MANY of us will be feeling a painful pinch in the pocketbook after this long dry spell, and perhaps feeling frustrated or depressed that this holiday will not be all you hoped for. To compound the stress, you might feel like the odd one out in a sea of happy people.
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According to Farm-Link co-ordinator, Meg Perceval, you are not alone, and it is OK to feel down at the holidays. In fact, acknowledging your feelings might be first step to healing. She urged people who are struggling to be gentle with themselves at this time of year.
Meg and her team travel state-wide to offer workshops to aid rural families with the suicide-prevention program, SCARF. There are six tenets within SCARF to build resilience against dark thoughts about life. At the holidays, checking in with these factors could help. Firstly, holidays can undermine healthy eating, and Meg said it might be hard to keep track of your food and alcohol intake, impacting on physical and emotional health.
“Sure indulge and enjoy, but try not to too much overindulge, or try to keep some balance there with diet, which includes alcohol,” she said.
If you have packed in a bit more than usual, a second SCARF point about exercise could counteract the kilos, but also aid emotional health. Meg said your routine might be disrupted, but grab a friend or family member and got moving.
“We always say five minutes is better than none. Even if you’re not doing what you’d regularly do, in terms of physical exercise, do something. Something will make you feel better than nothing.”
Meg said exercise can also aid in getting the sleep we need, another necessary factor in keeping healthy. So is looking after our personal environment. If things seem to be falling into disrepair around us, baby steps toward improvement can go a long way.
Keeping socially connected is another key to mental health. Often reaching out might make all the difference to another person alone or in pain, and giving can give us a sense of meaning and purpose. Meg said giving to others is proven to help us feel better.
“There are a lot of lonely, sad people around at Christmas, so you might be feeling alone and miserable, and things aren’t great, but chances are someone else is even more miserable,” she said. “So reaching out to them, having a cup of or even a phone call, a text message saying ‘Happy Christmas’ can really make someone feel like, ‘I do matter, I do belong, someone does care about me even if I am on my own.’”