The holiday season is a time for pleasure and love, yet it is also a time for loneliness during the holidays. Although people might be together, experiencing emotional distance can even happen in a crowded setting.
Holidays, especially ones like Thanksgiving or Christmas, can be a source of added stress for those who lack emotional support. For this reason, we’ve got six ways on how to cope with loneliness during the holidays.
Understand You’re Not Alone
You might feel utterly alone right now, but rest assured, there are many other people just like you. Tons of people wish they could be with family and others yearn for better relationships with friends.
Even more so, people who don’t have a companion to spend time with may long for a loving romantic relationship. So while feeling lonely can be unpleasant, it’s perfectly normal.
Learning how to cope with loneliness is helpful by talking to others that are experiencing the same thing. You can either speak with someone online or in-person, which helps you feel better about your situation.
Find Some Professional Help With Loneliness During the Holidays
Seeking out a therapist is one method to combat holiday loneliness. A professional can assist you with identifying harmful ways of thinking and provide techniques on how to cope with your feelings. Learning how to cope with loneliness will help you take control of bad habits effectively.
Therapy can help you understand the story you’ve created about yourself and identify any harmful beliefs you’ve made. Then, to help soothe those negative feelings, you can discover positive thoughts as a coping method to add to your life.
Volunteer
Volunteering will make you feel more socially responsible and show you how to cope with loneliness by helping others. Giving to others allows us to put our problems aside.
Volunteering at a shelter for children or a soup kitchen for the homeless can be a very rewarding experience. Helping people in need means a lot to them, and they appreciate people willing to take care of them.
Holidays are a terrific time to connect with one’s faith or with one’s community, so you can look into those volunteer options as well.
Develop New Traditions
It’s easy to remember the holidays from the past when you were closer to family. However, just because your holidays aren’t the same as everyone else’s doesn’t mean they can’t be fun.
Create new holiday traditions that you can undertake by yourself or with a group of friends who are also single. For example, attend a community event, or go to the movies to see the current blockbuster. These new rituals can change your perspective on holidays over time.
Use Proper Coping Methods
Taking a few hours to get your mind off things is great, such as watching a movie. But having a few too many glasses of wine to make you forget your loneliness is not.
Distraction can be beneficial in giving stressed individuals a break. Taking a break from stressful ideas minimizes burnout and helps you cope with difficulties more effectively when you return to them.
On the other hand, avoidance is a passive coping mechanism for temporarily suppressing unpleasant feelings, which avoids getting to the base of a problem.
Treat Yourself
Self-care is an essential coping method for overcoming loneliness. While taking particular care of oneself may not eliminate loneliness, it might help you feel better and enjoy your isolation more.
Doing something for yourself, whether it’s spending time in nature, taking a relaxing bath, picking up a new hobby, or engaging in physical activity, is a sort of self-care that’s especially important in times of stress.
Conclusion- Dealing with Loneliness During the Holidays
Taking more time during the holidays to focus on yourself is a great way to reduce feelings of sadness.
During these holiday times, not everyone has close individuals they can spend time with. So it’s best to follow these tips on how to cope with loneliness.