05/12/2025
Tips to keep you Emotionally Resilient during this Festive season.
Emotional resilience during this holiday period is a very much needed skill. This should be a time of fun, and celebration but in fact is often a time of stress. Family members are thrown together, and they may not really get along with each other, but “for the sake of the family’ they make a big effort to make things work. This comes at an emotional cost- usually to the so-called bigger person.
Does this sound familiar? So what can you do to help yourself during this time?
According to the Resilience Institute we need these 3 things to ensure our resilience:
• Bounce – navigate stress through awareness and deliberate action.
• Secure well-being – activate calm, build rhythm, and generate energy.
• Perform – connect deeply, focus attention, and find flow.
Resilience is built through many things, but if you forget the details- just remember this one thing- SELF CARE.
How can I keep myself emotionally healthy during the Christmas Break?
The ways we build resilience are very personal. What works for one, may not work for another person. Using the above framework, here is a more practical application. You know most of these things- the trick is to apply them. Work out a plan in advance, and keep to it. Here are a few tips for you:
• Make sure that you have some time away from the family group, so you can re-group!
• Exercise gently- don’t push it
• Walk away if things get too much for you- go to your bedroom, or out for a quiet walk around the block.
• Meditation ( there are many guided meditations on Youtube- just put in a topic and a time and you will be amazed at the choices which come up for you)
• Don’t drink too much- we mistakenly think it will help us cope, but often it allows the volatile side of ourselves to come out!
• Concentrate on spending time with those members of the family you really get on well with. Connection , real connection, builds resilience too.
• And the most important of all- Breathe! When you feel that things are getting too much you can quietly do some deep breathing-making sure your “out” breath is longer than your “in” breath.
Do you have any other tips which have helped you in the past? Please share them, as they may be just the thing another person needs to hear.