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I don’t remember much Hebrew from my college Hebrew classes, but one word in particular has stuck with me all of these years.  That word is  “l’hitragesh.”

“L’hitragesh” is a short little verb that translates to “to make oneself crazy.”

I have always loved that Hebrew had a simple word for something that we do to ourselves all the time. This week, I could have received the L’hitragesh Award For Excellence In Making Myself Crazy. From struggling to properly master audio recordings for my Body Love Meditations CD right before I needed them for Re/Dress’s Maxi Craft event, to playing around with HTML for my new web site to get it up in time so that I could save myself a $20 renewal fee on my old one, I was making myself bonkers for little or no reason. It was as if I was using an old paradigm (my old lawyer-who-needs-to-treat-almost-everything-like-an-emergency-paradigm) for my very different current life as a Health At Every Size counselor.

Many of you are probably feeling pretty crazed right now. Between holiday shopping, year-end work requirements and family obligations, this joyous time of year can be more stressful than anything.

Your crazy-making skills (and mine) have probably done you some good at times. They may have given you that extra kick of adrenaline to get you through a difficult situation or helped you meet an immovable deadline. But if you find that you’re making yourself crazy a lot (i.e., feeling overwhelmed all the time, feeling like everything you do needs to be perfect, trying to meet impossible deadlines, etc.), then you may want to rethink your approach. Here are some tips for doing just that.

1) Make A List — Lengthy “to do” lists can be daunting. That’s why I love to use this technique recommended by Esther and Jerry Hicks. Take a piece of paper, and make a line down the middle. At the top of one column, write “Things I Will Do Today.” At the top of the other column, write “Things I Would Like The Universe To Do.” Under the first column, write down some things that you reasonably think you will get done today. I recommend listing just the things that you want to do and/or those that are absolute requirements. Write all the other stuff (things you should do but don’t want to, things you can’t figure out how to do) in the other column. I know this technique may sound strange to some of you, but every time I do it I feel immeasurably better. And you would not believe the way that things in both columns seem to get done.

2) Do The Easiest Thing First — When in overwhelm mode, we often want to tackle the things that seem most difficult, so that we can get them out of the way. I find, however, that if I start with the easy, no-brainer stuff, my feeling of overwhelm starts to lift because I’m crossing more things off my list.

3) Know Your Value — Many of us have a tendency to go into perfectionist, people-pleasing mode — especially at this time of year. One way to move out of perfectionism and people -pleasing is to get in touch with your own intrinsic value. This can’t necessarily be done as quickly as writing a to do list, but one way to quickly connect with your value is to use an affirmation like, “I am enough” or “I am perfect just as I am.” These affirmations are especially good when you want to release feelings of overwhelm.

4) Ask Yourself: Is This An Emergency? — Finally, try asking yourself if what feels like an emergency is actually an emergency. Most of the time, it is not. And know, that when it is, you will deal with it as best you can.

As always, let me know how you’re doing!  Comment below if you use these tips, or have some other suggestions!

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.