Fight that Frazzled Feeling
...so, you can float right into 2024 Dazzling & true to you!
It's been a crazy year, in this uncertain and ever-changing world. No matter where you are reading this from. In such uncertain times it's easy to begin to feel frazzled. Don't be ashamed or embarrassed if this is how you are feeling as we near the end of this year Darling. The end of this year is upon us, and you may be ready to already see 2023 as a thing of the past, but there's still time to close out this year on a more dazzling front. We are only weeks away from ending 2023 and ringing in a brand-new year, now wouldn't it be nice to do so feeling more dazzling than before Darling? The first thing you have to do is acknowledge the frazzled feelings. Pretending they aren't bubbling under the surface won't help anybody.
The holidays can be hard enough if we are honest. Real life isn't all Hallmark movie moments and hot cocoa kisses. Real life is trickier than that. Often the holidays bring time spent with family and friends, sometimes including relationships that carry tension or toxicity. This can be draining on entirely separate levels than just the hustle and bustle of the holiday season alone. This can make us frazzled by the end of the year, regardless of how challenging or successful our year was before we headed into the holidays. When we're already frazzled heading into them, it escalates even worse. After a busy holiday season, the end of a year always feels a little like a welcome vacation from socializing for me. Like it or not, holidays sometimes bring out the worst in us, no matter how much we wish they didn't. I don't know about you, but I know I can become FRAZZLED:
Fearful of how certain encounters may go, or whether this will be the last year with an aging loved one...
Restless over all the never-ending tasks /details to manage through the holidays, expenses, logistics, etc...
Anxious about making "magic" happen for your littles, or pulling off the perfect holiday party among so, so, so many other reasons to feel anxious this year...
Zealous about making the holidays perfectly merry as the Chief Merry Maker (CMM) in your home...
Zany yet determined to deliver on all of the magic one associates with the holiday season...
Lonely regardless of how many other people are in the room with you...
Envious of others whose holidays seem more magical, more expensive, more fabulous & probably more Instagram perfect than yours...
Discouraged by unmet expectations, negative social encounters, or your inability to obtain holiday joy...
I always feel a little extra tired, extra rundown, and extra ready for summer to begin by the end of the winter months, especially after all of the extra obligations the end of the year can put on the to-do list & calendar. End of year holiday concerts, programs, performances, shows, contests and celebrations... just trying to list the extra things makes me grow weary! Then add family and possibly even work holiday events too and it's enough to have you hiding under the covers all of January just to recover!
By the end of the year, I'm always ready for a fresh year, this year is no exception. I'm excited for the new year ahead of us and the slower pace that winter hibernation brings to my home, though I'm not terribly excited for the snowy days and colder temperatures. I prefer warmer weather, the sunnier days, and these things call to me all the other months of the year. Especially in the dead of winter... so, if I'm not careful, I can find myself fully frazzled as a result of too much cold weather and hibernation on the heels of the holidays.
Not being a fan of colder temperatures while still living somewhere that has a cooler climate most of the year, summer can't arrive soon enough for me! As I write this, my city is under its first weather warning for the season, anticipating inches of snow and cold temperatures. I know from seasons past, and lessons learned that NOW is the time I must begin to
prepare for my own success as the colder weather comes more regularly for a while. It's a delicate balance to maintain until the weather begins to warm up, months from now. I must do so intentionally. If I'm not intentional, then before I even realize it's happening, I can "recover" myself right into an even deeper state of frazzled simply because I lacked productive intentions during the winter months.
Now, to be clear, I don't mean intentions to be extremely productive, I mean productive plans to recover myself intentionally. One implies hustle culture, the other implies alignment culture. Here at Dazzling District, I only wish to encourage hustle towards true alignment with one's authentic self, one's lived experiences, and one's direction towards a true healing journey that can point you towards your truly unique and divine purpose. It's when we are intentional to seek true alignment that we can genuinely spark our most dazzling purpose.
If you are feeling frazzled at all, experiencing any of the things listed above or, maybe even all of the things, I feel your pain. I've been to that fully frazzled place, and I am not ashamed to say it. I was carrying all the things. I was prioritizing everyone else first. I felt guilty spending any time or money on myself, and I was growing increasingly resentful of the very things I had been blessed with. I didn't know who I was when I took off my roles, I didn't remember what I truly enjoyed, and I was so lost as to how to begin correcting any of these problems. It was somewhere between Halloween and Thanksgiving in 2018 that all the things that I had been balancing and all the roles I had been playing started to crumble and crash down around me, as if in slow motion, until the end of 2018. I don't think I have ever been so eager or more frazzled than I was ringing in 2019. If this feels like you in this season, I've been there. Like walking burnt toast burn out.
I've been beyond frazzled, and this place here, Dazzling District, is the place I was called to create as a result of navigating my way from fully frazzled to dazzling and true to myself by spring of 2019. After the emotionally tumultuous end of 2018, I started January of 2019 by intentionally setting out on a quest to focus on myself with no guilt. To prioritize my needs, care, love, and healing into every single day. To discover the things that light my soul on fire. I wasn't even looking for a divinely unique to me purpose. I wasn't really even looking for a purpose to be honest. I was simply hoping to spark a little joy, a little excitement, and maybe even a little inspiration.
Instead, I was pleasantly surprised at the culmination of a 3.5-year quest, I sparked all of those things AND SO MUCH MORE! I sparked my DAZZLING!
I've spent much of this year working on a book that details my story, my process and many of the lessons I learned on my quest to spark my dazzling, including my methods. The foundation of the book was inspired by a 9-part blog series that I wrote at the very beginning of this website, brand, and blog, in 2020. I may have been quiet here on the District Blog this past year and a half, but I have been working on the book as a priority in my writing since feeling called to begin it at the end of 2022. I did however want to be sure to encourage you to get a head start on your 2024 intentions. I recommend that you head over and start reading the blog series that inspired the book and begin implementing the methods and steps as you feel capable. My hope is not to add more things to your already busy holiday schedule, but to encourage you to actually prioritize focusing on your care in the midst of the seasonal chaos, to encourage more joy through these last weeks of the year. If you do so, I have no doubt you will turn the New Year even more dazzling than you are today. Start the blog series
HERE
Look for more updates on the completion of the book and opportunities for you to support and encourage me through the publication process, along with chances to have your opinions considered during the book launch!
Not on the Mailing List yet? You should be!
Ta-Ta for Now!
~ Rebecca
