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Mental Health Tips During The Holidays

Managing Mental Health During The Holidays

What type of feelings does the holiday season bring for you?

The holiday season can bring a giant list of feelings that range from joy, connection, and celebration—to stress, loneliness, and emotional challenges.

As a licensed mental health counselor in Greensboro, NC, I want to share strategies to help you prioritize your mental health and overall well-being during the holidays.

This article aims to provide you with coping skills and mental health tools you can use during the holidays.

Mental health podcast episode about managing mental health during the holidays.

7 Strategies For Improving Your Mental Health During The Holidays

1. Continue to take care of yourself

It can be easy to lose focus on the routines that keep you healthy and strong during the season of holidays. Sometimes, this is because of all the planning and preparation that is involved. Or it can be because of the increase in work hours during the holidays.

As the holidays approach, I encourage you to embrace them without losing your routines. Try to maintain your fitness, engage in consistent healthy sleep, practice healthy eating habits, and use your coping skills to reduce stress and develop balance.

 

2. Learn to understand how the holidays impact your body.

One of the key steps in managing mental health is learning how to build a sense of awareness. The awareness to understand what body tension, stomachaches, rapid heartbeat, and other physical symptoms mean about one’s mental health.

One place to start is by performing a body scan. A body scan is a tool for analyzing how your body is doing and what may be impacting it.

The body scan can start from your toes to your head. As you move from your toes to your head, be mindful to notice how each part of your body is feeling. Once you notice that a body part is tense or not doing well, consider what has caused this and work to bring relief to it.

 

3. Include holiday activities that you look forward to

The holidays are often challenging because of the situations we are in and the people we are around. I encourage you to reflect on the past holiday and situations or persons you were around.

Consider which situations and people led to you feeling uncomfortable or experiencing stressful symptoms. Once you have an idea of this, try to develop a list of activities you want to engage in during the holidays. People you would like to see and spend time with. Situations you would like to partake in.

The goal is to develop a sense of empowerment and use that to proactively embrace the holidays in a manner that brings you joy.

 

4. Take breaks during the holidays

If thinking about the holidays causes you to experience uncomfortable and unwanted feelings, I encourage you to plug in breaks during the holidays. The purpose of a break during the holiday time is to give you the time that you need to practice self-care and simply breathe.

I would like for you to consider a visualization. Consider that you are in a situation in which you feel uncomfortable. Instead of staying, give yourself the opportunity for a break. You can define what a break would need to be like.

A break can include going for a short walk outside, calling a friend or peer, or playing a game on your phone.

 

5. Set realistic expectations about the holiday season

Holidays can often come with expectations that may be just a little too high or unrealistic to reach. Setting realistic expectations during the holidays can start by writing down a list of your current expectations. The next step is to rank the list in order from the ones that you are more likely to reach to those that you are less likely to meet.

You can start his process by acknowledging that no celebration is perfect and instead shift to focus on creating meaningful moments. Here, I encourage you to explore the difference between a perfect holiday moment and a meaningful holiday moment.

 

6. Work with a counselor

Remember, it’s okay to seek mental health support if the season feels overwhelming or challenging. Santos Counseling has a group of counselors ready to help you navigate the challenges and find peace in the holidays. Contact us to learn more about counseling.

Use the links below for more mental health tips:

 

7. Embrace Your Alone Time

I want you to imagine something for me. You are alone doing an activity and you feel stuck and sad. What activity are you doing? Now, I want you to change the situation just a little bit. You are alone and again you are doing an activity. Except for this time you do not feel sad. You feel content. 

I encourage you to create opportunities where you are embracing YOU. Take yourself out on a date. Wake up and look forward to a solo breakfast. Race home from work to your favorite movies with you and all your favorite snack foods. 

I am not saying that you should always be alone. Instead, I am encouraging you to enjoy YOU time. Or as some call it, ME time. 

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