4 Ways to Unwind After the Holidays: From Movies to Cleaning Your House

You spent most of December running through malls in search of perfect Christmas presents. You spent countless hours at work wrapping up year-end projects and preparing for the new year. You've planned parties, baked cookies, hosted house guests, defused conflicts between family members and wrote an infinite number of holiday cards. You are exhausted. So how do you de-stress from the holiday mess? I have a few ideas.

Go see a movie. By yourself. You need some "you" time. We have a tendency to put others first during the holiday season; we make excuses and justifications for not paying attention to our needs. But when the season is over, we have no excuse not to take time for ourselves. Believe it or not, going to watch a movie by yourself is a great way to de-stress. Here is why. You get to leave the house, watch anything you want without having to compromise your selection and you get all the concession stand snacks to yourself. This is a great way to escape your reality for a few hours and re-fresh by, preferably, laughing out loud.

Clean your house.No, seriously, Follow my thought process for a second here. Having people over, or not being in your home for several days, can cause your favorite chilling space to get messy and dusty. While cleaning is not a relaxing activity, enjoying your clean space is what will allow you to finally put an end to a hectic holiday season. And that in itself is de-stressing.

Avoid the mall. After-Christmas sales may be tempting, but all you are doing is prolonging the holiday shopping madness. After spending weeks of prepping for the holidays, do you really want to be fighting for parking and spending time in long lines at the cash register. Avoid the crowds and the additional stress they are likely to bring. Haven't you spent enough time and money at the mall already?

Don't hang on to negativity. Remember all the things that stressed you out in the first place? Let them go. Don't nag your sister about forgetting to bring a dish to your party. Don't focus on the ugly sweater you are stuck with because it didn't come with a gift receipt. Think of the positive things; focus on what made you smile and feel fuzzy inside (forgive the cliché, please). It's a sure way to feel great about all the hard work you put into this year's holiday festivities.

Ready for 2008 yet? A friendly reminder: make sure you know where your gifts came from this year so you don't make any re-gifting oops next year. Now go have the left over Christmas cookies. You deserve a break!