Happy December everyone!wordswag_1480712021235

It’s hard to believe that it’s already December; time is flying by so fast! This is my favorite time of the year and I enjoy every minute of it. Even though it’s a great time of year, the holiday season c
an quickly become extremely busy and overwhelming and it is my first holiday season not being a traditional student. Things in my internship have been busy and I’ve been finding it more and more difficult to leave my work at home and enjoy this holiday season during the evenings and weekends because self-care has not been my priority.

Self-care, especially around this time of year, is essential to maintaining sanity, health, and just an overall positive attitude. It’s definitely hard to put self-care first when life gets busy; the to-do list just grows increasingly long and it always includes gift shopping, finishing treatment reports, holiday parties, recitals, dealing with snow, and the list goes on and on. However, I’m learning that self-care doesn’t mean that you have to block out a huge chunk of time to just sit and relax (which is actually really nice and is necessary to do sometimes); self-care can be as minimal as taking five minutes before a session to just close your eyes and meditate or think of positive and happy thoughts. If life gets too stressful, reminding yourself to take deep breaths can even be a form of self-care. Katey uses essential oils frequently and the one time that I used lavender, I became calm and more relaxed, my anxiety significantly decreasing.

This holiday season, in order make self-care a priority, I will be intentionally changing my mindset and taking time out for myself, especially when it gets closer to the holidays. In order to do this, I’m going to try my best to leave my work at my internship, continue to maintain an eight hour sleep schedule, work out on a regular basis, enjoy looking at the snow (once it comes), and eat healthier meals. The minute my life gets busy, my diet goes out the window and I find myself eating more junk food, fast food, and chocolate. However, this is no good because it brings down my energy level which I need to combat my to-do list. Also, I want to read a book so I’m going to make it a priority to read and relax. Before every session that I am either co-leading or leading, I will take five minutes to take deep breaths and re-focus, grounding myself. Interns and professional music therapists always want to help their clients feel grounded and more aware and it’s just as important that we feel this way as well. I encourage others to join me and do the same because it will help ease the stress of the holidays!

I would love to hear from you so that I can build up my self-care routine; how do you de-stress during the busy holiday season and maintain self-care every day?

Thanks for reading and I hope that everyone has a great week!

Sammy Springer