The holidays can be a busy time. Between buying gifts, preparing food and drinks, decorating the home, and hosting guests, things can become hectic. As we prepare for all the holiday season brings, we may find ourselves experiencing increased stress which can have major impacts on our mental health. A little bit of stress can be motivating, but too much of it can take a toll on our minds and bodies. Therefore, it is important to prioritize your mental health around the holidays.
- Exercise. Exercising is a prime way to positively impact your mood and improve your mental health. Engaging in physical activity can help release natural hormones and chemicals in your brain that can lead to positive emotions, a boost in your immune system, and a positive impact on your well-being. In fact, despite how stressful this time may get, simply exercising consistently can help you mentally survive and push through. You don’t need to engage in the most rigorous exercise to get benefits.
- Yoga. Yoga is an activity that offers several benefits for mental health. A bedrock of yoga is its focus on breathing. With yoga, you learn how to take a full deep breath which helps relax and calm the body. Yoga can also improve focus and attention and help you learn how to be aware of the changes that occur when you are excited, stressed, and triggered during the holidays.
- Walking. Walking, even for a short period of time, helps your mental health by improving circulation and making sure blood is flowing to your brain and body. Ultimately it can be helpful in reducing stress and keeping your central nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (the part of the body involved in the stress response) balanced.
- Keeping a regular schedule. Events during the holiday can through off your normal scheduling. Whether it be for exercise, eating, or self-care, not having a normal schedule can take a toll on your mental health. Trying to keep some aspects of your normal schedule can be helpful during this time. It will support you in managing your mood and not feel as off balance.
- Meditation. Meditating allows one to slow down, be more present, and mindful of the moment. Through meditation, you can become more aware of your presence and reactions. The more aware you are of yourself, the more control you have over how you respond to different situations and circumstances. There are various forms of meditation, some of which include guided, movement, mantra, visualization, and music meditation. It may help to try apps that can help you meditate. Some apps with free access to meditation include Insight Timer, Smiling Mind, and MyLife Meditation. Having an app you can use is helpful as you can always listen to a quick 5-minute meditation, use it when you are trying to sleep, or even out on a walk. This is one way to quickly change your mood and manage your mental health.
- Triggers. The holidays may hold many triggers. Certain environments may be upsetting or bring on tension in your body as you think about it. Foods during this time may also be triggering and lead to unwanted behaviors. Further, people, their way of interacting, and patterns in the way they communicate might be a trigger you anticipate and expect to occur during the holidays. Pay attention to this response. Your body and mind will inform you when you are triggered. Some responses are an overwhelming need to seek comfort, lash out, find an escape, and or isolate. You may also find yourself numbing the emotional responses with social media, the news, video games, food, and other vices just to cope with the emotions that occur once you are triggered. Being more aware of the responses you have to triggers will help you intervene and think about how you may need to handle the situation as it begins to become too difficult for you to handle. Sometimes our triggers are out of our awareness yet those close to you may be able to help you identify your triggers. Reflecting on your triggers can be very helpful in managing the holidays and protecting your mental health.
- Boundaries, saying no, and not over-committing. The holidays are a time when you may find the need to establish more boundaries. The nature of having to interact with more people and family may result in a need to assert where you draw the line and what is and is not all right in terms of how people interact with and treat you. Not everyone will respect your boundaries, so this may include how you respond if your boundaries are not respected. In addition to managing your boundaries, get comfortable with saying no. Don’t feel compelled to attend every event and over-commit yourself—many people of all ages experience FOMO, better known as fear of missing out. However, for the sake of your mental health, it can be good to miss out and pass on some events. The best gift you can give yourself is the gift of being comfortable with saying no.
- Grief and loss. It can be very hard for people who have lost loved ones around this time of the year. It is natural for the anniversaries of someone’s death to greatly impact someone’s mood, and sometimes, this occurs subconsciously (half in and half outside your awareness). You may know something is off with you but still aren’t fully sure why you might be feeling sadder, removed, or less invested in the holiday seasons than you have been in the past. It can also be hard to predict how you may feel emotionally during the holidays when you are dealing with grief and loss. This may even be the first holiday without a loved one. It is helpful to connect to a close support and share how you feel. Holding your emotions in can chip away at your health. If it is hard to speak about the loss, it can be helpful to write about how you are feeling. Other helpful activities are listening to music that reminds you of the person, thinking of positive memories and finding an object you can keep with you that symbolizes the person and the relationship you had. Finding ways to hold on to the positives and not push away or ignore the impact the loss is having is healthy. If the grief and loss are too overwhelming, it may be good to go to therapy and speak with a professional who can help you manage this particularly hard time.
- Supports. It is always helpful to have a support system. This system can include friends from different times in your life, a community such as a church or other organizations you are involved in, and your family. Having at least one person you can turn to whom you feel it is emotionally safe to process the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that occur for you during this time can be important for managing your mental health during the holidays. Not everyone is able to respond the way you may need. To get your needs met, it can be helpful to first check in with yourself and identify what you may find soothing in this moment. Then you can say to your support, I just need someone to be a listening ear right now, give advice, be non-judgmental, help me see what I might be missing…etc. When you are aware of the kind of support you need, you can inform others of how they can best show up for you at that time. We don’t always know what we need from others but when we do, it can be helpful to state it.
- Gratitude. The hustle and bustle of the holidays have you so busy that you forget to take moments for gratitude. Remembering what you are grateful for is a practice that can also improve your mental health. You can practice gratitude in various ways. Some people may find writing an extensive list of all you are grateful for to be helpful. Making a routine out of doing it at the same time every morning could be a good way to ground yourself and mentally prepare you for the day and busyness to come. Taking notes on your phone and writing one thing you are grateful for at different times throughout the day may work better if you need sporadic reminders to take a beat and ask yourself what I am grateful for in this moment. No matter how you practice gratefulness, being aware of the things we often overlook and possibly take for granted can be a way to improve your mental health and keep you in good spirits during the holiday season.
There are so many elements to the holiday season that can bring on stress and take a toll on your mental health but having an awareness of how the holiday season has impacted you in the past can give your insight into how you can prepare yourself for this year. Doing some planning can make all the difference and give you some tools to prioritize your mental health throughout the holiday season. Try a number of the tips above or focus on one. No matter what you try from the list, practicing any of the tools above can help you be in the driver’s seat and make you better apt to manage your mental health versus feeling your mental health is spiraling out of your control.
If you feel you aren’t fairing too well, need extra support, or just want someone who is not connected to your life to help you during the holiday season, it may be helpful to seek a therapist who is trained to provide the support you need during these times.
