Are you ready to have a simplified, intentional and joyful holiday season? Let’s get started early with incorporating a clutter free gift giving strategy into your season!
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Mentioned on Ep 095: Clutter free gift giving for a simplified holiday season.
Welcome back to The Burnout Doctor Podcast, I’m your host Dr. Jessica Louie. On episode 95, we are talking about clutter free gifts as we approach the holiday season! It’s mid-November and I know this topic is on a lot of your minds. Let’s start early and be intentional with how we approach gifting this season. Thank you for your feedback on our previous episodes for decluttering the internet and our BIG Pharmacist Month Stories series in October. I love hearing your takeaway points and how acting in your own life changed your feelings. Remember, we all write our own stories in our lives and homes. Let’s all bring joy into home and joy into work.
Can you believe it’s nearing the holiday season already? I know it came up fast for me. Last year, I recorded two podcast episodes that are helpful to re-listen or read again this year. They are Episode 25 on Holiday Intentions to Prevent Burnout and Episode 32 on 4 Ways to be Present during Holiday Gatherings.
On today’s episode, we are talking clutter free gifts! Now you know that I love to live a simple, eco-friendly and non-toxic life. It’s been my journey from burned out to decluttering to intentional living. But…how do we help ourselves and our loved ones approach the gifting season with intention?
One way is to start early and set clear expectations around gift giving. You can get the FREE Simplify your Holidays download around this too! This includes one way to approach it with a stuff-free holiday. We are basically saying, “No gifts please, your presence is the present.” It even includes a certificate to give someone who may not be familiar with this concept. It tells them you appreciate their presence in your life, but I’m letting them know that I have all the things I could possibly want. We’re committing to making memories together instead of exchanging material things.
If you’re not ready to dive into the gift-free holiday this year, you can begin to replace physical gifts with experience gifts or consumable gifts. It’s a great reminder that we don’t say “I wish I had more stuff” at the end of our lives. Instead, we likely will say “I wish I had spent more time with …”
So, we’re taking this concept to continue a clutter free gifting season. The research supports this as well. Research shows that experiencing an event is more pleasurable and provides more happiness than a physical gift itself. This is because of the 3-step process of experiencing the event:
- Anticipate the event with pleasure
- Experience the event and savor the moments
- Express happiness and share memories of the event with myself and others
How do you actually implement this clutter free gifting holiday? Write out experience gift ideas and share them with family and loved ones who are exchanging gifts. The FREE download includes these gift ideas – from cultural experiences, local experiences, sporting events or fun activities. Yes, some of them may need to be virtual this season and that is ok.
Now that you have a list of experience gifts, let’s move onto consumable gifts. Consumable gifts may seem like physical gifts but we consume (or use them) up over days to weeks in our lives. These can be highly customizable to the recipient from baking to cooking to non-toxic living products like essential oils, cleaners and diffusers. This is my personal favorite because we helping others towards an eco-friendly and non-toxic lifestyle in the process. Read more about that journey here.
I dive deeper into each of these types of clutter in our FREE Workshop on cultivating JOY AT WORK. Watch the free workshop instantly!
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Until next time, spark joy my friends!
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Note, my views are my own and are not associated or representative of my employer(s).
This podcast is for educational purposes only and not medical advice.
