The holiday season is here, and if you listen carefully you’ll hear more than just the sounds of “Silent Night” playing in the background. Those other sounds you hear may be the cries of stressed out shoppers, overwhelmed parents, sales clerks and children, who are overdosing on sweets and other holiday goodies.

Or maybe it’s the voice in your own head nagging you to take advantage of the latest online shopping deal that ends at midnight, fretting about forgetting a gift for someone or ruminating incessantly about the logistics of shopping, baking, cooking, traveling, etc.

For me, the season is mostly merry—a time of year I look forward to. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in a family of six children so I’m fairly comfortable with chaos in general. After all, when chaos is an everyday occurrence, holiday “craziness” isn’t really a thing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’ve never experienced holiday stress but it’s usually tied to finances—having too many gifts to buy and not enough resources…..

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