Before Your Kettle Starts To Whistle

We are fully in the holiday season and I’m sure you are working to maintain what holiday traditions we can. Some of our treasured traditions must be set aside, while others can be enjoyed with modifications. What are you still scrambling to keep track of, to grasp, to process? When the pressure builds inside, before your kettle starts to whistle, you can use CPR.

No, I’m not referring to the chest compressions that are used when the heart is in cardiac arrest. I want to offer a different meaning for the acronym – confess, press, relax.

While you may face high demands any time of the year, it is not unusual for demands to be greater during the holidays. You can begin feeling buried in the schedule or added expectations – buried in the many things we associate with Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

These can add up to multiple demands for pieces of you … and internal pressure can build up. Have you experienced the feeling of a building internal boil? Your kettle is about to burst into a whistle. Your mind – and your body – are overloaded and you need to make a change.

Confess

Speak what you are holding in – what’s bothering you – to your spouse or a trusted friend, or write it out in a journal or in a letter. Express your struggles in order to simply release them rather than solve them.

Press

Press the stop button. Stop chewing on the situation. A cow chews its cud to aid digestion. But you chewing and stewing over a situation actually raises your stress levels and hinders digestion. So stop and focus on gratitude for positive things around you. Gratitude calms the body and refocuses the brain.

Relax

Step back and breathe. Focus on a guided meditation from an app. Speak forgiveness to yourself or another person. Walk outside and focus on the beauty of nature.

When you feel the pressure building inside, don’t try to push through. You are far more likely to hit overload. Before your kettle starts to whistle, step aside. Confess. Press. Relax. Once you have done this, incorporate daily time for self care to fill your cup. Unless you do this consistently, you will run out of supply from which to pour.