My Menopause Blog: Lighten Up

I'm choosing not to celebrate Christmas this year. It's not the first time I've given the pressure cooker event a miss. In fact, I'm on a steady annual restrictive diet of anything xmasy that feels busy, obligatory and doomed to disappoint because the hosts are so hung up on "The Perfect Christmas."

I'm not depressed, angry or forlorn. In fact, I'm cheerful, sleeping well, calm and quite content. It's taken years to extricate myself from the chaos of the season and it takes focused diligence to keep guilt at bay. But man oh man is it worth the effort.

If you're up to your eyeballs in turkey, stockings and sick youngsters, with parcels yet to wrap, cookies to bake and perfection to perfect, this diddy from my current read, Improv Wisdom, may be the gift to help you through.

"The more precise my vision of an outcome, the more likely I am to be disappointed. Things don't turn out as planned. You don't need to abandon your dreams; just don't let them get in the way of what is happening. Observe the currents of life, accept what is happening, including mistakes, and continue working to create the best outcome. The key here is a flexible mind."

Good luck.

Sue Richards

Tags: Perfection, Christmas, Guilt.