminder to be who you actually are – and embrace being you.

Vision Board

Making a vision board is a great way of reflecting what means the most to you, what you want to do the coming year(s) and the goals you have for yourself. You can get started simply with paper and pictures from the internet, or treat yourself to a vision board kit.

Journaling

Using journaling as a tool for reflection is also something I would recommend. Many years ago I bought myself a copy of The Artists Way by Julia Cameron. The revelations this book led to were astounding. Through morning pages I realised, among other things, how much I actually wanted to learn how to play the piano. Sounds random, but if you follow the exercises in the book, your creative desires come to the forefront. I cannot recommend it enough if you are seriously looking for some self-reflection and the like the idea of journaling.

Meditation Tools

From setting the scene, to practical guides to help you clear your mind and focus, here are ideas to help you if your goal is to practice meditation during your self-care Christmas.

If you are new to meditation here are a few reading recommendations:

Practicing Mindfulness: 75 Essential Meditations to Reduce Stress, Improve Mental Health, and Find Peace in the Everyday: this book starts with exercises that last five minutes so you can build up as you gain more experience. There are exercises too for those of you more experienced with meditation and mindfulness.

The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day: you may already be familiar with the Headspace app and this book is a good accompanying tool.

Essential oils are a great relaxation tool, particularly if you are sensitive to smells. Try lavender essential oil in a diffuser. This diffuser and humidifier can be controlled with your smartphone or with Alexa or Google Home.

You may also prefer to use a meditation cushion if you have an issue with positioning or your back (incidentally you can use the same cushion for support whilst doing yoga – see active self-care).

Creative Self-Care

If you want to go down a more creative path for your self-care Christmas, them here are some quirky and fun ideas for you.

Think Lego is just for the children? Think again. How about building yourself a bouquet of flowers? Flowers that never die and give you creative, relaxation time? Or a Lego bonsai tree? What’s not to love!

Or if you want to keep the Christmas theme, there’s a Lego gingerbread house. This is an activity you can get the kids involved in.

Or maybe puzzles are more your thing. Every year at Christmastime we get a Christmas puzzle out.

The idea is that the whole family sits and does bits of the puzzle, as and when they need a bit of quiet time. In reality, it’s me that spends a lot of time puzzling and chilling in the lead up to Christmas. But if a puzzle is your thing, then pick a theme.

Alternative, treat yourself to a colouring book (for adults) and get creative with the artist inside of you.

Or a vision board kit. This is on my wish list for sure.

There are lots more ideas here if you are looking to spark your creativity over the festive period.

Active Self-Care

Practice yoga daily to focus on yourself. There are great resources to try yoga on YouTube if you are new to it. I particularly like Yoga with Adriene and I am subscribed to the Dutch site YogaOnline.nl.

Commit to a daily walk or hike. Put your walking shoes on and get out in to the fresh air. Explore. Reflect. Be alone with your thoughts. Look after your mind and your body.

Try an exercise class.

Other Ideas

All the ideas mentioned here, plus lots more inspiration for self-care, as well as general resources for highly sensitives, can be found here.

Whatever You Choose….

Make sure you put yourself and your family first during the holiday season this year. We certainly all could use it after yet another challenging year.

*For your convenience, this post includes affiliate links to products and books I find useful for the HSK community. They cost you nothing more to buy, but I may get a small commission, which goes towards costs to keep the HSK site running.*