5 Tips to Survive the 2020 Holiday Season

Be Mentally Healthy

Brought to you by the Organization for Psychosocial Innovation (OPI)

As the holiday season creeps up on us, we may find ourselves feeling overwhelmed with how to maneuver it amidst COVID-19. Our daily lives have been disrupted, and we now have the added stress of figuring out how to survive the holiday season while still trying to keep safe.

Take Care of Your Body and Mind

During this time of the year, we all normally focus on making other people happy, but it is also, important to give ourselves permission to take care of ourselves. Remember, to get enough sleep, limit the amount of time you spend on social media and do regular mood checks.
Maintain a Routine

The pandemic threw the world into chaos, and disrupted our daily routines. This, coupled with the holiday season might be quite overwhelming for some. Maintaining a sense of normalcy is important to our mental and physical health. We can achieve this by bringing an intentional mindset into our days, and building a daily routine to help us feel more in control and centered.
Make a Priority List

This point is a continuation of the previous. When we are able to maintain and stick to regular routines, and have our priorities in check, we are better able to curb negative feelings that arise as a result of uncertainty, which can lead to anxiety and depression. Setting priorities help as it gives more organization to our daily routines especially, during a time when there is so much chaos and uncertainty.
Connect

If you have not been connecting with friends and family during the pandemic, this might be a good time to reconnect. If you’re still observing social distancing, find creative ways to connect using cards and photos, it may even become a holiday tradition that you continue post-COVID. Connecting with neighbors, family and friends helps us feel like we belong which is a pretty strong predictor of happiness.
Maintain Self-care

In our world today, the stress of holiday season is enough to put us in a state of fight or flight (stress response), which is actually great because it allows us to get things done. However, when we add the stress and anxiety that we’re bringing along due to the COVID pandemic, it becomes a recipe for disaster because we’re now in a continuous state of fight or flight. This is bad for our health, and we’ll find it hard to be at our best in this state (aka chronic stress). We should therefore, put in effort to carve out time for our self-care so that our mental, emotional, and physical health are taken care of.

As you plan for the holidays, we hope the above list helps you breathe, relax and enjoy!

Happy Holidays in advance!

**Feature Image provided by Pexel Free Stock**