The holiday season is upon us! Its fast approach can result in worry and anxiety rather than joy and merriment. This is the first in a series of articles dealing with the subject. This article describes the holiday blues and provides emotional coping strategies to help you avoid or decrease experiencing the holiday blues. The series continues with coping strategies in the areas of social, family, physical and financial. The series concludes with ways to get professional help for yourself or someone you care about.
What is the holiday blues?
The holiday blues is feelings of disappointment, sadness, stress and being overwhelmed related to holiday experiences. Other more general symptoms of the holiday blues include: slowed thinking or response times, decreased energy, tearfulness, hopelessness/helplessness, changes in eating and sleeping patterns and poor concentration. These feelings are triggered at this time of the year when longing for loved ones increases, when yearning for the way things use to be increases, when unrealistic expectations take over, when isolation from family and friends seems like a good coping strategy, and when the pressure to feel merry becomes too much.
How can I deal with the holiday blues?
Managing the holiday blues is possible by making use of coping strategies. Emotional coping strategies is one place to start. Use as many of the coping strategies that make sense to you.
Emotional
Remember and/or emphasize the point of the season. Family, togetherness, good will toward others, and religious connotations should be the focus of the season. Don't get caught up in the commercialization of the holiday.
Don't deny or hide your feelings. If you're feeling sad or lonely or overwhelmed tell someone. Talking about what you're experiencing helps release the burden and solicits support.
Don't dwell on the past. Remember and honor the past but don't dwell. Dwelling on the past intensifies feelings of loneliness, sadness, missing loved ones.
Modify expectations. Unrealistic expectations, either those you set for yourself or those set upon you by others, should be clarified and made realistic based upon what's going on in your life at the moment.
Rely on your faith. Rely on the spiritual support offered by faith and your church family.
Renew your spiritual journey. The holiday season may be a prime opportunity to reacquaint yourself with a spiritual practice fallen by the way or to explore alternative spiritual paths that may be more in-line with who you are now.
Make daily statements of gratitude. Such statements keep you focused on what you have versus what you don't have. This coping strategy also supports maintaining realistic expectations.
Treat yourself. Let this be the one time of the year you focus on yourself. Put yourself first. Treat yourself to something special, a little extravagant or a little on the wild side. If you don't, who will?
Set realistic goals. Be mindful of what is practical for your schedule and lifestyle. Don take on more than is realistic. See a theme emerging here?
Begin implementing these coping skills as soon as you feel the first onset of the holiday blues. Even if you're not sure if what you're feeling is related to the holiday season, use the coping skills to keep yourself healthy and feeling good. Part two of this series provides coping skills regarding the social and family aspects of your life.
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