Dealing with Christmas Stress

Ho! Ho! Ho! 

The Christmas season is here. A season with love all around, family, gifts and a lot of laughter. And so is the Christmas Stress. We know it can be exhausting too. Just the anticipation of meeting family after a long time, buying the right gift and the social anxiety of meeting so many people can be draining. Here is how you can deal with Christmas stress this year like a boss.

Christmas Stress Relievers

The festive season isn’t the same for everyone. Identifying what triggers your stress can help. Let’s see how we can deal with a few common triggers.

Family

Though family time is supposed to be the best part of the holiday season, you can feel overwhelmed being around so many people at once. If you are meeting your family after a long time, you can feel disassociated too. When you feel overwhelmed, take a break by going out for a walk, feeling the cold breeze on your face or listening to your favorite music. Clear your mind and come back after a small meditation. You can use Wysa for some mindful meditation exercises.

Sometimes you even end up comparing yourself with other family members and start worrying about it. It’s not easy to snap out of it, but, remember you are on your own journey of life. Your story is yours, unique and not worthy of comparison. 

If you are spending the festive season away from family, don’t stop yourself from celebrating. Celebrate the season like you would do with your family anyway.  Video call them, send them gifts, let them know you miss them. You can always go out with others spending their holidays away from family. 

Gifting

It’s a very good time to reflect on what a gift really means to you- 

Wait, you bought me a present? Why would you do such a thing? I know you think you’re being generous, but the foundation of gift-giving is reciprocity. You haven’t given me a gift, you’ve given me an obligation

 -Sheldon Cooper (From the sitcom Big Bang Theory) 

Deciding on a gift can be stressful. You want to give the most personal and thoughtful gift to everyone you love but that’s not always possible, right? You can always go old school and make handmade gifts or buy a common gift for everyone and write a personalized handwritten message on it.  After all, Christmas is all about love and warmth.

Try and avoid last-minute gift shopping, putting in some effort will not only make the other person happy but also save you a lot of money. 

The greatest gift you can give someone is your time, your attention, your concern.

-Joel Austine

Also, you can make smarter choices with everything, reusing decorations from last year, preplanning all your expenditure and not going broke, everything!

Grief

Let’s face it, every year our life changes so much. As we grow older, a lot more loss and heartache follows. Especially when it comes to people we have spent good times with. We miss them and they leave a void in our hearts. Dealing with this during the season can take a lot of strength and we are with you on this. Find people around you to share your feelings with and be kind to yourself. Write thank-you notes for all the memories they’ve given. Let it all out, cry or wear their favorite jewel or jacket in their memory. Grief is a very personal emotion and everyone has different ways to cope with it. Do everything that makes you feel good, it’s okay.

The festive season is beautiful. It’s the end of one revolution around the sun, you directly or indirectly grow in this period. It is a good time for us to retrospect the year and start a new chapter again. Spread love, practice gratitude for everything you experienced and everyone whose presence made our lives better.

We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New yearrr!

In case you are looking out for some awesome gift ideas, we have something very special for you; this year you can gift a Wysa therapy session to your loved ones; Please take a moment and observe the people around you and if they are going through a hard phase or need that extra help, do not hesitate; gift them a therapy session for as low as $30 and make a difference.