With a few days approaching the main part of the festive season, it’s easy to feel a little stressed or anxious about family gatherings, what you should do to please others, expectations of a perfect Christmas day – and if you’re lucky enough to have a roof over your head and enough money to survive on (pay the bills. etc…), let alone Christmas presents and food and alcohol to celebrate – you can feel a little guilty about over indulging and eating your weight in dinners, desserts, brunches, lunches and so on.
I’ve covered in a couple of previous posts about managing your daily calorie intake so you can relax a little and also not gain too much weight over the festive season – but to be honest, it’s good to enjoy this part of the year and not put too many restrictions on yourself.
A big part of keeping healthy that is so incredibly important, is your mental health. Below are a few suggestions to look after yourself this coming Christmas & New Year
- Make time to see family and friends, but have some clear boundaries for yourself. If a gathering becomes too overwhelming, have your space
- Don’t spend money you can’t afford to spend. Be clear about this with family, everyone is dealing with the economic crisis at the moment, and Christmas is not a reason to get into debt. Set a budget for yourself.
- When it comes to gifts for people… if you have the disposable income to buy a small gift, ask instead for what the person needs or wants…. it’s a lot less stress for you and sometimes offering to pay someone’s food bill, or money towards electricity, or picking up someone’s friend/family member from the airport or even just going round to someone’s house to keep them company can be more beneficial and mean alot more than a bottle of something. Offering something to someone that they need is also a boost for your moral and will hopefully pass the mentality on that it shouldn’t be all about money spent or fancy presents.
- Yes it’s Christmas… but that doesn’t mean you have to spend your time with toxic people. Spend it with people you want to spend your time with.
- The basics of keeping a healthy lifestyle (getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, trying to keep to some sort of exercise etc etc) still apply and can help with looking after your mental health
- Speak to someone – if you don’t feel you can speak to a friend or family member, contact your GP or look for a local/ NHS counselling or wellbeing service
- If you find yourself alone – (or even if you don’t) volunteer to help a local charity – it will keep you busy and around other people who are hopefully, good company!
If you have tips or advice for looking after yourself this festive period, I’d be interested to know!
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