As December is almost upon us, our thoughts turn to Christmas, to the end of 2023 and all that comes with December as a month. As you begin to ponder Christmas and all the things associated with this season, you may experience a variety of emotions.
Christmas can be a period of light or darkness, one of relaxation or stress or one of hope or worry. It can depend. Sometimes what happens makes us joyful or concerned. Sometimes we reflect on things past - those with us or those not. Sometimes all the trappings of Christmas can make us feel happy or can completely isolate us.
I wonder how you feel this year?
Mental Health charities suggest Christmas is a time of year when a lot of us struggle with our wellbeing. MIND (mind.org.uk) made a significant link between the health challenges linked to stress and Christmas in their report of 2015. One of the conclusions was that 76% of us had trouble sleeping at Christmas due to stress. YouGov (2018) found 51% of women and 35% of men find this a stressful time.
What causes this? Again it depends.
Their study suggested financial debt (41%), feeling lonely (83%) or finding Christmas stressful (81%) were the main reasons. Interestinglymost people who suffer stress at this time of year don’t actually recognise it for what it is (Curtis, Coventry University 2002.)
So what do we do?
Here at Space to Breathe we’ve organised a few things to help you through this time.
Coping with Christmas
We are running this great face to face wellbeing session at Crystal Peaks Shopping Centre in the Art Space on 8th December at 10.30am. Why not book your place today?
Winter and Wonder
In the shop, you can download our excellent Winter and Wonder resource. This is a 27 page digital booklet, looking at six subjects - Change, Space, Light, Journey and Dance (Celebration) and offering a bunch of tips and ideas to try, some simple wisdom to apply and some reflective techniques to help you ground yourself through the season. It’s £1.99 and all proceeds go back into our work supporting people’s mental health.
Winter Wellbeing
Lastly we are running an online event called Winter Wellbeing on Tuesday 19 December at 8pm for one hour. Places are free and you can book in below.
We hope everyone reading this has a good and enjoyable festive period. Know that we’re here to support you and if you’d like to talk or get in touch, just email us via the button below.
STOP Press … Here Andy talking about the events on Paulette Edwards show.