Managing Illness and Navigating Holiday Stress
Our podcast is hosted on Spotify and Anchor.
The holidays can feel stressful for many reasons, but even more so when you are dealing with a health issues, taking care of someone who is, or missing someone no longer with you. There’s an expectation to be joyous and merry, so where do you feel like you fit into that joy when all you feel like doing is crying?
Mettle Health counselor Claritza Rios, MD and friend of Mettle Health, Dani Chammas, MD host an interactive discussion on navigating stress during the holidays.
We discuss:
0:00 Introductions
2:18 Recognizing that everyone has different holiday traditions
3:00 Real talk: the holidays are complicated, period. Things change as you grow and age, there are traumas and roles that we return to during the holidays that can regress us
6:12 Holidays through the lens of serious illness: a need to make it special, being aware of the way it was previously, meeting expectations of others, stress from travel, feeling left out
14:05 Holiday Coping Tool: Self Compassion
17:22 Holiday Coping Tool: Mindfulness, how to include anxiety and stress without letting them take over
23:25 Connection vs. Loneliness - we can feel very lonely even when many other people are going through similar experiences, finding ways to create a connection can be soothing in the moment
27:57 Distilling meaning: really thinking about what is meaningful to us during the holidays? The answer will be different for everyone - using the Joy/Meaning compass to make decisions - does it bring joy? does it bring meaning? is there a compelling reason to do it?
32:00 Setting an intention for the holidays
34:08 Knowing yourself, voice what you authentically need, and then honor it
37:50 What is the best way to communicate your limitations? Saying “and” instead of “but”, adjusting strategies for certain people, not apologizing for limitations
44:35 Not being included due to perceived limitations, how to get in front of that assumption
47:10 Not being able to spend time with loved ones due to treatment, COVID restrictions, and dealing with the disappointment - family/friends may be unaware of what you are going through as a caregiver or patient
54:00 Feeling like you are disappointing people by not having the energies to be able to spend a lot of time with them
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