For some people, the level of loneliness, stress, and anxiety, rises. According to a survey by the American Psychological Association, thirty-eight percent of the people expressed that they felt more stressed around the holiday season. Another poll, by the Principal Financial Group, fifty-three percent experience more financial stress due to the holiday spending pressure. The lack of time and money, commercialism, the exigency of gift-giving and family reunions are said to be the key stressors around this time. Therefore, here are a few tips that can help you navigate this period. 

First of all, keep your expectations realistic. Not everything has to be perfect. Whether you want to have an excellent finish to a great year or you´d like to give a better closing to bad year; or just, simply, you want to have an ideal evening, think within your means. Don´t push your fantasies where you can´t chase them. As I said, togetherness sets the tone, the rest is secondary.

Avoid the “happiness trap”. As Debra Kissen, executive director of the Light on Anxiety CBT Treatment Center in Chicago and co-chair of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America's public education committee, explains: "When we try too hard to be happy, we make ourselves miserable". The pressure to be “jolly” can be overwhelming and take us to the opposite path to sadness and frustration. Just let your feelings flow and be yourself. You can never go wrong with that.

Another thing is to recognize your holiday stressors. Whether it´s social situations, time quantity, money spending or family reunions, anticipate and visualize them. Plan, as it allows you to lessen the emotional impact on your self and establish healthier responses. If you can´t avoid them, being prepared will help you get through them in a better way.

Parallel to the last tip is remembering what makes you happy. Don´t get overtaken by social and commercial obligations. If this is a moment of joy, give it to yourself. Find a time and a place to be away and just do what makes your heart smile. It´s been a long year. Award yourself that much.

Be grateful. As Alan Zimmerman, Ph.D. in Psychology and Interpersonal Communication, puts it, “…the more thanks you give, the less stress you'll have”. You can write the reasons in a piece of paper and put it close to your heart as you say “thank you”. You can take a quiet time to look around and acknowledge and take notice. Or you just can simply recite them in your mind in every toast you make. They may not be much, they may be a lot. It doesn´t matter. They are what they should be in this moment in life. And they are yours. That´s plenty enough.

Let go and give closure. Don´t carry the weight of your negatives to the next year. It is time to put them away. Write them in a piece of paper and burn them (safely, of course). Or just rip the piece apart and throw it backwards over your shoulders. Take this change of year as an opportunity to turn around what went wrong. Fresh year, a fresh start. Leave a little more than just a number behind. Learn this: a new journey begins, the baggage that got you there is no longer needed.

Last but not least, remember what this is all about. It´s not about an expensive gift. It´s not about a perfect meal. It´s about a big hug. A peal of shared laughter. A loving kiss. It´s about reaching out, even if it´s just by text, to say: "I´m here. I hope everything is great"; or the opposite: "Can we have a word? I might need one". It´s about giving and sharing not taking and possessing. It´s about people, not things. It´s about you and the ones you love. The rest… well, it is so far behind that I don´t even have a number for it.

As every year, the holidays come with the good and the bad. The positives will always help you navigate through the negatives. Allow yourself to do what makes you happy. Everything will go along from there.