 Hey, what's up, YouTube? It's AJ here from The Art of Charm, and I'm going to give you three tips today on how to survive the holidays even if you don't like your family. All right. Now, we all know that getting together for the holidays can bring a lot of enjoyment, but also a lot of frustration. Of course, in today's world, religion, politics, we all know the topics that start fights, but a lot of us don't realize that we're going into these events thinking the wrong thing. So the first tip today is to focus on your body language. Here at The Art of Charm, we say the mind leads the body and the body leads the mind. Now, I know in the past you may have had a really rough go around the holidays with your family. You may have even gotten in arguments or felt attacked, but if we can turn our body language around, open up our body language, stand a little taller, put on a big smile throughout the event, we are going to change the tone of that event, and we're going to influence our mind, meaning we're not going to be closed off. We're not going to feel argumentative or judged when we actually are just open, calm and collected. So when you're walking in the door at your family's holiday, open up that body language, stand up tall, put a big smile on. And of course, when you are feeling attacked, put that smile on. It's going to really disarm your family members who might feel that they could take advantage of you. Now, the second tip I want to talk about is starting to use some empathy. Listen, everyone in your family has a story. They have a background. They have a history that led to that mindset, that led to that worldview. That might be disagreeable to you. That might be something you don't believe in. So go into the holidays with a bit more empathy. Think about all the trials and tribulations that your family members have been through. Don't think about the judgment that might be coming your way, but think about the life events that may have led to them forming that worldview. When you're more empathetic, you're going to realize that your family has a lot more to offer and you're going to feel a lot less judged. Now, the third tip I want to talk about is actually using curiosity to get your family to open up and share more. I don't know about you, but in my family, I know that when we get together for the holidays, we kind of clam up. We're pretty introverted. And of course, there's not as much sharing as I would like. So I'm going to give you two simple words that you can use to open up your family, to tell more stories, to be more engaging and ultimately have more fun. And those two simple words are, I'm curious. If you use that phrase with family members, in fact, you may have heard of it on our podcast. We use it quite a bit when we're interviewing guests. I'm curious, how did you end up in that career? I'm curious, what brought you to Detroit, Michigan? That's going to allow your family to have an opportunity to share all those amazing stories with you. And I guarantee you, those stories don't involve fighting. They don't involve arguing. And of course, it's going to allow your family to feel heard. So this holiday season, change your body language, start using more empathy. And those two magic words, I'm curious to open up great conversation, to allow great storytelling to happen. And of course, to avoid all those arguments that we don't enjoy. Have a great holiday and I hope you enjoyed this video from The Art of Charm.