Teachers in Transition - Episode 141 - A Few Tips for Coping - Stress, Depression, and the Holidays

Everyone deals with the holidays differently. And for some people, stress and depression are part of the holiday landscape.

A lot goes on during the holiday season. If you feel additional stress, that's okay. The Mayo Clinic offers an article entitled, "Stress, Depression and the Holidays:  Tips for Coping." 

Looking to celebrate the season without all the stress? 

7 ways to de-stress during the holidays.

Just enter your email below and we'll deliver the guide to your inbox! Just click here:  https://kittyboitnott.lpages.co/cheat-sheet-on-how-to-de-stress-during-the-holidays/.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do. You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is kitty boy. Not I'm a career transition and job search coach. And I specialize in helping burnout out teachers just like you deal, not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day to a job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for teachers in transition. In some episodes, I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes, I'll be talking about career. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track. These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is kitty boy, not welcome to teachers in transition.

Speaker 2: 1:26

Welcome back to episode 141 of teachers in transition the podcast and the YouTube channel. My name is kitty boy. I'm the owner of boy coaching and the founder of teachers in transition. If you've listened to this podcast in the past, you know that I alternate topics each week, one week talking about stress management because I'm a certified stress management coach. And, uh, on alternating weeks, I talk about career transition because I'm also a heart centered career transition and job search coach specializing in working with teachers who are burnt out and ready for a new career path. This week, the topic is stress. And because we are in the holiday season, I thought it might be helpful to talk to stress during the holidays and offer some specific tips for how you might manage your stress during the holiday days. Now, this particular article that I'm referring to is from the Mayo clinic. So it's a pretty good source and I'll offer the link to the article in the show notes, if you're interested in following up for more information, but in general, this written by the Mayo clinic staff topic is stress depression in the holidays. Tips for coping. You may or may not know that there are millions of individuals out in the society and the United States who are coping with depression on a regular basis. And it's a, a problem that we often don't wanna talk about. It's, there's some shame around it, but there shouldn't be because when you are depressed, you're experiencing physical and emotional symptoms of, um, and manifestation of things that are going on around you and things that are going on with your body that you may or may not even understand. So during the holidays, all of that can be exacerbated, unfortunately, and we began to notice that there are even more people during the holiday season who are depressed then during the rest of the year. So the according to the Mayo clinic, the first number, one thing that you need to do is to acknowledge your feelings, instead of pretending that everything's okay or trying to hide how you're feeling from your loved ones, you need to acknowledge that you feeling crappy and down, and that there's a holiday joy. It's not something that you're experiencing in this moment at this time. And, and by acknowledging your, your, your, your feelings and your symptoms, you will automatically a little bit better because it's, it's when you're holding onto something that you begin to feel heavy and down. So the first thing is acknowledge your feelings. The second thing is to be willing, to reach out for help from whomever you might have in your life. A, a loved one who will be supportive, see a doctor, if you need to. There's no shame in that either of being willing to ask for help be realistic about this is the third thing. Be realistic about the fact that the holidays don't have to be perfect. There's nothing that says they have to be story book, perfect, like the movies or the stories that you read and be willing to go with imperfection and, and, but be willing to accept that the holidays are what they are and people in your life are gonna be the people that they are, you may need to because it's a family time. And because families are often rife with all kinds of tension, from things that happened years ago, you may have to temporarily set aside those differences instead of harm, harboring them or harping on them, bringing them up, making every body invest in something that happened 10 years ago, try to set those differences aside and accept that your family members are who they are. And in most cases they're doing the best they can. You think about it. They may be suffering their own depression. It's possible that that is the case financially. It'll be helpful if you can stick to a budget so that you don't overspend and have financial worries that go into the new year, you may feel stress. You may want to buy gifts for everybody, and you may just not be able to afford it. Be okay with that plan accordingly, spend accordingly. That will be one less thing that you have to worry about in the new year plan ahead so that you're not surprised or caught off guard something that you didn't expect. There may still be surprises, but you can avoid some of them simply by planning ahead, learn how to say no, that's a big one. And that's one that I, I harp on a lot with my clients. You, you have to be willing to set healthy boundaries.<affirmative> and too many of us tend to be people pleasers. We want everything to go smoothly. We want everybody to get along. So we often say yes to things that we don't wanna do, but we say yes anyway. And then we are mad at the other person or ourselves, or both for creeping in on our boundaries. So you are in charge of your own boundaries. So set them in, then stick to them by being, being appropriate about saying, no, you don't have to be rude. You don't, but you also don't have to explain why you're saying no, you just say no doesn't suit right now. Number eight, don't abandon healthy habits. That's a difficult one for a lot of us when we are overeating and over drinking for the holidays, but you don't have to engage in unhealthy behaviors. So to the extent that it is possible for you stick to your healthy diet, keep walking or doing whatever exercise you do, go to the gym. If you need to drink lots of water, don't forget to breathe. All of these are basic de-stress that you can do that will help you to manage your stress more, uh, fully inappropriately, take a breather. Don't feel like you have to be constantly on the move. Constantly doing something constantly productive. It helps in fact, our productivity and our creativity to unplug periodically. So do that for yourself, for the holidays. And finally, ultimately, if you need professional, help get professional help. Like I said, in the beginning, there is absolutely no shame. Even if you feel the shame, I I'm suggesting that you try to look at it from a different perspective. You would not feel ashamed if you had an app needed an append, uh, appendectomy, for example, you wouldn't feel ashamed if you fell and broke your leg and needed to go to the doctor for a broken leg. So don't feel in any shame around needing help with your emotional health or your mental health. Part of the reason mental health in this country is such a problem is that it has been closeted for so long. Like I said, people don't wanna talk about it. And some generations are worse about not wanting to talk about it, wanting to just put, brush it all under the rug and pretend that it's not there doesn't mean that it's not there. Just pretending that it's not there. So if you feel like you need help, get the help immediately. If you need to pick up the phone and call a help pipeline, call your doctor, seek out your employee assistance program, whatever it is that you can do for yourself, do that. And try to just enjoy to the extent that you can the holidays. Now, if you aren't the one who's exp experiencing depression, but you know, someone who is, if you can be the support for them and encourage them to get the help they need, that would be a huge gift better than anything you can buy at the store. So if you're a support of someone who's struggling good for you, be there for them. That's a great Christmas present. And that's it for this week. I will, uh, offer the link to the article. I just touched on the, the he bold headlines. So there's plenty more to read. If you want more information from the Mayo clinic about depression at the holiday time and hope you have a great week and I'll see you again next week.

Speaker 1: 11:07

So there you have it, an episode of teachers in transition. I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to teacher is in transition so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode, I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at kitty boy. no@boycoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. I'm kitty boy not. And this is teachers in transition.