Welcome to episode 186 of Live Happy Now. This is your host, Paula Phelps, thanking you for joining us today.

Once again, the holidays are upon us, so it's time for peace on earth, goodwill toward men, and most likely a whole lot of stress for women.

This week, we're talking with Nancy Jane Smith, a licensed professional counselor and author of three books,

including The Happier Approach. Be kind to yourself, feel happier, and still accomplish your goals.

She has some great tips for managing the holiday hustle with your good mood intact. So if you'd like

your holidays to run a little bit smoother this year, let's listen to what Nancy has to teach us.

Nancy, I am so glad that you could

come and talk to us today for Live Happy Now. First of all, welcome to the show. Thanks. I'm so

excited to be here. This is great. Well, we wanted to talk to you because this is the holiday season

and it's a time when we're talking about happy holidays and being happy and being with family.

But we also know this is a time when people are really stressed and all that happiness can take a back seat.

So what we wanted to talk to you is the holidays are getting underway.

What are some of the things that we can do to prepare ourselves so maybe this year we can actually enjoy them?

Yeah, there are so many expectations that we put on, that are put on us and we put on ourselves for the holiday. So it's kind of a,

comes from all sides, internally and externally. And that's part of the problem is that it isn't,

we think it's all external,

but a lot of it is the pressure we put on ourselves to keep up with other people, to make sure

it's perfect, to make sure everyone's happy, and that can get us in trouble sometimes.

So what is it that is causing the most stress or unhappiness during the holiday season?

I think it's the crazy expectations that, you know, that we need to have a Norman Rockwell

Christmas.

And everything, even I was just reading the Oprah magazine holiday issue before we got on this call.

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