Archive for December, 2009

“It’s Christmas time, there’s no need to be afraid”.

We all know this line from the song. It sounds good, and of course there is no reason to be afraid of “the most wonderful time of the year” is there? Unless you are alone, suffering from a recent break-up or divorce, facing your first holidays alone.

What used to be a feast of love spent together with your loved ones is now an experience of lingering sadness and depression. Like Hugh Grant’s character in About a Boy said: “I was going to spend this Christmas the way I usually did. Watching videos and getting drunk and stoned”.

Welcome to the holiday depression.

But wait!

I don’t want to paint that picture to you, because it’s simply not true. It doesn’t have to be this way. As a matter of fact you choose how it’s going to be.

The trick to surviving the holidays alone is to free yourself from the expectations and pictures of the past.

I used to spend quite a few holidays alone, and I survived them by shifting my own perception of what they should be: I took them as a few free days, where I could finally do something for myself that I always wanted to do, but never had the time for.

This is the key to survival. Click to continue »