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Mental health at this time of year
For many people, including me, this time of year can be a challenge on the mental health side of things. Personally, I don’t do Christmas or New Year in the traditional or typical way, and I find the upheaval & societal expectations quite hard work and sometimes very isolating.
I’m leaving this post here as a note to anyone reading who Is in the same or similar situation: please drop me a line if you want to talk about anything, whether or not it’s related to this time of year. I guarantee discretion and full confidence, you have my word on that. If you want to reply to this post publicly, please go ahead.
I haven’t contributed as much as I would have liked to Textpattern this year, for a variety of reasons, but I’m here if anyone wants to talk, regardless of the reason.
Thanks for reading.
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Re: Mental health at this time of year
Thanks for posting :)
To whomever might feel concerned: I solved the problem by considering that the winter solstice acts as the end of a cycle / start of a new one (like in the New Year), and is also a rebirth (like Christmas) since the days get longer.
The icing on the cake: I feel privileged these days, between December 22nd and January 1st, to benefit from additional days that do not belong to one year or the other.
Does it make sense?
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Re: Mental health at this time of year
Yes, thanks both for posting. I like how you’ve found a bonus, CeBe! Yes, it makes sense. And gaekwad, you’ve contributed plenty, whereas I’ve accepted my technical abilities are not so good and I don’t particularly want to improve them at the expense of other sides of my life, so I contribute little to my favourite CMS.
I went for a walk on Christmas Day and the first few people crossed over the road or avoided eye contact. Not very Christmassy, so I started saying “Merry Christmas” to everyone I passed. Most looked surprised to be greeted by another human being they didn’t know. Just two out of about 30 responded with big smiles.
I’m not a very outgoing person, so Christmas Day gave me an excuse to take the initiative rather than just be responsive. New Year’s Day is a similar opportunity where I might get away with laying my inner contentment on others :-)
It was good that so many people were out walking on Xmas Day. I had a hernia for over 12 months which greatly restricted my exercise options, and it has been such a relief to get it repaired and be able walk around the hills again and lose weight. For me, exercise has done me the world of good physically and that has in turn helped my mental health too.
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