Thanksgiving Cancelled?

Undoubtedly, COVID-19 is putting a damper on your 2020 Thanksgiving plans. Between limiting household numbers and guests, adhering to curfews, and the overwhelming anxiety of the potential uninvited invisible guest called COVID-19, this year will be unlike any other year. Many people are upset, sad, confused, and experiencing general feelings relative to grieving the loss of tradition. There is no easy way to process the unrest surrounding this year’s holidays. So how can we go about feeling any sort of joy, happiness, excitement, or comfort this holiday season? Unfortunately, this is not easy to accomplish. However, there are several tips and activities one can engage in to improve their holiday spirits.

1. Engage in mindfulness activities such as yoga, meditation, prayer, or journaling and monitor your day to day emotional wellbeing. Use the time to reflect and organize your internal functioning. Learn to monitor your daily activities and the impact they have on your feelings. For example: Engage in 5 minutes of emotional “check-ins” when you wake up. Write down how you are feeling and what your general mindset is. Keep track of your daily activities and then “check-out” at the end of the day by writing down your feelings as you go to bed. This will allow you to gain insight into how your daily engagements are effecting your day to day happiness. Take the additional time from the “reduced holidays” to invest in yourself and your activities.
2. Sounds cliché but develop a Thanksgiving gratitude journal. The majority of our information intake is negative whether it be from the news, social media, or communications with family and friends. Try to alter your mindset and take time to write down the positives in your life. Sometimes it can be hard to feel like anything is going “right” but that is due to the fact that negative emotions have a more overwhelming valence and are easier to identify. It takes time and effort to recognize positives and shift one’s mindset. Try setting aside the time this holiday season.
3. Embrace the restrictions! Yes, you read that right. The “idea” of the restrictions is to help us better protect our loved ones. Take some time to identify all the people that you normally see on Thanksgiving and let them know how important they are to you by either writing them a letter or calling them and telling them. If you have children, create crafts with them that express love to family members and friends that you will not see this year.

Remember, anger and frustration are secondary responses likely from the pain of not seeing the ones you love. So embrace love and make sure the people in your support system can feel it. Expressing love to others is one of the most rewarding experiences. Do your best to filter through the negativity this year and channel deeper connections through distance. This is a great year to invest in ourselves, develop strength, understanding, and address the thoughts, emotions, and feelings that we normally would chose to suppress or ignore.
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If you would like to connect with one of our psychologist to better address the difficulties of this time, please contact Vitalize Behavioral Health and Psychometrics by visiting our website www.vitalizepsych.com or calling today at (559) 801-8944.