Written by Amber Brown, LPC
As the leaves turn and the holiday season approaches, thoughts, behaviors, and expectations begin to re-surface. Holidays can stir up a full range of emotions. When thinking of Thanksgiving what comes to mind? Is it delicious food, football, spending time with family, and friends? Often, many experience images of stress and tension that bring anxiety, grief, and depression. Over 88% of adults referred to the holiday season as the most stressful time of the year in 2023. Regardless of what’s making you feel a little blue this Thanksgiving, it’s important to focus on the things you are grateful for. It serves as a reminder to let go of past grievances, forgive, and focus on the joy and happiness that lies ahead. Taking time to practice gratitude during the holidays can help make you and your family’s day a little bit easier. Here are a few tools that can boost you and your family’s mood during the holidays.
- Creating a Thankful Tree:
Often life circumstances can lead us to a place of more worry and complaints. We find ourselves full of frustration and bitterness with the constant hits that we have been taking throughout the year. However, creating a thankful tree can bring a refreshing shift. This activity is where families can focus on the joy, love, and happiness that they have encountered in the midst of all they have been going through.
Print outs are available online for this art activity. You can even get creative and use real leaves for this activity as well. Get even more creative and personal by using each family member’s hands to be the leaves of the tree that can be painted or traced. Fill each of the hands and fingers with different things that the family is thankful for. Examples of this activity are included below.
- The Troubled Turkey Activity:
This is an opportunity for the family to practice tools of coping with holiday stress, by being proactive and preventive. When big emotions arise during the holiday, using the troubled turkey activity can help the family identify skills to support them in calm-down strategies and techniques. Simple tools, such as going for a walk, counting to ten, drawing, journaling, and listening to music can all be skills that are used in help regulate through holiday stressors. To get started on this activity, think about your top five emotions, thoughts, or behaviors that could spark up during the holiday break. After these feelings have been identified, use your troubled turkey’s feathers to explore coping skills that can be used in these areas. Practice these tools as a family to prepare and have your turkey handy during the holiday break to serve as a reminder when needed. Below are some examples that can be used but again if you want to be creative and just create your own turkey out of personalized handprints or other materials, you are more than welcome to get as creative as you like.
- The Gratitude Game:
This is a color-coded game to assist the family in a time of reflection on things to be grateful for. A list will be given to the family that is color coded and based upon the color, certain reflective points will be asked. All family members will take turns sharing their responses. You can use your favorite candy of choice for the completion of this the game, such as but not limited to Skittles, M&M’s, or jellybeans to make the memories even more enjoyable and sweet. Examples have been provided below.
- Breathe easy and stress less with deep breathing exercises over this holiday break.
Deep breathing provides so many benefits, such as improved focus, reduction of stress and better sleep, but the greatest is the changes it provides to the nervous system. It helps it rest and digest, which we need more than ever over the holiday break. Two exercises will be offered to strengthen these skills sets are as follows:
4A: Leaf Breathing: The family can either find leaves in their own backyard or use a printable leaf provided. The family will trace around the leaf while breathing in and out. The instruction on breaths is for the family to use the 4-7-8 breathing technique, which involves breathing in for four seconds, holding for seven seconds, and exhaling for eight seconds. Allow three rounds to be completed for this activity. The goal is to use senses of touch, hearing, and seeing for the activity to aid in areas of relaxation. Below is an example template that can be used.
4B: Just like dessert on Thanksgiving Day, Pie Breathing is the last technique that will be incorporated as tools that can be used during the holiday break. You will begin this exercise by imagining your favorite pie being in front of you that was just baked. You will take deep breaths in, which you can place your hand on your belly to feel your belly expand as your breathe in. You are taking the smells of the pie into your nostrils. When you exhale (breathe out) you will blow out slowly from your mouth to allow the pie that you are envisioning to cool off but keeping your hands on your tummy to feel the belly release and return to its natural state. Just as with the leaf breathing exercise, you can do this three times. These breaths should not be fast but nice and slow to where you can feel your body reacting to each breath that is taking. After you have completed this activity, go reward yourself with ana actual slice of dessert of your choice.
