The push for excitement and happy happy is
over. The clean house is back to messy,
even messier if you cooked a big meal for company. The danged fresh Christmas Tree is pitifully
dropping its needles all over your rug.
The fake tree is looking pitiful with all the presents gone from
beneath. Mother Nature may decide to be
gray, snowy, dark, and people start taking down their lights so it can look
dreary. We have to plan ahead or sink
into apathy, and a different kind of lonely feeling can take over. It is normal.
It can feel like a huge letdown.
The feeling of 'nothing to do', 'nothing to look
forward to, is very natural. You have crumbs of cookies all over the
house. Everyone ate all the best
chocolates. And, you are danged sick of
turkey this and turkey that. Festive
feelings fade. And, if you had something 'out of the ordinary mundane' during
Christmas, you are most likely really tired, and everyone brought their own
kind of flu and colds, so you might even feel sick. Maybe you got so into Christmas you did not
plan anything for New Years so, really, nothing to look forward too for sure.
routines are off and you just do not have the physical and emotional energy to
do much. Yup, normal! So, if you usually
find yourself with Winter Blues, this can become a huge issues so what can we
do to make sure we start off positive for this new decade?
Do something that makes you laugh. Be around people who make you laugh. Watch a
funny movie. Read an awesome book. I have saved The Testament to read through
these after-holidaying blues. Have a tree un-decorating party. It is said that it is bad luck to leave your
tree up after 12 nights after Christmas Day (The Epiphany, when the three Wise
men were supposed to show up with gifts for the baby. I don't know, but some believe this.) If you can, have a bonfire for the real trees
and invite others over to sit around the popping pine-tree fire. Don't allow yourself to be miserable.
Refuse to allow listless feelings to seep in. Take yourself out of your comfort zone. Go do some post-Christmas sales'
shopping. Set yourself up a scavenger
hunt. Go see what people throw out on to
the curb, free for the taking. Get
active. Do not slip easily back into
your same old, same old, routines. Since
you have to clean yet again, rearrange rooms.
Prolong the mundane as long as you can.
If you are a comfort food eater, give away, do
something with all the chocolates and goodies.
Freeze them for later times. Do
something to get yourself out of your kitchen.
Take some vitamin B12 that many of us lack after binging, staying up
late, celebrating in general, as it is a mood booster. Make some chunky soups with lots of colorful
vegetables. Don't be tempted to eat away the blues. When you get restless, go for a walk, a
stroll, just go outside and stand and look at the stars, the last lights of
Christmas, something out of doors.
Keep as much light going, in the house, as long as
possible. Light candles, do something
that creates more light, replacement lights, once the tree is down. Refuse to feel sad. Heck, celebrate normality and make
adjustments in house decor that adds more light.
Distract yourself.
Write down, in your day planner, something you can do each day, for the
mid-week between Christmas and New Years, for someone else. Be totally selfless. Post-Christmas Blues come because we focus on
Self. Volunteer to do something for
others. Offer to help at soup
kitchens. Distract yourself with as much
positive compassion and selflessness as you can.
Consider a new hobby. I have started crocheting a huge throw and
intend on keeping my hands too busy to eat, too busy to slip back into normal
Netflix, tv, painting, whatever I do usually.
Do not let the magic disappear in a poof with the garbage truck full of
boxes and bows. Force yourself to be
refreshed, not depressed. I have a desk day planner and a purse planner I am
coordinating and make prettiful. I can
spend hours doing that. I can spend
hours putting in important dates and I found some fun stickers to pretty them up. I have always had day planners ( the teacher
in me) and this year I found a couple of awesome ones.
If you did not get new jammies, go buy some flannel,
some fuzzy slippers, a new throw and find ways to have cozy nights. Yes, you
can reflect on the fun stuff and happy stuff that has happened this year. It is the end of a decade. Make a list of some new things to try for
this new decade. Put the ideas in your
day planner, or on a calendar, etc.
Realize that we have many unexpected heightened excitement and try to
find ways to find that throughout the months of this new decade. Be gentle with yourself, but do not be
patronizing to your Evil Inner Grinch.
Find different things to do.
Expect
to enjoy this new decade! Don't set a
bunch of unrealistic goals that you will probably not succeed at and then feel
miserable because you did not succeed in
making them. Examine ways to NOT do
things that you wish you had not in this last decade. Make plans to do things
you have wanted to do but did not. Keep it
real. Life is quirky at best and best
laid plans of man yadda yadda, but do put down some suggestions in your new
journal, art journal, day planner.
Again! Find ways to beat the
blues and EXPECT to enjoy this new decade.
©Carol Desjarlais 12.27.19
No comments:
Post a Comment