Holiday Resilience

The holidays are, first and foremost, a joyful time. During the holidays, people report many positive emotions such as happiness (78 percent often), love (75 percent often), and high spirits (60 percent often).* However some holiday stress is just inevitable. Our normal schedules are disrupted. Kids are out of school but work doesn’t stop for most of us. Constant advertising reminds us of the celebrations and gifts we wish we could afford vs. the ones we actually can. Travel and family time can seem more like a chore than a treat.

Most people in the United States feel they are doing little different during the holidays than other times of the year to manage their stress. The vast majority of individuals (81 percent) say they do nothing different to manage their stress during the holidays. For some of us, comfort eating increases during the holidays. During the year, one in four people in the United States agrees that “when I am feeling down or facing a problem, I turn to food to help me feel better.” During the holiday season, this percentage increases to one in three people in the United States.* Staying resilient during the holiday season can be a real challenge for many of us.

Here are a couple of quick tips for staying resilient and creating new memories over the holidays:

• Remember what’s important (and not) about the holidays
• Embrace the added socializing—relationships make us healthier, and those extra people at the table can/should add extra hands for the extra work
• Take time for yourself and do things that calm (listening to music, taking walks, hobbies, sitting still and focusing on breath for 10 minutes/day)
• Write down what you’re grateful for on a daily basis (in a journal, on scraps of paper for a special jar, etc.)
• Have realistic expectations
• Talk directly about concerns (if politics turn family dinners into wrestling matches, talk about that ahead of time and agree to try to leave the most contentious topics at the door)
• Laugh out loud
• Sleep well

These tips can help you stay resilient and present this holiday and will give you a fresh opportunity to build positive memories with family and friends!

~Happy Holidays Everyone!

*SOURCE