welcome everyone to the get real get love show I am your host arely Washburn

and today we're talking about holiday stress and specifically the holiday stress that happens when you have

happened to be a single person and you're getting invited to a bunch of parties or you're going

to go see family you're traveling excetera and so I just want to give you some quick tips on how

to navigate these times so first let's start with you you might be getting invited to holiday parties

for work I highly recommend that you do not skip those parties because a you might meet someone there that

could be a potential match for you and then of course you want to you know you

have your bosses and people there are and your colleagues and you don't want to come across as someone

who's not social so if you have trepidation about going alone maybe come up with some

ideas of some you know small talk that you might want to engage in with some of your co-workers but

definitely do your best to attend these parties because you never know who you might

meet and it's just a good way to potentially I don't know gain more insight about the people that

work with you and and all that good stuff so so I highly recommend do not

skip those parties the second thing I would say is if you're going to go

visit family I know sometimes when you're single could be challenging because year-over-year you're getting the same questions from family

members you know or you're dating what's going on when you're going to meet someone and what I would

recommend is that you come prepared with specifics of kind of person that you want

to meet okay and so when your family asks questions about why you know why aren't you

with someone excetera you can say I am totally open to meeting someone and I'm

looking for and just be very specific about the type of person that you want

to meet and let's put the onus on them let them figure it out let them be the ones

who help you to meet someone I would say turn everybody into your Matchmaker but be very very specific about

it I think it's also really important to make sure that that you're taking good care of yourself you

know self care is very important during these stressful times in the holidays sometimes people have to

travel and I always I don't know about you but when I travel I try

to take the first flight out especially these days with delays and and cancellations and

things like that at least if you take if you have to get to the

first flight if it gets cancelled or postponed you have some options you know that come after

that as opposed to taking a later flight and then front you know finding out that you can't get

another flight so that will lower and minimize the stress you know just be mindful of what you can

do proactively to avoid stress and just take good care of yourself as far as self love and self care

I just this morning decided you know what I need a bath I want to just bathe in relax

and feel good and that's okay you need to take that time out for yourself to

enjoy you know the moments that you have you know put some nice music on some

candles take a nice bath if you want to have a cocktail whatever it takes to get you to feel

your best and then by all means you know I know we spend a lot of

money and energy on other people throughout the holidays but do something nice for yourself you know buy

yourself something nice and and treat yourself because that's part of the self love and self care don't go crazy

but if there's something that you've been meaning to get and you really haven't done it up to

this point maybe this is this is the time of year that you can do that

so those are just a few tips about what you can do to be more successful you know

in terms of avoiding the stress and minimizing stress is what I should say so go

to the parties you know be prepared to do some small talk and potentially who knows you might

meet someone there and then make sure that if you're going to go see family and also avoid any

conversations that are going to be difficult you know the politics I think some of that might be

dying down still but you know don't bring up conversations that are just going to create more stress

and if they bring up why are you still single give them whole you know Darcy

are of the kind of person you looking to meet and that way you can put the

onus on them so that's what I have to share with you today as my phone is

ringing and if you have any questions or you need any support through this holiday season please feel

free to reach out I'm at Arlene Washburn on all social media and I'd be

happy to support you bye for now and remember everyone deserves to love and be loved

so never give up on love cheers