Secret Holiday Tasks That Deplete Your Energy

Secret Holiday Tasks That Deplete Your Energy

There is no denying that the holidays can be both merry and stressful. For many people, it’s an overwhelming time of year between buying gifts, living up to expectations, and making time for all the holiday events. A heavy mental load and excess emotional labor may explain stress.

Joey Trine, a licensed clinical professional counselor, calls mental load the invisible or cognitive labor. Despite this, you continue to put energy into the tasks. However, emotional labor is the work that goes into various relationships. An excellent example of this is listening to a friend who’s upset or managing a complex relationship between family members.

Gift Shopping Adds Stress To Your Life

Giving gifts takes a toll on your mental health during the holiday season. Buying gifts for kids, parents or a work exchange is exhausting. Both the shopping, the planning, the wrapping, and the giving are exhausting. It is stressful to figure out what gifts to give or how to be thoughtful during the holiday season.

Monitoring Social Engagements

There are many holiday parties during the most festive time of the year, overloading the person who carries the load mentally. You probably have more social events to attend during this time than usual. Keep track of upcoming event dress codes or drop your kids off at holiday events.

Service Workers Probably Face More Emotional Labor

Customer dissatisfaction is an unfortunate reality in the service industry. There’s a good chance they’ll have to deal with this more often during the holiday shopping season. Emotional labor can be viewed as a type of performance in that it is like ‘keeping your cool’ through escalating stress to complete the task at hand.

This Holiday Season, Delegate Some Tasks

The realization that you carry the mental load isn’t pleasant. To alleviate some of the holiday stress, talk to your partner. In a relationship, it’s helpful to write out all the tasks that need to get done with your partner. You should create two lists – one for daily living and one for the holiday season. During the holiday season, assign tasks to your partner.