THE GREAT CHRISTMAS CRASH AND BURN - Can you avoid it?

Dec 22

It’s pitched as the most wonderful time of the year. It’s the season to be jolly, the time of year when everything and everyone is merry and nice.

But is it really like this?

Christmastime often brings with it a huge amount of expectation and pressure. The commercialisation of Christmas and the holiday season leads to so many people feeling they have to prepare the most extravagant festivities, conforming to what they see on adverts, films and social media. The appearance of having the happiest of all Christmas’s is the ultimate goal, something you can post and share with personal satisfaction and relief.

The issue with this is that for many of us, this picture perfect Christmas isn’t possible.

Reality is that so many people have to work right up to Christmas, sometimes not finishing until the evening of Christmas Eve itself. With many having only one or two days off before heading back into retail jobs, while for others in the service industry, there is no bank holiday closure with business as usual right the way through the whole holiday period. These hard working people know what they want their Christmas to be like. They frantically try to prepare it to be that way, whilst working non-stop and adding far too much onto their already overfilled plate.

If it’s not work piling up the stress, maybe it’s family, relationships, money or other challenges you have in your life right now. Perhaps the kids are older and off doing their own thing for Christmas, leaving you yearning for the days when they counted down sleeps to Santa. Or maybe your kids are still young, causing more positive challenges, with their constant raised energy and excitement levels!

This time of year means so many things to each of us. It is often a time remembered through the traditions of our childhood that we are eager to replicate, giving us the sense of comfort we felt as children. A time that can stir so many emotions and feelings that envelope us in melancholy, remembering loved ones and special past times.

The event itself might not even be what’s causing you to feel total burnout. Lots of us work the latter part of the year forward looking to the Christmas season, when you hopefully get a break from work, or can break free from the year you can’t wait to see the back of. We pin so much on getting to this crucial point of the year, when we can take time off from reality. Spend time with family and loved ones, experience those traditions that comfort us, looking ahead at the hope a new year brings. Leaving behind everything we’re trying to avoid or run away from.

Pinning so much on this season and time of the year can cause so much stress without you realising it. Wanting it all to be perfect - in whichever way perfect looks for you - creates pressure and often unachievable expectations. Telling yourself how everything will be great and exactly as you want it to be, but struggling to make it come together leads to you punishing yourself with feelings of failure and lack of self worth. It all plays havoc with your health and wellbeing.

So, can you avoid this burnout, and is it even possible when from every corner there’s the perfect Christmas story and happy end of year tale being thrown in your face?

The answer is yes; but it won’t be easy.

Begin by thinking about what Christmas and the upcoming couple of weeks mean to you and why they matter in this way to you. Get crystal clear on what you want to get out of the season and why. Don’t be afraid to make changes if you realise you actually want and like something different to what you were planning.

Secondly, think about what is realistic. Sounds simple, but it’s something many of use fail on at the first hurdle. We have the vision in our mind so we just go all out to make it happen. Without working out if we’ve got the time to actually achieve the tasks we need to do, if we have the money to buy what we need, whether we have the support around us, if we can commit to making it happen. The crash and burn so often comes because we’re striving for something that is so far out of reach that we were never going to be able to get to it, but we weren’t aware of that. We push ourselves to make it happen and when we don’t get what we want or expect, it feels like total failure on our part.

It’s crucial for you to take care of you. This isn’t something you need to do just now, in the run up to the big day or end of year so you avoid burn out. It’s something you need to be doing year round; every day. Making self care part of your lifestyle through good daily habits will keep you healthy and well, so that you aren’t surviving for months just to get to Christmastime for everything to stop and enable you to feel like you again, for a few short days. To then start the New Year bright and energised, ready to go again.

Take steps every day to build good, strong mental and physical health. This way, even when the pressure might be on at this or any other time of the year, you have tools in your box to pull out and use, to make sure you handle it with calm and resilience. Without it negatively impacting your wellbeing.

Recognise through the final part of next year if you’re desperately waiting for the Christmas break to come along to ‘save’ you and release you from whatever it is that’s causing you to feel so run down and in need of recovery. The season and all it brings isn’t here to rescue you. It’s here for you to reminisce over the traditions you’ve enjoyed through the years, spend time with friends, family and loved ones, and show kindness to those who matter the most - including yourself.