How to survive the New Year's euphoria?

Anticipation of the New Year - the moment when the habits of everyday life stop and turn to what? Stories about discounts, lists of what to get before that cataclysmic afternoon on December 31. when the whole world seems to stop. Stories about whether those who have a job managed to "combine" non-working days for New Year's and Christmas. Where to go, with which company, how much it will cost.

New Year's holidays are declaratively valid for the period when the emphasis is placed on devoting time to family and friends, however, in practice they can be realized as a series of social rituals that limit the realization of social relations on a close level - the level of bringing people together, sharing personal opinions, feelings, pleasant and of course unpleasant, with other people.

Holidays can have the opposite effect of the meaning that a priori propagates as a period for showing attention to people who are important to you . The opposite effect means meeting people, but without authentic contact with them. One of the ways in which this effect can occur is the adoption of the imperatives of messages from society and the media about the New Year and holidays. The expectation to be happy and cheerful, that you have to visit to celebrate the New Year, otherwise you will resent your friends and relatives.

When there is something that is interpreted as mandatory, then there is also a mechanism that allows us to do what we said we must - suppression.

New Year is a fixed date, and between two New Years, real life happens, with real emotions - pleasant and unpleasant. It is too much to expect that psychological functioning automatically reacts to the holiday period with cheerfulness, happiness, satisfaction, and the desire to celebrate.

But every end of December brings society's expectations: to be cheerful, to organize outings for guests, to welcome guests, to come up with possible and impossible plans for the next year, to make promises that sound nice. When personal (internal, psychological) events are put aside, and behavior becomes role-playing in the sense of "I am expected to be - a certain way", then begins suppression of how we actually feel, behavior potentially is not synchronized with feelings and desires. That's when the person laughs even though he might be silent, in best case - eats cookies that he doesn't want to so that the hostess doesn't get offended, and some important unpleasant topics leave for the second half of January.

That is why it is important to be and stay in touch with yourself during the holidays, when there are expectations to behave in a "festive" way. It is necessary to give ourselves permission to organize our time as we personally want. Sometimes our mood and desires coincide with the holiday atmosphere, and sometimes not. In the right because of the possibility that they do not match, it is necessary not to forget the importance of contact with your emotions.

Proactive attitude is not calendar bound

The idea of the New Year, the new counting carries a positive element in it - the concept of the new , the possibility of new choices, new possibilities, new ways . All these terms in the context of mental health are proactive , they make you aware that desires that were not fulfilled in a good way for a person can be satisfied by searching and finding a new way.

Author:

Bojana Skoric