How To Beat The
Holiday Blues

'Tis The Season To Be Jolly! Then again...

maybe not! At least, not for some of us.

Sometimes we find that we're just dreading

the whole fun and festive thing. Decking the

Halls doesn't have the allure for us that it

does for others

Maybe, you just got a case of the Holiday

Blues.  Or, maybe you have the blues, but

aren't actually aware that's what's going on.

Here's a list of some of the..

Signs You May Have The
Holiday Blues

Excessive drinking

Eating everything in sight

Or, losing your appetite all together

Not able to fall asleep or stay asleep

Or, finding that you want to sleep all the time

Feeling tired all the time

Procrastination or loss of motivation

Irritability, snapping at everyone

Losing interest in things that you used to enjoy

Difficulty concentrating

Worrying you may be getting Alzheimer's, 'cause you can't remember anything

Feeling sad and feeling guilty for feeling sad

Crying a lot, and not just at sad movies

These are just some of the symptoms of the

Holiday Blues and of course they could also

be symptoms of other health issues. It's

important to listen you what your body may

be telling you.

If you think you may need to, here are

10 Ways To Beat
The Holiday Blues

1. First, lay off the booze! Nothing brings on

the holiday blues like a hangover. You may

think that getting plastered is going to help

you forget whatever problems you're going

through, but alcohol is actually a depressant.

I know it's tempting because at this time of

year alcohol is everywhere; in the eggnog, in

the punch, the open bar at the company

Christmas party. This is where you REALLY

want to stay away from the liquor. Trust me

when I say, staying away from alcohol at this

time of year will actually help keep your

mood up instead of down.

2. Give! - Jesus said it. "It is more blessed to

give than to receive". And he ought to know.

Giving can have a lot of influence on our

mood. It doesn't necessarily need to be

giving of a physical or monetary nature.

Maybe find a place that you can do some

volunteer work, people or animals. Either

one can have a profound effect on your

mood. An abandoned kitty sitting in your

lap, purring. That'll chase those holiday blues

away. A stray doggie wagging it's tail

at you and trying to lick your face. Animals

have been shown to do wonders for our

moods. Maybe, find a group that will be

passing out Christmas gifts to children

spending the holiday in a hospital. Random

acts of kindness can do wonders for your

mood. Putting a smile on someone else's face

will put one on yours as well.

3. Turn Off The TV - I know that I've talked

about this before, but really, just about

everything on television is either bad people

doing bad things to other people, cops

chasing down bad people, lawyers defending

bad people or doctors fixing people who've

had bad things done to them. Promise

yourself that you will only watch uplifting

things on the Tele, assuming you can find

anything. Stick to 'The Hallmark Channel'.

Better still, rent yourself a feel good movie

(that way you can take a break if you need,

love the pause button). I personally don't

watch T.V. I only watch movies from Netflix

or Amazon. I can tell you, when I cancelled

my cable about 10 years ago (yes, it's been

that long) it only took about 2 weeks and I

started to notice a real change not only in my

mood but also in how much better I slept.

4. Get Some Sleep - We've talked about

laying off the alcohol, which totally disrupts

the body's ability to achieve a normal sleep

pattern. Also, try to think of anything that

you may be doing less than 3-4 hours before

you're planning to hit the sack. No sugar, no

caffeine, no exercise (yes, working out close

to bedtime can affect your sleep) no

disturbing movies or TV shows. And here's a

cool tip. I was just reading about the sounds

of nature. Listening to a recording of some

sort can have an amazing affect on our ability

to fall asleep. There are tons of resources out

there so, go get some birds singing, a

babbling brook or maybe some waves

crashing. And if you live in a noisy

neighborhood, this can help drown out the

noise.

5. Move! - No, I don't mean get a new

address. I mean move your body. It doesn't

have to be a full-on workout, though you will

be more apt to get some of those happy

hormones called endorphins flooding your

body. Just get outside and take a nice walk.

Of course if  your neighborhood has less than

desirable walking conditions, head to a park,

with trees and grass and birds and squirrels.

You will also be getting some much needed

sunshine.

6. Yes. Sunshine! - Lack of ultraviolet rays in

the winter time can lead to depression. So, if

you live in a part of the world that sees very

little sunlight in the winter months, Seasonal

Affective Disorder, SAD, may be something

you are dealing with. You can google 'indoor

sunlight for mood' and you'll find a slew of

lights that are not that expensive. The

cheapest one I saw was at Wall-Mart for $35.

Be sure to add 'for mood' otherwise you'll get

lights for growing your plants.

7. Toxic People - Stay away from negative

people (as best you can). There's nothing that

will bring you down quicker than somebody

who complains all of the time about every

little thing. And even worse is when you

have to listen to them complain about other

people. And here's a little tip. If there is

someone that you know who never has a

good thing to say about anybody, then you

can probably figure that when they are with

someone else, they don't have anything good

to say about you  either. I call these 'Toxic'

people. Try your best to eliminate them from

your life (again, if you can). Or at least try to

limit your exposure to them. There's nothing

that will bring on the Holiday Blues quicker

than hanging with a person like this.

8. Don't Over Extend Yourself - If you are one

of those people who just can't say 'no', then

this one may take some work on your part.

Look in the mirror and practice saying. "No,

I'm sorry, but I won't be able to cook a 12

course meal for 25 people all by myself". Or

something like that. It may take some

practice. Don't feel obligated to attend 15

holiday parties in one week. Don't feel that

you have to purchase a Christmas gift for

every single person that you know, casually

or otherwise. When those credit card bills hit

in January, talk about the post-Holiday

Blues! Feeling like you have to do Everything

For Everybody is going to really pile on the

stress. Just say No!

9. Eat Healthy - At least some of the time. It

will be so easy to completely blow your diet

at this time of year. Seems like there are

goodies everywhere you look. Even Trader

Joe's devotes an entire section to all of these

wonderful 'once-a-year' treats. Eating healthy

will be a real challenge but eating healthy

will help to keep you healthy and also keep

you from the depressing holiday weight

gain. If you do decide to just throw caution

to the wind, say "Oh, what the heck" and

then come January when you get on the scale

and you start screaming, check out my article

'7 Tips For Holiday Weight Loss'

10. Count Your Blessings - Yeah, I know,

you've heard this a million times, right? But

really, stop and give it some serious thought.

As a friend of mine once said, "No matter

how crummy things are, they could always

be worse!" If you make an effort, you will

realize that there are sooooo many other

people in the world who wish they had it

half as good as you. I'm not saying that if you

are going through some real trials right now

that you should just be able to pretend they

don't exist. I'm just saying that it can help if

you try to concentrate on what you do have

and not concentrate so much on what you

don't.

These are a few of the ones that I happen to

think just might help with those Holiday

Blues. There are so many more ideas that you

may find helpful, but I knew that if I made

this list much longer, you'd probably get

tired of reading this article. If you would like,

you can google 'How to beat the Holiday

Blues' and you'll find at least a dozen more

ideas.

The point here is, don't just be miserable and

suffer. I don't mean to trivialize whatever

you may be going through right now. You

may not be finding yourself suddenly giddy

with laughter, but my goal here is to give

you some tools and ideas that may just help

make this a time of year where you will be

able to quiet all the noise and focus on what

Christmas is really all about.