Be Kind to Yourself this Season

Just a quick encouragement as I know your week is busy!

Chapters

• 0:00 A Quick Christmas Check-In
• 0:31 You Don’t Have To Hold It All
• 1:05 Finding Joy In What You Truly Love
• 2:06 Do The Most Where It Feels Good
• 3:08 Grace, Compassion, And Letting Go
• 4:26 Be Present And Release Perfection

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome back to the Manifest She podcast. I had an entire episode planned for today, but it's the week of Christmas. And I'm a woman and you're a woman. And I understand what the week of Christmas is like. And you don't need me coming on here and telling you how to manifest your best dreams and action steps or things to think about. You have enough to think about this week. I didn't want to do that, but I also didn't want to ghost you and be like, well, where's the podcast this week? Because I love that you guys tune in every single week. It means the world to me. I love you and I do want to send that love. I am not ghosting you. I am here. So this week, I just wanted to jump on very quickly. Not going to keep you long. Because, like I said, I know you have stuff to do. I just want you to know that you don't have to hold it all together. Every single day this week and every task that's probably on your to-do list doesn't have to be filled with joy and excitement. That it's totally cool if you feel exhausted or annoyed or tired if you just want it all to be done for the kids to open their presents. There are things that you probably enjoy about this season, and there's things you probably don't enjoy about this season. I have things that I love to do. If you've been watching my Instagram stories lately, you'll see I love to decorate cookies. I make my grandma's butter cookies with buttercream frosting and I pipe them and I make them all fancy. I've been doing that for the past month, preparing for Christmas because it was fun and now I'm over it. I'm done. That's all the cookies. They're done. But I did enjoy it while I was doing it. So that stuff was fun. I always buy gifts late because I'm the kind of person, if I have a gift for you, I can't hold on to it very long because I feel like you deserve to have it. So I just want to give it to you. Like I don't want you to have to wait. So I never shop early. All the Christmas gifts are coming in. I've been wrapping them. It's not fun to me, it's not joyous. I think it fucking sucks. So this year I am wrapping them just because I didn't feel like going to the store to buy more bags. But usually I just put shit in gift bags or like already decorated boxes and throw some tape on it. So you don't have to do the most. I'm telling you, do the most in the things that make you happy and do the least in the things that don't make you happy, and that's okay. You don't have to be on point all the time. I know as a woman, you bring the Christmas magic. You do more than anybody else, and everybody else gets the benefit from it, from your labor, from your love, and from everything that you pour into it. But do the most in the things that feel good, do the least in the things that don't. Find a way. But if you can't find a way to do the least because it's the week of Christmas and you're like, Shannon, you should have told me this a long time ago, like a month ago before I committed to a whole bunch of shit. That's okay. Like, it's okay to just not enjoy it while you're doing it, even if you're getting it done. Like, that's okay. You're still bringing the Christmas magic, baby. That's fine. So I just want you to know you don't have to swallow it. You're allowed to have your emotions. You're allowed to take a shower and cry if you want to. It's okay if you wear a dress that's already in your closet to a family gathering. Like, just give yourself permission to be human because being human doesn't ruin the holiday magic. Don't worry about aesthetics for Instagram or any other kind of post. Girl, enjoy your holiday because you should be able to enjoy it as well. Be human through it. I know that this season asks us to swallow a lot of our emotions, a lot of our irritation, a lot of our exhaustion, and smile through it like that's some sort of maturity or that's some sort of elevated woman. Be a whole ass human. You don't have to be perfect. Love on yourself in this moment and give yourself grace and show yourself compassion and don't beat yourself up because you figured out that everybody had eight toys and one kid only had seven toys. So what? Like stop beating yourself up. It's okay. Grace and compassion as you go through this week for yourself. For yourself. Give that as a gift to yourself. I love you. I see that you are doing things. I see that you give. I see that you have a big heart. Know that it doesn't go unnoticed even when you feel like it does. But don't let having that big, beautiful heart drain you to the point of not enjoying the season for yourself as well. It is okay. Whatever energy you're bringing is fine. If the bows on the gifts are uneven, it's not the end of the world. I know some woman needs to hear this because I know there are plenty of times in my life when I needed to hear that. When I needed to hear, you know what? It's okay if not everything is perfect. It's fine. And it doesn't have to be. Don't stress yourself out with perfection. Enjoy. I love you. We'll pick back up next week on the manifesting stuff. Right now, just be present in your life and enjoy the moments that matter, and don't stress about the ones that don't bring you joy. I love you, and I'll talk to you next week.