Anticipating the post-holiday blues?
They’re already here!
It’s December 30, 2024, with one day left before the calendar turns to 2025. I hope each and every one of you enjoyed the holidays, whether it was Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule or whatever it is you might celebrate.
I am blessed to have spent time with friends and family, especially both my kids and two grandkids. My life is good, and I’m feeling healthy.
I know I have much to be thankful for, yet why, oh why, are the post-holiday blues already creeping into my psyche? The holidays are not even over yet, and I’m feeling depressed.
The articles on how to beat these blues are plentiful, but a helpful item was from Psychology Today.
Margaret Wehrenberg, a licensed psychologist, explains the post-holiday blues are probably not actually depression, but a mood that is created by the sudden loss of the frenetic activity that has kept us busy for the last couple of months or so.
. . .the preparations, the socializing, the travel, the family visits. . . Then — suddenly — it’s over. It’s done.
That makes sense: Today was the first morning I woke up with nothing on my calendar, and the depressed feeling was taking hold.
Here’s her suggestion: Instead of calling it depression,
. . . if you define this feeling as loss, you can find a way to correct it and resolve this unhappy feeling.
Once you put it in perspective, you can tackle it by consciously shaking off the low mood. There’s nothing new or earth shattering about her advice, and I bet you have seen it before, but if you could use a lift, why not give it a try:
Talk to someone. Get out of the house. Exercise. Plan something. Cook something.
Just get active. In my case, I started with write something. No surprise there!
Next is putting together a shopping list for some groceries, including what I need for apple oatmeal and then going to the store for ingredients. An older post in the same genre (with recipe) follows. Enjoy and don’t let the blues get to you.
January blues..
January can be bleak. The holidays and Christmas trees are gone; it’s cold, sometimes really cold, especially in the morning as it has been these last couple of weeks, and the short days turn to nights way too early. Dark mornings don’t help; if you’re up at 6 a.m., you’re up before the birds are even out. (Sunrise today was 7:17, and it was 3 degrees.)