The latter half of December is an exciting one, with Christmas and New Year. It is one of the most celebrated times of the year, it’s a time for gathering with family and friends, gift-giving, enjoying the festivities, contemplating about life and making resolutions for the new year. But unfortunately, it’s not the same for everybody. These holidays tend to take their toll on our mental health for a variety of reasons. A lot of people feel anxious, sad and even depressed during this time of the year.
There are various reasons for someone to be low amidst all the joy. It can be because of the extra burden of work on women during holidays, the fears and anxiety of being judged by your toxic family or friends whom you can’t avoid during the season, or maybe because we feel our life isn’t going according to the plan and by the end of the year we feel like a failure. These are just some of the reasons why your mental health might be a mess during the holiday season and they all are equally awful.
So, if you are finding this time of year difficult and are suffering from the holiday blues, don’t worry some things can help you feel better and maybe even enjoy the holiday.
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1. Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself
As the year closes, we tend to evaluate our successes and failures. But more often than not we beat ourselves up over our failures, which takes a toll on our mental health. It’s time we break this pattern and learn to not be so hard on ourselves all the time. Life can be tricky and not everything works out according to our plan, what matters is how hard we try. So appreciate all your efforts this December and focus on your achievements no matter how small you think they are. It’s important to focus on the good.
2. List down The Things You’re Grateful For
According to many studies, gratitude improves our mental health. And a simple exercise to include in your daily routine during this very stressful holiday season is “Three good things”. This simple exercise can make a big difference, every day just write down three things you are grateful for. It can be as small as a good cup of coffee to a nice day with a loved one. Every moment which brought a smile to your face is worth being grateful for.
3. Don’t Overcommit
The holiday season is supposed to be relaxing, right? But we end up with a jam-packed schedule, from completing deadlines to meeting all the friends and family, this is one of the leading causes of feeling stressed and anxiety over the holidays. You need to learn to say “no” and even divide the tasks. Maintaining an equitable distribution of tasks and a reasonable schedule of events and activities is key to a healthier holiday season. Don’t take on more than you can handle.
4. Prioritise Your Mental Health
It’s important to avoid people who make you feel bad and take a break from pleasing people. Sure, the holidays are all about spending time with your loved ones. But that doesn’t mean that you have to stress yourself out trying to make everyone happy. If your “loved” ones don’t make you feel loved but instead criticise you every opportunity they get. Then it wouldn’t be wrong to avoid them. People will always try to find faults so learn to take things less personally, and stop internalising other peoples’ negativity.
5. Practice Self-Care
Self-care is incredibly important when it comes to our mental well-being but unfortunately, it’s also the thing which many of us don’t practise enough. We all know how crazy busy the holiday season can get and often leads us to avoid our own needs while creating a wonderful day for everyone else. However, the season will be as merry as the people so be sure to schedule in some downtime to practise self-care. You can treat yourself to a massage, go on a date night with your partner, or simply watch your favourite movie. Don’t forget it’s important to take care of yourself too.
6. Be Open About How You Feel
If you are struggling through the holiday season, but find it difficult to admit to people around you especially because they seem to be enjoying and loving this time. Then you might opt for the ‘fake it till you make it’ strategy, but this is the worst thing you can do to yourself. Pretending to be happy takes a huge toll on our mental health. It will be better for you to talk to someone about how you feel and work through those feelings, take your time and then when you are ready to feel the joy join the celebrations.
7. Manage Your Expectations
The holiday season is magical in the movies with everything so good and bright. We tend to fall into this trap of expecting an amazing time with only highs and no lows. We want a party that doesn’t stop. But the reality can be different, the holidays are just a normal day with a shiny hat. And that’s how we should accept it, and not set impossible and fantastical expectations from the holidays. Having a good time is important but it’s possible that you might not always get it. So try to limit your idea of a ‘perfect’ holiday and experience the holiday for what they are.
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Holidays are a fun time when you should make sure to relax. The holidays are going to last for only a few days but the damage they can do can last for much longer, so be sensitive to your feelings and mental health. Take care of yourself and have fun the way you feel good. Don’t feel pressured to enjoy the holidays, you can live these days just the way you want.