Are You Having Merry or Blue Christmas?

As the holiday season approaches, we start hearing Christmas songs everywhere, holiday lights are popping up at dusk and everything makes us enjoy the holiday spirit. Right?

Maybe everything isn’t all that perfect. The holiday season brings the pressure of holiday shopping, the stress of hosting a family visit, and traveling during the busiest time of the year. Even feeling happy during the holidays can be a challenge.

Christmas Movie

One of my favorite Christmas movies is Mixed Nuts. It is a Christmas comedy which was based on the French movie Le père Noël est une ordure. My favorite part of the movie is when the main character Philip, played by Steve Martin, said: ”…Christmas is a time when you look at your life through a magnifying glass and whatever you don’t have feels overwhelming. Being alone is so much lonelier at Christmas. Everything sad is so much sadder at Christmas…” These words are simple, but they seem to cut deeply into my soul. Somehow, we have a higher expectation for ourselves during the holiday season than we do the rest of the year.

Higher Expectation During The Holidays  

During the year, we are so busy with our daily activities that we do not have the extra time to think about things, we did not achieve or the things that did not happen for us. However, over the holidays, disappointing dreams seem to be more painful. On top of this, the media gives us a clear message regarding the proper way to celebrate the holidays. Beautiful and seemingly harmless Christmas commercials want to sell us material things, which are supposed to bring happiness to our lives and make our holidays truly jolly. Real life is different from the images presented to us on television. A simple toy can make a child feel delighted, but it takes more to make adult feel truly happy.

Tips How To Stay Healthy Over Holidays

As grown-ups, we can be realistic with our expectations and stay in a healthy mind during the holidays.

If you are getting stressful over the holiday season, try to plan ahead, stay under budget and take the opportunity for online shopping to save time and stay away from crowded malls. You do not need to be a perfectionist.  Do not forget to give yourself a break from the holiday preparation. Try to find some time to go for a walk, read a few pages of your favorite book, or even take a nap.

Remember that we are all different and our family members and friends are not perfect. Things can happen. There is nothing we can do about the behaviors of other people towards us, but we can manage our reaction towards their attitude. Try to stay in a healthy mindset by keeping up with your physical activity program, eating healthy and finding time for yourself. The exercise program can be shorter over the holidays, but do not stop exercising.  Keep up with it!  Try to eat healthy snacks before holiday parties.  This will help you to make better choices for your holiday meals and stay on a nutritionally balanced diet over the holidays.

If you cannot spend the holidays with your loved ones for any number of reasons, try to concentrate on a positive time you shared with them during the year or at some time in the past. Volunteer work may be a good option to help others.  People who need your support will surround you with their gratitude.  Concentrating on the religious part of the holidays makes you think deep about life and become a wiser person.

  

In The End

Preparing for the holidays often takes many hours, but a holiday is a day filled with 24 hours. It will pass by like any other day. The next dawn will bring a new morning and new beginning. The holiday will become a part of your past made up of (hopefully) happy memories.  

No matter how stressful the holiday season can be, it brings color to our life. Only we can create holiday spirit for ourselves. Every December, the same story repeats itself but there is always a place for the hope of holiday magic. “ … The holidays are not over yet… Who knows…”, what magic awaits us this year?

Health, Happiness, and Harmony

Kay

References

Healthy Lifestyle Stress Management. (2017, Sept.16). In Mayoclinic. Retrieved December 4, 2017 from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20047544

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