How to Maintain Your Mental Stability Throughout the Holidays
The holidays are a challenging time for everyone. On the one hand, it is a time full of cheer, love, and celebration. Regardless of your beliefs, the holiday season is one of the few times of the year when families get together and spend time with one another.
Unfortunately, the holiday season is a very trying time for a lot of people, especially in the economically challenged times we are living in right now. As a result, I thought that I would write a quick post to discuss five things that you should do to help maintain your mental stability over the holidays.
1. One of the main reasons people struggle with the holidays is because of money. We feel obligated to buy gifts for others and usually spend much more than we intended. Most of the time, this is a stress that we impose on ourselves. No one says, “When you buy me a gift, make sure you spend a lot of money.” As a result, it is important to be economical and realistic about gift giving. For those outside of your family, a nice card is usually sufficient to express your love and appreciation for them. For those in your family, a family picture or other homemade gift could be given instead of a costly store-bought present. When buying for your children, I understand that gifts are “necessary.” However, remember that their expectations on gifts are only as high as you set them. That is, there is no reason to imply to them that they will get a $900 ATV when you can only afford a $50 remote control car. To give you a ball park, there are those who suggest spending no more than 1% of your annual income on Christmas gifts. Therefore, if you make $50,000 per year, you should only spend a total of $500 on gifts.
2. Another way people get stressed in the holiday season is because they become over committed. That is, they keep saying, “Yes.” Unfortunately, the more one says yes, the more one has to do. There are those families in which one person agrees to make dinner for the entire extended family. There are those families in which one person agrees to host three holiday parties and get-togethers. This stretches not only monetary resources, but also one’s mental and emotional resources. While I know that it is nice to be the one the rest of the family can rely on to make things happen, remember, that there are times in which the best thing that you can do for yourself, is to say, “No.”
3. Time is another huge issue for families this time of year. In fact, it is such an important issue, that it makes up 2 of the 5 issues that I am talking about. The first issue with time is related to how you delegate your time. Many people plan with the idea that there are 24 hours in a day. While this is true, there are in fact 24 hours in a day, it is important to remember that all 24 hours are not usable. You have to sleep and you have to eat. In all, you only have about 16 usable hours in a day, and that reduces to 8 if you work full time. Therefore, it is important that you delegate your time accordingly. Do not expect to do 8 hours worth of work in 2 hours. Be wise and don’t be afraid to ask for help!
4. The second time-related issue has to do with quality. A great deal of time can be saved if you use your time wisely. For example, when shopping for gifts, it is important to create a list of gifts before going shopping. If you are an internet person (if you are reading this post, I assume that you are), you know that most stores have websites. Explore websites to find which stores have the items on your list and make note of which stores you need to visit. This will save you considerable time, as you will not have to go store to store looking for a particular item. This quality use of your time will help with your frustration, save you time, and will probably even save you money!
5. Finally, to combat those holiday blues, it is important to remember the true reason for the holiday. Despite your heritage and particular celebratory activities, the holidays are here as a time of joy and cheer. They are not intended to see who can spend the most money, who can do the most for the family, or got the biggest present. The holidays are here to close out the year on a positive note. To reflect on the past year and make plans for the next. Sit with your family and talk about the good things that happened over the past year and come up with ideas for how to make next year even better!
I want to wish everyone a happy holiday and remember, if you aren’t happy, you can’t make anyone else happy!
Dr. B
Dr. Berney administrator
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