The Holidays are here! With the Holidays come all kinds of feelings and emotions, most good and some not so good. It is very easy to fall into stress traps. Most of us learn coping strategies and reinforce it each time we experience the same situation, unless we realize what’s happening and head off the emotion before the same old response occurs.
Mayo Clinic encourages us to ‘acknowledge’ our feelings of Holiday stress and ‘reach out’ to family, friends, social and religious groups. By ‘planning ahead’ and ‘being realistic’ of family and social stressors and triggers, try to ‘set aside differences’ for the time we are together and ‘learn to say no’ without feeling like the world will come to an end.
John Hopkins also weighed in on Holiday stress and depression. They suggested that we ‘accept imperfections’ and not to set our expectations too high of ourselves and others. We should not ‘lose sight of what really counts’ and ‘respond with kindness’ when we would rather give someone a piece of our mind.
My immediate take away from this, is that we should try to ‘live in the moment of the Holidays and experience the joy that is Christmas’, instead of trying to control the Holidays and wanting to react to every uncomfortable situation.
Have a great Holiday!
Dr. Frisch