Do holiday parties ever make you feel like you need a Zack Morris time out?
It could be a family gathering or an office party at the supposed “happiest time of the year” and yet suddenly you find yourself:
A) Stressing the f*#k out as you’re pelted with invasive questions about your biological clock…
B) Aggressively defending your career choices to any poor soul who will listen because of the strange way your mom keeps mispronouncing your job title, and…
C) Selflessly holding your second cousin’s gluten-free purse dog to keep it away from the cookies only to realize it’s managed to poop in your pocket.
Sometimes we just freaking need a break and we need it now.
When such situations arise, the key is having a couple insanely fast, easy ways to take a minute for yourself and restore your energy.
The really important thing here is that your coping mechanism be lightning-fast–if it’s not something you can do in two minutes or less, you just plain won’t do it. “But, what the heck can I do in only two minutes?” I hear you say. Lucky for you, I’m a Grade-A introvert who has spent a lifetime wiggling my way out of parties I don’t want to be at but am too much of a people-pleaser to skip, so the following five tips are not only crazy-bananas quick but also road-tested by yours truly.
1 Before anything else, you need an exit strategy. My go-to line when I need to take a break is, “Excuse me, I need to check on someone a sec. My friend is going through a hard time.” The beauty of this is that it’s actually true–you are your friend and what you need to do in this exact moment is check-in with yourself. So, don’t overthink it or offer any additional explanations–just calmly make this excuse and then proceed to do one of the following…
2 Excuse yourself and scroll a happy, aesthetic Pinterest board on your phone. Pop your ear buds in so you can pretend you’re on the phone and go sit outside or even in the bathroom. (If you need inspiration, here are two of my Pinterest boards I’ve curated specifically for moments when I need a boost of feel-good vibes: Reasons To Live Board and Inner Child Board.)
3 Do a one or two-minute guided meditation. The key with guided meditations is that they absolutely must be short and focus on simply getting in touch with your breathing–anything else is just too complicated. Most guided meditations are waaay too long for me, and I suspect length might be the issue if you “hate meditating.” Here’s an insanely simple 1-minute guided meditation on YouTube, and here’s a soothing 2-minute meditation. (As you’ll notice, I love voices with accents–for whatever reason, a nice British or New Zealand accent helps meditations sound less cheesy to me).
4 Use the breathing app on your smartwatch or phone for one minute. Then tap it again (and again) until you feel your thoughts steady at least a little bit as your breathing slows down.
5 Volunteer to walk the dog, take the trash out, do the dishes, or pop out to the store for extra ice. (The perk of doing one of these is that not only will it give you a little extra time to yourself, but you’ll also be making yourself useful–acts of service like these are my best kept secret of party survival as an introvert. Wanna take this to the next level? Volunteer to take photos–this lets you be a fly on the wall while interacting with every single party guest at the same time… Just don’t do this at a party where I’m in attendance, because this is my signature move.)
Let’s connect:
Try these out at your next holiday party and I’d love to hear how they work for you. Do you have any go-to tricks that you swear by? Let me know in the comments below. And don’t forget to follow along with all the goodness on Pinterest!
Above photo by Kateryna Hliznitsova via Unsplash. Below photo by Hayley Maxwell via Unsplash.
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