Over the years I have been observing the effects the ‘Silly Season’ has on our health. It does not makes sense to me both personally or professionally.
It is supposedly a time of celebration, gathering together with friends and family –but I see more unloving actions, choices and their effects on health at this time than at any other time of the year.
This is what I see every year – year after year – and nothing seems to be changing.
Here is a look at my own Christmas experience from past to present:
As a child, I thought Christmas was a magical time – growing up in New York there were parades, christmas trees everywhere, tons of lights, glitter, and decorations, with everybody around me making an effort to be nice. Well, it took me a while, as a child, to realize that the Santa Claus story was a myth and almost everything connected with it was just trimming, part of the show.
I also loved the Christmas decorations as a child and this love continued into adulthood with me decorating home and clinic.
During my childhood, I loved to visit the ‘real’ Santa in upstate New York, where a North Pole village had been created and Santa was an old man with a real beard, not like the fake Santas regularly seen in the shopping centres – those guys were just Santa’s helpers because he was too busy preparing for the 25th. There was no way he could hang around in every shopping centre! So, if anyone questioned the whole ‘Santa thing’ I would tell them I’d been to meet the real guy.
Now years later as a practitioner, I see all the things listed below and it doesn’t make sense to me that we need a time of the year to be nice to each other and have fun getting together with friends and family – that can happen anytime.
Today I see it as a time of the year to enjoy summer and connect with people and to have a short break, if possible, as it is a very busy time for anybody involved in health care.
In a nutshell here are my observations as a practitioner:
Before Christmas:
– Stress at work to have all completed before the holiday
– Stress for someone in the family (mostly mum) to cook and bake for the meal
– Stress if there is no family to stress about.
– Stress because we are sleeping less and not recovering due to lots of work, social and family events.
– Madness of Christmas shopping to find the perfect gifts for our ‘loved ones’
– Leaving people that are already tired and lethargic leading up to Christmas further drained, which can continue to increase until after the New Year.
At Christmas:
– One day or let’s say two or three (Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s) of overeating, drinking and the accumulation of unloving choices including behaviours.
– Becoming emotional when family issues arise that were not addressed and resolved during the year.
– Discussions flaring into arguments – often made worse because of the effects of alcohol.
– Emotions, anxiety, depression increasing – also for the those who do not have a family to get together with.
After Christmas – this lasts way into late January and beyond:
– Feeling bloated, lethargic, nauseated, lacking energy, putting on weight, leading to symptoms flaring up again …
– Patients with chronic disease, cancer or auto-immune disease, who were going well before Christmas, symptom-free and on maintenance programmes, going off their protocols, triggering their symptoms because they decided to try that piece of cheesecake, drink alcohol for New Year’s or smoke a couple of cigarettes …because it is ‘tradition’.
– Blood sugar levels which were under control before Christmas go up as a result of eating too much or choosing the wrong foods.
– New Year’s resolutions –usually to get healthy and work hard to reverse all the damage done over Christmas and New Year. Yet…..the following year the cycle is repeated.
Statistics worldwide show that Depression, Anxiety, Nervous breakdowns, Domestic Violence, accidents, Heart attacks, Gout flare ups and other health issues are higher world-wide over Christmas than any other time of the year and this is the case every year.
This list contains just a few examples, and I am sure every healthcare practitioner would be able to share similar experiences. To me, none of this seems worth it, so I would rather recommend living each day lovingly without all the damage we inflict on ourselves— this would be like Christmas every day and a true celebration of Love from a health perspective.
It totally makes sense why we call it the ‘Silly Season’, because we put in so much extra effort to treat ourselves in such an unloving way.
What else other than ‘silly’ could we call this?
Book now for our upcoming webinar – How to support your body through the Christmas and Holiday season
