Christmas Chaos How to SURVIVE the School Holidays in 2024!

In this solo episode I wanted to chat through the challenges and joys of motherhood during the holiday season. Let's discuss the importance of self-care, emotional well-being, and the need to navigate family dynamics with grace. I'm also giving you a sneak peek of plans for the podcast in the new year, focusing on health and wellness, community, and personal growth.

Happy December! Go and embrace the holiday spirit while also being mindful of your emotional needs and the importance of balance in YOUR life.

My top points from this episode are:

• This holiday season can be overwhelming.
• It's important to prioritise self-care during busy times.
• Food should be enjoyed, not used to mask emotions.
• Setting boundaries is crucial for emotional well-being.
• Mindfulness can help navigate family dynamics.
• Planning activities can ease the stress of school holidays.
• It's okay to ask for help when feeling overwhelmed.
• Creating a supportive community is essential for mothers.
• Taking time for YOU is vital for mental health.
• Looking forward to the new year can bring hope and motivation.

Transcript

Elise: The first one is about whole foods and food in general. I am such a believer of it all has to come in balance. So Christmas Day, go for it. Don't feel guilty.

Don't shame yourself for having nights out with your friends or going to family lunches or going to friends lunches, having drinks, having nice food like you deserve it. Food is meant to be for enjoyment and creating memories alongside health and wellness.

And if there is one time in the year that you should be doing that, it is now.

Hello, I'm Elise and this is the inspiring her podcast. It's all about you here. Your wellness, your nourishment, your lifestyle and finding that unstoppable glow. I'm bringing you conversations with my guests and friends to spark change in your health, embrace your power and live your best life.

Get ready to be inspired, uplifted and empowered as we chat about the tips and tools that will light up your journey to a vibrant, glowing you.

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the poddie. I'm doing another solo episode today. It is the last episode of the year. Today it is December. I've decided that I'm gonna have a little bit of a break.

It's kind of a forced break, to be honest. If you're a mom, you get it. And I know all of my listeners here pretty much are mums. We're all in this like crazy season of motherhood now where we're juggling school and little ones and ones and if you know, you know, like the juggle.

And it is a struggle as well, sometimes is real. I have an 11 year old, a 6 year old, a 4 year old. My 11 year old is in year 6.

She is starting high school next year. And the amount of activities that we've been doing for the end of year six, but also in preparation to go to year seven has been insane.

And that in line with the kindergarten activities, you know, it's just so much. And then Chloe, my youngest, is still at daycare.

It's just a lot. So I have decided that this will be the last podcast episode of the year and I will be returning next year in 2025 with some really big things.

But I wanted to leave with a bang and just give you a little bit of insight into what's coming next year, what you can expect and also just give you a bit of a motivation going into this crazy Christmas New Year's season.

So next year on the pod, it's all going to be video based, YouTube based. There's going to be solo episodes, there's going to be some conversations with my friends, just chats and there's also going to be some conversations with guests who are really knowledgeable on the health and wellness mindset, sort of inside out type of things.

And I can't wait to share those with you to give you inspiration as a woman, as a mother, just to find ways to really up level your life and feel really good in yourself.

I can't wait. The conversations with friends are just really light hearted and things that I chat to my friends about in normal everyday life that I feel are really inspiring just to create this community.

Like we're all friends and we're all here and we're all in this phase together and sometimes I feel like we can really get caught up in motherhood or work or our social lives and forget about the things that we really need to focus on to move forward and give ourselves self love and to develop develop relationships and feel really happy without doing the things that are kind of masking all of that, if that makes any sense whatsoever.

On that note, I wanted to provide you with a few tips going into Christmas to keep that motivation strong. The first one is about whole foods and food in general.

I am such a believer of it all has to come in balance. So Christmas Day, go for it. Don't feel guilty, don't shame yourself for having nights out with your friends or going to family lunches or going to friends lunches, having drinks, having nice food like you deserve it.

Food is meant to be for enjoyment and creating memories alongside health and wellness. And if there is one time in the year that you should be doing that, it is now.

However, I am also someone who is experiencing a lot of anxiety in this season. Christmas for me is especially this year because I have had some things happen with family, like not so nice things where I've had to create boundaries and really go inward and think about what is important to myself and who am I and where do I sit and where do I see myself growing and what relationships am I holding on to?

Which ones can I let go of?

Ones that are benefiting me and ones that aren't. Also every Christmas I remember that my dad isn't here and because of my dad passing away, there's also other people in my family that I've lost contact with and it's just.

Although it's meant to be a really joyous time and it is and I try really hard to focus on the joy and the beautiful things, especially for the kids, I do feel really heavy.

I feel like it's a really Heavy time. So I just want to remind you to go easy on yourself and when it comes to food, enjoy yourself. But don't use it as a mask or a way to like emotionally eat or push down emotions or negative feelings that can come up at this time about family and, you know, things that maybe are heavy on your heart.

For me, that is what I do. I am a big at risk of emotional eating.

And so for me it's not about indulging or enjoying. It's more about like I'm going to keep eating to kind of mask the emotions that are underneath. So that's a big one for me going into this season.

The things I'm doing instead are journaling, doing saunas where I can, going on walks, talking to my friends, talking to my hubby, being really gentle with myself, putting routines in place.

I also get social anxiety. Obviously Christmas Day is different because it's a full day thing, but in terms of lots of other events, like saying to hubby, look, two hours is kind of my maximum.

So can we aim to sort of leave around the 2 hour mark?

Always honoring that in myself and knowing that if I push past that, that's. It may not necessarily feel like it in the moment, but like it'll just drain me for the next few days and weeks.

So I just want you to be conscious of those things, also conscious of you time going into school holidays, man, it is hectic. I don't actually know what we're going to do because we've chosen not to go away this school holidays, this summer we've chosen to stay around our pool and just enjoy the beach and do some things with the kids.

But my hubby will have just between Christmas and New Year's, probably till the beginning of January off and then it's all on me to be with the kids and spend time with them.

We don't have heaps of family around. My mom has moved close, but it's not like we're hanging out with family all the time. So we're just trying to think through in our heads what is the schedule that we can do to kind of break it up.

Because the kids deserve to have a beautiful summer. Enjoy. I just want them to be outdoors, be at the beach, like just enjoying each other's company. But the reality is we all get sick of each other at some point, so we need to be realistic.

And I think when you have three kids and neither of our parents had three kids, we were both families of two children.

I always feel, even though my mom says not to feel guilty. I always feel guilty asking for help with the three kids also because there's such a divide in the ages like Zara's 11 and then it's 6 and 4 and so I think Zara is definitely getting to that age.

And let me know if you're the same. I am really interested because this is like the first time I'm navigating this. She loves spending time with her grandparents, don't get me wrong.

But it's not the same as when you sort of drop them there and they spend a few days there. She sort of gets bored. She wants to be more so around her friends and in her own space.

So a few hours here and there is great.

But even Simon and I were talking about wouldn't it be nice to have the kids sleep over at the grandparents like two or three nights and we can just get stuff done in the garden.

Just have a few days together without having to go away just at home. But I just don't know how that's going to work. So I'm as much in the deep end as you are here.

I wish I could give you some tips as to how to get through the school holidays, but I would say just keep coming back to mind mindfulness. Try and fit in some time for you.

A friend and I have chatted about how we're going to change our gym schedule from the 9:30 classes to the 8:00am classes because we don't have to do school drop off which is a real positive thing.

Things like that. Think about where can you change it. Maybe then go to the beach after that do morning activities and then come home in the afternoon for a rest.

If you have any tips on navigating the school holidays, I'd love to know. Also let me know if you're going away. I'd love to live vicariously through you all but.

But just take it easy on yourself. Be kind. Come back to your toolkit that I have another episode on Self love toolkit. If you're feeling overwhelmed, if it all feels too much, where do you need to come back to?

Is it have a bath? Is it read a book? Is it journal? Is it go for a 10 minute walk, ground yourself in nature. What is it? Is it talk to a friend, talk to your hubby.

Just remember what you need to come back to.

Take a beat. Like take a breath, you know, like you don't always have to answer, reply, pick up phone calls, respond straight away. One thing that really helps me is if I'm overwhelmed with the kids and it's all too much.

I'm just like, can I just have a moment? Can I just have a cuddle and then I will answer you or then we will think about it and it calms them down and it calms me down and then I feel like I can come back and find a solution.

So always cuddle love. If it's overwhelming, I find that going into it, taking a breath, taking a beat, going into it with love and calm really helps, as hard as that is.

And that is hard.

Anyways, guys, I'm really excited for next year for the potty. I'm going to be starting off the year with some tips 2025 tips in health and Wellness Things to look out for.

Also going to share an update about my health and wellness journey. Some of the things that have been going on with me and that I went through in this year that have really helped me and changed my perspective on where health and wellness is going.

So I can't wait to share that one with you and I will see you in the new year. Have a beautiful Christmas. Merry Christmas, my friends. Have a fun New Year's.

Enjoy the school holidays, but don't forget to take it easy. Thank you so much for being here in 2024.

It has been a bit of a roller coaster with the podcast, but I assure you there's going to be really cool things coming in 2025. Bye.

If you love today's podcast, please share it with your friends and family. And don't forget to come on over and say hi on Instagram inspiringher Podcast until next week. Be inspired and I'll see you then.