Grinch Prevention!

Dear Coach, 

We’re just entering the holiday season and I’m already feeling depleted. Even though I won’t have the usual parties and visitors to my house, figuring out new ways of celebrating, making sure packages are ordered and delivered on time, and dealing with the stress of all the “not knowings” has me feeling like a Grinch. 

Please help me keep the Grinch from stealing Christmas. 

Signed, 

Grinchy

Dear Grinchy, 

Love the signature—I’m feeling a bit Grinchy myself these days. This will be the first year in 50 that I won’t see my children, grands, or greats. Choosing to stay safe at home has consequences. 

Last Christmas, I gave the book “Fill a Bucket” by Carol McCloud and Katherine Martin to my younger grandkids. The book’s message is that we all have an invisible bucket which holds good thoughts and feelings about ourselves. When someone does something nice for you, you do something nice for someone, or you do something nice for yourself, you add to your bucket and vice versa. 

As a Life Coach, I frequently used the bucket analogy. I could tell my client’s bucket was running close to empty by how her voice sounded even before she told me her story. When I detected a near–empty bucket, I asked her, “What will you do this week to fill your bucket?”  

As the holiday season approaches, it’s easy to deplete our own buckets while working hard to fill the buckets of others. This month, keep tabs on your bucket, notice when it’s getting low and either fill it yourself—a nap, a call to a friend, a walk on the beach—or ask someone to help you fill it—please clean up the kitchen, call me, please drop this off at the post office.  

As we fill the buckets of others, the joy in our buckets goes up, but we need to watch the balance in order to not become depleted. 

Someone once said, “An empty lantern provides no light. Selfcare is the fuel that allows your light to shine brightly.” 

Shine on, dear Grinchy. You’ve got this!