Now that the holiday are coming to an end the post-holiday blues may be setting in. This could happen for a number of reasons: family leaving, weight gain, adrenaline let down, disappointment, etc. For me, the holidays are so much fun because I get to spend time with my entire family. I literally look forward to Christmas dinner at my grandmother’s house for weeks. Then, Christmas night, I literally feel like everything is over and I want it to keep going. So how do you deal with these post-holiday blues in a healthy way?
1. Get Outside
I know that it is freezing outside this time of year (I live in Maine!), but sometimes the fresh air is just what you need to break out of a funk. Take a walk, snowshoes, go swimming (if you can do this right now I envy you!), go skating, play catch, etc. Get outside, get moving, and embrace what is now rather than thinking about what has passed.
2. Organize
I personally am an organizing freak when it comes to getting new things. I go through my closet, my shoes, my bathroom, and anywhere else that needs to be updated. Getting new things is the perfect time to update, replace, throw away, or rearrange your space. Focus your mind and your energies on making things look pretty and fresh. Hang up some new pics that you took over the holidays to remind you of how much fun you had. Don’t dwell on the fact that the fun is over, focus on the fun that you had!
3. Call a Pal
Sometimes just talking with a pal after the holidays is a way to bust out of those post-holiday blues. We are so surrounded by people during the holidays that a feeling of loneliness can certainly settle in after the festivities are over. Make a date to meet a friend for lunch or ask your mom to come help you with that organizing. Keeping your mind busy with friends and family is the perfect way to combat the loneliness and the blues.
4. Get in a Workout
So maybe you skipped a few workouts during the holidays due to your packed schedule. Completely understandable since what could be more important than spending time with your friends and family. The gym or the great outdoors could be exactly the medicine you need to cure those post-holiday blues. Getting back into your normal routine will help and the gym could allow you to be around people or the outdoors could offer the peace you crave. Exercise is one of the most underutilized anti-depressants, so make sure to utilize it!
5. Clean Up Your Diet
There is no need to crack down on a whole new plan for the new year. Just getting back to your regular healthy eating habits can be tough after the holidays, but it can also help you get back into your typical routine. For me, being thrown off my routine just flat out throws me off. I am not exactly what you call good at going with the flow, so being back in control of my routine definitely helps to battle back those blues.
6. Try Something New
Sometimes trying something new is a great way to kill those post-holiday blues. Take a skiing lesson, take a cooking class, try a new restaurant, try a new entree at your favorite restaurant, etc. Google “fun things to do” in your area. Be a tourist for a day. Get up and out of the house so that you keep your body and your brain busy! Not to mention, you may learn something about your area or yourself that you never knew before!
7. Start a Side Hustle
The holidays can certainly be hard on the wallet. What is hard on the wallet is hard on the mind. Before Christmas, we get so excited about the gifts that sometimes we don’t seriously analyze the financial hit that we take. You may think that you always make things work and that this is super special. That is 100% true, but those post-holiday blues can have you fainting at the sight of your bank account. Check out this post from Making Sense of Cents on ways to side hustle your ways to a few extra dollars this month to take a weight off your wallet and your mind!
There you have it. My seven absolute favorite ways to battle against the post-holiday blues. Do you have ways that you deal with post-holiday blues? Drop them in the comments so that I can check them out!
