Do you find yourself really hoping and wishing for a ‘new’ family member or that one of your family brings a ‘new friend’ so the rest of clan might be on their best behavior.  (You know it probably won’t last, but you can dream, cant’ you?)

Unfortunately, it is usually the same thing year in and year out.  Most families have a couple of topics that are almost predictable like, “How come he is always late for dinner, everybody else is here on time?” – “What do you mean she thawed the turkey in the bathtub … she never cleans the bathtub … what are we going to do?” – “I didn’t know that she was going to bring her new boyfriend … we don’t have a gift for him, he’s going to think that were terrible people!”  So why do we go into the holidays thinking any different?  Short of loading up the whole family into the van and going in for group counseling I want you to know that family group dynamics seldom change without you making a conscious effort.  Rarely do we change from year to year as we play the same old broken ‘stress’ records that affect our lives dramatically.  So for you I have come up with some simple scripts that if you plan ahead can cut out a lot of stress in your life over the holidays.

1.  Ahead of time have a great memory already pre-selected, what some people say is “go to your happy place” ready.  Now when you are faced with a holiday stressor think of that ‘happy place’.  By thinking about the memory you will find yourself smiling which will help you to automatically begin to relax.  By conjuring up this happy thought you will change your body language and the thoughts around whatever that stressor that you are facing is.

2.  Have a ‘life line buddy’ – just let your life line buddy know to step in when “that family member starts pushing your buttons …”  All they have to do is ask a question which will change the subject which will let you off the stress-hook.

3.  Use gestures that are positive to set the tone right out of the shoot.  Experts tell us that by using an open, upward facing palm, gesture with your forearm and hand to the person who is most likely to start a negative situation.  By doing this and slowly gesturing – remember palm up and open – and then comment on how fantastic the decorations are this year.  as you get to the word ‘fantastic’ be sure to have your fingers of the open palm gesture pointing directly at the likely offender.  You see by doing this you have just nonverbally called them fantastic.  Continue the day assigning all the positive words you say – watch and be amazed how it can change the tone of that negative person.

4.  I saved this one for last because it is my favorite and the most powerful to use to destress – your breathing.  Practice and train yourself to maintain low, abdominal breathing.  You see the more you experience the calming effect that slow and low, abdominal breathing has on your body, voice and brain, the easier it will be to do in all situations.  While doing this you will see that your breathing supports many of your non-verbals, one of which is your voice and overall body stature and state.

I truly hope that you will take action and implement these simple tips to make your holidays stress free and more enjoyable.

“I recently saw you speak at a Child Nutrition Industry Conference in Arizona.  It was my first school conference since I began in the foodservice sales side of the business in 2000.  I read your book and it was so inspiring that I had to try out one of your HWOW’s the next day to see if it would work.

As a sales rep at the distributor I travel to a few states.  A few weeks ago, I worked with a rep and remembered that sometimes this person could be pretty negative.  I decided to think ahead at some of the postive things I could compliment her about and as I shared them, our day got better and better.  She really shined under all the sincere praise.  I found out she had some very strong culinary skills and made a beautiful plate presentation for one of our customers, everyone was really impressed!

We hugged and ended our day with smiles and appreciation.  I just wanted to let you know how your book impacted not only myself but all the people we worked with that day.  Hopefully, everyone who has read your book can all pay it forward.  Thank you for the gift.  Have blessed summer!

Best regards,

Angela Gibson – Account Executive – Hormel Food Service

As you all know training for classified personnel in school districts is very limited so you want to be sure that when you bring in a speaker or a trainer for your child nutrition employees that your hard earned dollars are well spent.

Since I have both lived and worked in the world of a self operated child nutrition program for the past 25-years I am very aware of the statement above and would like to help you to meet your needs.

So I hope that you enjoy this site and please feel free to contact me at any time.

Nutrtionally yours,

Craig Weidel