Dealing with post-holiday blues

For many people January begins a post-holiday let down. People may feel anywhere from a little ‘blue’ to a heavy sadness. It’s pretty understandable, actually, because there’s no immediate holiday to look forward to after Christmas. Instead of songs about Jack Frost, it just feels like winter with colder, cloudy days and early evening darkness. People have taken down their lights and trees and Christmas gift bills have started to arrive. This year may feel worse for some as rates of depression and anxiety increased during the COVID pandemic. Fortunately, there are some really helpful ways to respond to either minimize the ‘doldrums’ or start feeling better.

One approach is to act “as if.” It seems natural to start to withdraw or decrease our activities when we feel down. We may want to wait to feel better before getting more active. However, if we wait to “feel like it,” we are going to miss lots of opportunities to improve our outlook. Staying in your routine whether you feel a desire to or not is its own cure in a way. Eventually, our mood and energy seem to catch up to our bodies and you may prevent your mood or anxieties from getting worse. It may feel hard to keep going, but doing hard things is partly how we get stronger.

Avoid the New Year’s Resolution Trap. We make grandiose goals that are based on a specific outcome like losing weight and don’t consider the specific behaviors that are required to reach the goal. We basically set ourselves up for failure. When we hit any resistance to our new behavior change, we get discouraged and stop the attempt. Or, we don’t see enough progress and revert back to our “over learned” behaviors or old habits. Instead, focus on developing a new habit rather than reaching a certain outcome. Keep track of when you are doing what you desire instead of when you are “being bad.” Notice the small changes along the way to being the person you’d like to be.

Practice gratitude. We literally have a holiday called Thanksgiving, but how much time do we really spend considering our blessings. One sure way to reduce the amount of time thinking about our problems is thinking about what we have to be thankful for. This practice will be even more powerful if we express our gratitude directly to those we appreciate and to Him from whom all blessings flow.

Give in service to others. Hopefully giving and serving others doesn’t end with Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. There are so many needs in our neighborhoods, communities, family and friends that we may be the answer to. Many times we begin a new year by cleaning out and organizing our homes and that can definitely be helpful. I hope our energies are not too inwardly focused, though. Doing something tangible for others offers a real boost in our brain chemistry and seems to increase our overall energy.

We all have low times. Thankfully, there are some things we can do to deal with them as well as possible. Fulfill your purpose this year. Draw near to God and see what happens.