I confessed about my holiday blues to those closest to me. My best friend offered: “Don’t you think that it could just be that the world is so forked right now?” (She didn’t say forked, but you get the idea.) Yes, quite possibly, that could be it. Or at least part of it.
When I told my kids I was feeling sad and asked what they do when they feel that way, they were ready with practical solutions. “I feel happy when I eat candy,” my 6-year-old suggested. “You could eat more candy!” My 8-year-old also had an idea: “I’m happy at Dave and Busters!” he remarked. “You could take us there!” Well played, son.
My husband was concerned when I admitted to my lagging Christmas spirit, but he seemed to get to the heart of my needs. “Can I get you anything from Target?” he asked. Smart man.
The holidays are a time of high emotional demands and equally high expectations, according to the American Psychological Association. A 2014 survey showed that while people love the holidays, as I do, these dates on the calendar also arrive with mixed emotions, such as fatigue, stress, irritability, and sadness. Thirty-eight percent of participants said their stress level went up during the holiday season. Sounds familiar.
The National Alliance of Mental Illness offered some advice for getting through this time. They suggest that if holidays were a distinct time in the past and you try to recreate that, you are setting yourself up for sadness. They propose creating new memories and moving forward in ways that establish a ‘new tradition’ of happiness.
I love this idea.