Holiday Blues

The holidays can be an especially tough time for so many people.  We all correllate the Yuletide season with decorations, feasting, and the giving of gifts.  Sometimes this season can also harken back to happy childhood memories and feel that life in the present isn't measuring up to that time in your life.  The holidays may trigger bad memories in your childhood or the feelings of grief for those you have lost.  Either way, our lives keep moving and changing in the present.  Every year, though we may think otherwise, it's a whole new ball of wax.  My new outlook is remembering to find joy in as much of the rhetoric as humanly possible.  I have been trying to let each Winter holiday be a new and enlightening experience.

My way of trying to bring the sparkle back into my holiday is to try letting go of feeling that horrible noose called obligation.  Whether it's a certain holiday get together or a holiday tradition that brings you unease, you can often get stuck and lose track of what makes you happy.  What makes you happy in the present often gets shoved back and forgotten during this time of year.  If you take the time to figure out what makes you feel joyful and exercise that, you will have a much better time of it.

When I get toward this time of year, I try to sort out all of the things that give me such a hard time.  If it's memories that you associate with departed loved ones or just the feeling of panic when I have to be around a large crowd of people.  I look for the triggers, so that I can avoid them.  I often think it would be a good time to go on a relaxing vacation during this time of year.  It's as if that is the magic golden ticket that I never really cash in.  Maybe that seems like avoidance, but it seems more like paradise to me.  Paradise would be a nice meal rather than spending a kings ransom on gifts every holiday.

This year I have decided to inject new memories with my husband, my pets, my sisters, and my family, but remember that I am a person with needs as well.  Making sure that stress won't occur may feel insurmountable, but working in some good times can definitely take some of the pressure off and give you some much needed confidence.  It can also lessen up on the frown and worry lines.  I'm going to remember that it's not about stress or gift giving; it's about experiencing the peace and joy of the season.