Caring for yourself and practicing gratitude are among ways you can beat sadness, loneliness, and stress despite restrictions

Across America, people are wondering what the holidays will be like as pandemic-related restrictions on traveling and gathering drag on. Mental health experts worry about how adults and children will cope when normal ways of celebrating are curtailed.

About two-thirds of American parents are worried about the pandemic impacting the mental health of their children, according to a recent survey from Nationwide Children’s Hospital. 

The holidays are already a time when many people struggle to feel happy and joyful amid the festivities going on around them. This year many families and individuals are coping with feelings of grief after losing a loved one to the pandemic or other causes.

It’s always hard to face the first holiday without a beloved family member or friend. It will be even more challenging this year as many people choose to stay home and gather only with those in their households, especially for those who live alone.

Even during the best of times, the holidays can be stressful and disruptive to your body, your emotions, and your routines. So how can we manage feelings of stress, isolation, and loneliness this year during holidays marred by a global crisis?

This year, it’s more important than ever to take steps to guard your emotional, mental, and physical health. Here are a few ideas to help make your holidays joyful in spite of the pandemic:

5 Ways to Turn Seasonal Sad Into Seasonal Glad

With daylight hours growing shorter, and daylight savings time ending for most of us Nov. 1, many people have difficulty adjusting to the colder, darker months. An estimated 10 million Americans struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and women are more than four times as likely as men to have it.

As a mental health issue, SAD is more than just being down about the cold and gloom of the winter months — it actually tends to keep you down and affects you day after day. If you suspect you might have this disorder, you should talk to your doctor about it.

If you’re wondering how to beat those common winter blues, or looking for a way to improve your outlook (whether you have SAD or not), here are some things you can try:

In a Time of Social Distancing and Social Media, Trust Remains Key

The pandemic has created new rules for dating, with more people relying on technology to start relationships. When it comes to finding love and maintaining strong bonds, however, one thing has not changed: the need to establish trust.

Whether it’s romantic, friendly, professional, or familial, trust is essential in any relationship. Yet it can be difficult to establish and maintain trust. Many people carry emotional baggage from painful experiences in the past that prevent them from trusting others. Signs of lack of trust may include:

• You aren’t sure you matter to the other person.

• You have nagging doubts that your spouse or partner really loves you.

• When they seem distant, you imagine it must be because of you (even though it may have nothing to do with you).

• You fear you’ll be dumped at any time.

• You find yourself fixating on these feelings.

If you have a persistent fear of being left or dumped, this may undermine the foundations of any type of relationship. If you feel lack of trust is a big problem for you that requires counseling, please seek it out. But if you’re simply looking to strengthen a relationship and increase your ability to love and trust, here are some things you can try:

Coping with Emotions from Pandemic and the Past

Identify and let go of emotional baggage from difficult times

Life is full of emotional ups and downs. Sometimes the hardships we experience can be so overwhelming that they leave us stuck with feelings that can hamper our happiness or even harm our health and well-being.

The impact of negative emotions from traumatic and difficult events is a growing concern during the challenging times we now face. One new study, for instance, finds the emotional well-being of most American adults has been “broadly and substantially affected by COVID-19 and the related changes in life and society.”

Emotional distress related to COVID-19 is associated with higher frequency of clinical levels of anxiety, depression, and general life stress, along with lower reported levels of overall happiness, according to the U.S. National Pandemic Emotional Impact Report from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard Medical School.

Prolonged and/or intense negative feelings can have effects long after the events that precipitate them. They can take a toll on emotional, mental, and physical health and compel people to behave in ways that damage their relationships or impact their ability to have healthy, long-lasting bonds.

6 Holistic Practices to Help You Stay Well

During the pandemic, many people are taking extra care to stay well with measures such as wearing masks in public, maintaining physical distance, and washing their hands frequently. This is also a time when we should be thinking about ways to bolster our immune system to help us fight off not only COVID-19 but also all kinds of illness.

Your immune system protects your body from harmful substances, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and toxins. It is made up of different organs, cells, and proteins that work together.

Without an immune system, you’d likely be sick all the time — if you lived very long!

The immune system consists of two parts: the innate immune system you are born with, and the adaptive immune system the body develops as it is exposed to microbes over time. These two systems are closely related and work together when a germ or other outside substance triggers an immune response.

Your immune system doesn’t protect you perfectly 100% of the time. Most people gets sick once in a while, even if it is just a common cold or stomach bug. But when you think of all the bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens you’re exposed to every day, it’s evident your immune system is working hard 24/7.

Why Emotional Healing Matters

Understanding emotions from a holistic perspective can help us better cope during difficult times

People are feeling fear and worry over the pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 Americans and left more than 40 million unemployed. Many of us are praying for peace as injustice persists and protests turn violent.

In times of turmoil like these, it is normal to feel anxious, as no one can say with any certainty what will come next. It’s natural to want to check the news or social media feeds to see what is going on. But this can become a problem when our bodies’ fight-or-flight impulse is triggered repeatedly.

According to ongoing research from LeanIn.Org and SurveyMonkey, women are facing a heavier workload and are feeling more anxious than men during the pandemic. The survey finds women are more than twice as likely as men to experience physical symptoms of severe anxiety, such as a racing heartbeat. More than half of women report sleep issues, compared to about a third of men.

We cannot control all the turmoil that is going on around us, but there are things we can do to protect our emotional health. This starts with understanding how our emotions — both the ones we are experiencing in the present moment and the ones that echo from the past — can affect our mental and physical health, and doing what we can to improve our emotional health.

Holistic Tips for Coping With a National Trauma

June is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Month, and this year many people are struggling with personal loss, fear, and uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic is a national trauma, but not everyone who suffers loss or extreme stress from it will develop PTSD, psychologist and marriage and family counselor Dr. Marie Hartwell-Walker writes in PsychCentral.com. She notes that an estimated 3.6% of U.S. adults had PTSD in the past year, yet an estimated 70% of U.S. adults have experienced a traumatic event at least once in their lives, according to data from a national survey.

PTSD is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it, according to the Mayo Clinic. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event. If you suspect that you or someone you love is suffering from PTSD, you may need to seek help from a licensed mental health professional.

5 Ways to Tap the Power of Positivity

We are going through a very emotional time right now with all of the changes we are facing during the pandemic. Many people are feeling on edge — anxious that they might lose their jobs, worried over making ends meet, and scared about keeping themselves and their families safe.

People may also be feeling loneliness due to social isolation, disappointment over canceled plans, and an overwhelming sense of uncertainty about what the future holds.

We know that stress is harmful to our physical, mental, and emotional health and our relationships. Higher levels of stress have been proven to wreak havoc with the body's ability to regulate inflammation, potentially making us more susceptible to physical illness. 

Feelings of negativity, pessimism, worry, and despair may also corrode our sense of well-being and rob us of the joy and the hope we need to make it through difficult times.

Fortunately, there are things we can do to cultivate feelings of calm, hope, and positivity, even when we face a personal or collective crisis. Here are a few: