Christmas is often seen to be linked with happiness and joy due to the reason for celebration behind it. However, this joy can turn into distress and challenge real soon. There are several reasons that are responsible for the challenges of this season. Moreover, it is totally fine if you are not feeling happy during this festive season. Several studies have shown results that women are more at risk of developing stress in the Christmas season as compared to males. The rough estimate is males 35 percent and female ratio 51 percent.

To learn more about the underlying reasons behind the stress linked with christmas and ways to manage it, continue reading this blog.

Tips To Enhance Your Well-being During Christmas Season

Here are some of the useful tips to keep yourself stress free from the hustle this christmas season.

• Try to connect with people around you regardless of age. This small act will promote a healthy physical and mental well-being over christmas. Additionally, you can improve your social connections with different people by connecting with them and spending time with them. There are several researches that support this concept of connectedness during the Christmas season. The results of these studies have shown significant improvement in blood pressure issues, cardiac issues, cancer, and as well as mental health Christmas.
• Another way is to spend some quality time with yourself or doing things that you enjoy. In this way, you will be able to connect with your mind and body and can practice mindfulness and can stay aware of what you want and how you are feeling.
• Stay active instead of being lazy. This will promote a healthy body and mental health at Christmas. What you can do is, you can walk, run, play a game, gardening if you like, dancing, or even workout. The primary aim is to find an activity you enjoy to indulge in. You can always start with less time such as 10 mins and then move on to increasing the time.

Read More: What’s The Difference Between A Mood Disorder And A Personality Disorder?

• Noticing things is essential to keep yourself connected with your surroundings. You can do this by stopping, pausing, and then taking a moment to understand the surroundings. The benefit of noticing things is that you can precisely look around all the beautiful, new, and astonishing things in your daily routines and shine a light upon how these things can make your life beautiful. For instance, you can notice the rising and falling of your chest while breathing. Furthermore, you can try some advanced ways by trying headspace or calm apps for guided meditation and you can learn how to release the tension within, with such useful activities.
• Learning is the key. One cannot stop learning throughout their lives. With each year passing you learn to be wiser by experiencing different phases in life and then grasping life lessons from them. However, another way of learning new things is to utilize the spare time to learn new skills and make use of them. Some common examples are cooking, why wait for the perfect moment? You can try and learn new recipes this Christmas season. In this way, you can also keep your mind and body in place.
• Mental peace is not attained by doing certain acts. It is also linked with keeping a check on the inward as well. Therefore, connecting your joy with the wider community can be extremely rewarding and will build up the connections with people living around you, no matter if you are physically present there. Giving can be quite simple such as usage of social media in a better and impactful way to share positive messages and support. These little acts can make a day of someone such as an old relative or friend who is sick or living on their own.

Read More: Is Panic Disorder a Disability?

• Learn to say no if there is a need to say it.There are certain things that go beyond your boundaries and therefore, forcing yourself to perform such things can make you stressful. Now, you may also think it is perfect in the Christmas season as you have seen in different movies or social media. In this way you are neglecting mental health over Christmas. However, you can say no to certain things such as:
• Buying extra gifts, decorations, edibles if you think that you have a small budget.
• You can say no to such Christmas parties where you know there will be drugs and alcohol.
• Spending your time with people having a negative attitude or comments that can trigger negative feelings in you.
• You can also be clear and say no to yourself in staying alone.

So How Can You Say No?

If you are facing issues with your finances and therefore, saying no, then several people will acknowledge the fact and will be supportive of you in controlling your money. Additionally, if you have a practicable financial plan you are well aware of the budget you have to buy Christmas gifts and enables you to be aware of your limits. Moreover, if stress is not overlooked on time it can lead to bipolar, anxiety, specific phobia, acute stress, SAD, ADHD, adjustment disorder, and psychosis.

The wise step is to always inform your friends and family beforehand that you do not have enough budget to buy gifts this Christmas season. Moreover, you can always suggest some ideas such as:

• Secret santa game in which an individual buys a present for only one person of the group.
• Buying Christmas gifts only for young ones will aid in keeping a balance between Christmas and mental health.
• Handmade Christmas presents
• You can give time to each other such as helping in house chores, taking care of children, or preparing a meal.

Furthermore, an important aspect of such times is to let young children know that if you are tight on budget this Christmas season. It is not due to their behavior or not due to their fault or wishes.

Read More: ADHD vs Bipolar Disorder: Comparing The Two Conditions

Boycotting Drugs/Alcohol

If you are denying to have a drink particularly drugs, and alcohol at someone’s house. Then you are not required to share the reason with them about why you said no. Just a simple no, thanks. If it is not easy for you to say this, you can instead say:

• You are avoiding alcohol/drugs.
• You can make a valid excuse such as you need to start early the next morning.
• You can volunteer to be an appointed driver.
• You can change the topic to anything else other than alcohol and drugs.
• You can also have a non-alcohol drink instead of an alcoholic drink.

Always remember, If you are surrounded with people who drink and do drugs, it will become tougher for you to avoid alcohol/drugs. What you can do is take a break from such people or plan meetups when they are not organizing drug/alcohol parties, just a simple hangout plan.

Read More: The Vicious Cycle Of Generational Trauma And How It Affects Families

Saying No To The Family Members

This is natural to have a sense of duty to stay with the family in every situation even in the season of Christmas as well. This is the very reason that some people may find it hard to say no to their family members. Now, this is a very logical thought to understand that every family member is made up of different personalities, different perspectives, different viewpoints regarding other family members. Therefore, in several households this is the major reason for conflict. If you can relate with these points, then you should consider the following:

• Spending a little time with them. Let’s say a part of the day with them.
• Avoiding topics that can often lead to conflicts among family members. You can change the topics the moment they are started.
• Keep a check on your alcohol intake as alcohol can reduce your hesitation. And you may be more seen to say and do things that may lead to fights and arguments among and your family members.
• Plan a particular time to go out with your dog or to indulge in any fun activity.

However, another facet of such a situation can be that some people may not have anyone else other than their family members. Therefore, such people may feel lonely and alone and experience an adverse impact on mental health and Christmas. Now, let’s be clear first about the real meaning of being alone. Alone is when you are physically on your own, but deep inside you know that you have people to contact whenever you desire to. And frankly saying this is very normal. However, what is not okay is to feel lonely when you experience the feelings of disconnection from people around you and you wish that there was someone with you to mentally support you, and listen to you.

Read More: Coping Mechanisms For Depression: Practical Strategies To Help You Navigate

Social Media And Stress/Depression

Social media is a great medium of getting in touch with your loved ones in the festive seasons. It also allows you to stay updated with what is happening in the outer world. However, the negative aspect of social media is the FOMO effect.

Many people forget that social media is not the real reflection of people’s lives. People have a choice of what to post and what not to post. Moreover, it is always best to spend more time with your real peers than social media friends. You can have a break from social media by switching off your phone sometimes, or simply putting it aside.

Read More: Understanding ADHD Mood Swings: A Journey Through Emotional Waves

Wrapping Up!

Christmas is no doubt a season of happiness. However, several people feel stressed out due to several underlying reasons. Major financial issues and lack of sense of saying no to many things such as alcohol, or having low budget and still arranging money to fulfil wishes of your family members. However, these stressors can make a person sick and unable to fully enjoy the happiness and joy season. If you feel like you are near to stress out or you are in the phase of tension and stress, then this is the best time to consult with telehealth services of Orange Coast Psychiatry!