Beating The Post-Christmas Blues

SELF-HELP RECIPE

Google offers 1,660,000 entries for Post-Christmas Blues. If you’ve had them you’re not alone, and if someone offered you a recipe that might help would you try it? To a certain extent the recipe I’m offering should be taken with a pinch of salt. I’m not in the habit of telling people what to do, nor how to do it, although I’m sure my husband wouldn’t agree with that! The specifics of what works for me may not work for you, but the principles involved are adaptable. Here’s what helped when I adopted the role of self-therapist-cum-life-coach-cum-friend. I set off with a holistic approach to my depressive feelings.

PHYSICAL

I started waking up earlier and getting out of bed as soon as the alarm went off.
I drank a glass of spring water every hour or, alternatively, hot or cold green tea, up to around 4pm.
I went on my version of a ‘monkey diet’ consisting of fruit, salad, chicken, fish, a few nuts, a couple of hot milk drinks a day, and rice (or maize) cakes instead of bread.
I went out on my bike for a ‘blast’ whenever I could persuade myself.
I listened to my body and took time out when I felt tired.

MENTAL “You don’t have to control your thoughts; you just have to stop letting them control you.” Dan Millman

1. I did a ‘get-everything-out-of-my-head’ journal every morning including a drawing of a little face in the corner to show my mood i.e. miserable, neutral, OK or happy. The writing, which usually lasted about an hour including musing time, consisted of a review of the previous day’s feelings and activities or achievements, the feelings and thoughts around now and plans and ideas for the day, or for later on.
   
2. During the course of the day, when things felt too difficult or overwhelming, I just asked myself the question, ‘What are you going to do after this, one step at a time?”
   
3. I blocked or challenged any self-criticism and turned it into encouragement.
   
4. When ‘can’t do it’ thoughts came up I examined the evidence supporting the negative and searched for evidence to support a positive view. This was more effective as a written exercise.

SPIRITUAL “Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that you cannot bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond that pain.” Kahlil Gibran

1. I studied Tibetan Buddhist Sogyal Rinpoche’s teaching about living in the light and working towards wisdom and compassion in one’s life time.
   
2. I meditated each morning.
   
3. I read Ken Wilber’s book Grace and Grit about the triumphant spiritual evolution of his young wife Treya Killam living, fighting and dying with breast cancer and subsequent metasteses in the brain, lungs and liver.

EMOTIONAL

“In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” Albert Camus

1. I talked about my feelings and tried, with the help of others, to understand, accept and trust them.
   
2. I compared notes with people who were, or had also been, feeling blue. We talked about the positives of depression. That, for example, ‘the Winter of our Soul’ is a time for resting, laying fallow, building up hidden resources for later growth. We agreed that it would be exhausting and depleting if it were to be forever ‘Summer bright’ or ‘Autumn fruitful’

CREATIVE

1. I listened endlessly to the new Beatles CD as I created a ‘sea-glass’ window ledge mosaic, visualising those moments on sea and river beaches when I searched for and collected the tumbled glass.
   
2. A little at a time I continued to sketch, plan and discuss the Creative Retreats I’m working towards with an English colleague of mine.
   
3. I bought flowering plants for windowsills.

SOCIAL

1. I went ‘out to play’ in nature with friends – cycling and picnicking in the sun, looking out at the Mediterranean for the third January weekend in a row, celebrating how lucky we are to live in this beautiful country with everything so accessible.
2. I studied my French books a little each day, and enjoyed being able a bit at a time to find myself speaking and understanding more with French friends and people in the village where we live.

Just hold onto the idea that coming up out of depression is about reclaiming your power. Give yourself attractive, realistic and achievable goals that gradually motivate you. In this way you’ll be able, as Dorothy Rowe puts it, to find ‘the way out of your prison’, and very likely bring some gifts out with you.

Juliette Lowe is a counsellor living and working in the Languedoc area. Contact her with any questions at: