5 Ways You Can Prioritize Your Mental Health During The Holidays
The holiday season is a bustling time filled with many obligations. Friendsgiving celebrations, gift shopping, Christmas parties and other special events take over our already busy schedules and consume our day to day lives. While the holiday season can be a wonderful, cheerful and festive time for most, it can also be extremely overwhelming and can take a real toll on our mental health. It’s important to be aware of your mental well-being and prioritize it during the holiday season.
Why Your Mental Health Should Be A Priority
In the midst of all of the holiday frenzy and cheer, our mental health may drop lower on our list of day to day priorities. But our psychological well-being should always be a top priority — even during a season that consists of giving and spending quality time with our loved ones.
Mental health should remain a priority during the holidays because a fully-booked schedule and constant daily demands can easily overwork us and overstimulate our brains. This added level of busyness can activate stress that we may or may not realize is affecting us, both mentally and physically.
Prioritizing Your Mental Health During The Holidays
Focusing on and prioritizing mental health during the holidays can often be a difficult task, because there’s usually a number of things that can weigh on us during this time of year and, ultimately, affect our well-being. Party planning. Budgeting and buying gifts. Traveling. Time spent with others or time spent alone. Meeting expectations. All of these things and more can induce stress and negatively affect us.
Set Realistic Expectations
One way to prioritize your mental health during the holidays is to set realistic expectations. The holidays don’t always go according to plan. Travel may get delayed, yearly traditions may change and family tensions may run high. It’s important to not dwell too much on what’s changed, and rather be realistic and present to make the most of the current season.
Set Boundaries for Yourself
Going right along with setting realistic expectations — set boundaries for yourself. The busyness of the season and the expectations to attend countless social gatherings can be anxiety-inducing, negatively affect our mental health and, overall, just feel like too much. It’s not realistic to attend multiple parties every single day or week, and those who truly care about you and your well-being won’t be upset if you can’t make it to a couple social gatherings. Tell yourself it’s ok to say “no” and allow yourself time to relax and reset with self care or alone time in order to maintain your mental health goals.
““It’s not realistic to attend multiple parties every single day or week, and those who truly care about you and your well-being won’t be upset if you can’t make it to a couple social gatherings.””
Maintain Your Routine
Another way to prioritize yourself and your mental health during the holiday season is to maintain your routine. It’s easy to fall out of our daily habits during the holidays, but our bodies tend to need to stick to some sort of routine as a means to stay grounded. Sticking to this consistent regimen can help ease the craziness of the holiday season and, ultimately, help us manage our mental health.
Incorporate Healthy Habits
Make sure you’re still incorporating healthy habits in your day to day life. Get plenty of rest. Maintain your morning routine. Eat food that fuels your body. Continue getting in some form of daily movement or exercise. Don’t abandon all of your healthy habits or the things that keep you grounded. This will help you manage your feelings and help you remain in control of your life despite how hectic the season is. Practice mindfulness and self care, however that may look to you, and just listen to yourself and your body’s mental and physical cues.
Reach Out for Help
If you’re struggling to manage your mental health all on your own, reach out for help. Above all else, seeking help from a close friend, family member and/or mental health professional is a great way to alleviate the stress that comes with the holiday season. It’s easy to think you’re alone in feeling these things, but countless other people feel the same way that you do during the holidays.
““It’s easy to think you’re alone in feeling these things, but countless other people feel the same way that you do during the holidays.””
You shouldn’t be ashamed to acknowledge these emotions and talk to someone about them. Not working through these thoughts and feelings can induce even more stress, and unresolved stress weighing on us can cause long-term side effects for both our psychological and physiological well-being.
Overall, it’s important to be honest and realistic with yourself (and others) about what you’re feeling this time of year. It’s perfectly normal to feel overwhelmed during the holidays, but when the stress of the season leaves you feeling anxious, bogged down and outweighs the feelings of good tidings and cheer: it’s essential to take a step back, cut out what’s not serving you and prioritize your mental health. Putting your mental well-being first will help you slow down, ease stress and allow you to enjoy the spirit of the season.