The scariest part about Halloween is that it signals the start of the amazing race that is the holiday season. Did you know it's about 9 weeks until Christmas?? I can't even think about that. I'm too busy stressing about Halloween-which by the way-seems to get more complicated every year. Costumes have always been an issue. The first Halloween my little daughter understood the concept of dress up, she just couldn't decide what to be. At 4-years old, this is a big decision. For weeks she went back and forth between Diego, Sleeping Beauty, and a cowgirl who just had to be riding a horse. Now no amount of reasoning on my part seemed to make her feel any better. Big surprise there. I finally gave in. "Please mommy can't I just be them all?" Sure. So on that Halloween, my precious girl pretty much looked like Diego in drag on a horse.

This year, she, of course, can't decide again. In middle school now, she gets that the costumes need to be separate but not that more than one is kind of a hassle. For the neighborhood party, she's the "L" in a BLT with a couple buddies and for trick or treat, she wants to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz with a gaggle of girls from the lunch table. Between the costume frenzy, the pumpkins that somehow turned to liquid already on my front porch and the candy my family has already eaten, I feel like I'm on somewhat of a treadmill and it's not even November yet!

It's this time of year that I need to take a few deep breaths, remind myself that everything gets done and make sure the password for Amazon Prime is saved on my computer. The most wonderful time of the year? I think so. If I let it be. My daughter just informed me that she'll be turning that beautiful Dorothy costume into a zombie Dorothy. Deep breaths.....and I'll make sure I take pictures BEFORE the zombie apocalypse.

The holiday season tends to add an additional layer of stress on top of our already stressful lives.  As women, we are typically the ones responsible for preparing holiday meals, cleaning and decorating the house, purchasing gifts, and simply making everything perfect for everyone!  

Stress has a detrimental impact on our physical and emotional health.   When we are under stress, our body responds by producing the hormone cortisol.  When we flood our body with cortisol the result is high blood pressure, increased inflammation, anxiety, fatigue and depression.  It also decreases our immune system as well as our likelihood of self care, including healthy eating and exercise habits.

So how do we approach the holidays with the right attitude?  The first step is setting an intention to control your joy.  Flex your joy muscle whenever you find yourself getting caught up in the need for perfection or the stress of a mile-long to-do list.  Take a minute to stop and breathe.  Look for positive aspects in your life, because the truth is what we look for is what we see.  Therefore, if we are feeling stressed, and have gotten onto the freight train of negativity, everywhere we look we will see more reasons to be negative.  However, if we take control of our joy, and begin to look for things in life that are positive, we will open our eyes and our hearts to all of the wonderful things in life for which we are so fortunate to experience.

Also, during this time of year it's even more important that we stay connected to our why, and remember the real purpose of holiday celebrations.  Don't allow stress to come along like a vacuum and suck the joy right out of the holiday season!