Four Things You Must Do if You Feel Let Down After the Holidays

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Every November, it starts to happen.

In the stores, on the sidewalks downtown, on the television, and even among our own family, we experience a push toward holiday spirit. It’s a gradual build toward Thanks; then Merriment; and finally on December 31, Reveling. It’s all fun (well, mostly fun for most people).

But all good things must come to an end. Many people have told me that starting as early as January 2, they start to feel a sense of grey doldrums. It may be that your Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Hanukkah family gathering didn’t go well. It may be that the Holidays never really met their full potential this year. Or it may be that your holidays were all terrific, and you are now faced with back to regular life: work, school, winter, and nothing special going on.

Most post-holiday doldrums will go away on their own, with time. But there are some things you can do to drive them off faster. I highly recommend fighting back so that your year gets off to a good, solid start. There’s nothing like taking action to make you feel in control of your life and your happiness. Here are Four Tips to put you in charge of your post-holiday doldrums:

  1. Make A Plan: to do something fun. Put it on the calendar, and then you’ll have it to look forward to.
  2. Connect: with a friend or positive person in your life. Meet someone for coffee, or go to a movie. Spending time with people you like and enjoy causes the release of Oxytocin in your brain, which combats sadness.
  3. Fight: against the sense of malaise.  Make yourself get up, get out and do healthy things, like exercise, window shop, look at art in a museum or cook good food for example.
  4. Set a goal: for the New Year,  Choose something that will make you smile when you look back on it on. Check out my blog called “New Year’s Resolution Revolution” for ideas about how to maximize your success.

Don’t let that gray feeling take you over. It’s the best way to get a good start to the year.

Happy New Year

To learn more about Childhood Emotional Neglect, see my first book Running on Empty. 

 

Jonice