The Tools for Having Holidays that Nourishes Your Soul

In Part One: https://www.recovery.org/pro/articles/challenges-to-having-a-holiday-in-recovery, we discussed many breakdowns reported to me by clients which can ruin the holidays. Now we will look at some tools to deal with those breakdowns. As I said in Part One having a strong mind is an important piece of the solution. Remember stress is in the eyes of the beholder. It certainly doesn’t feel like that to me sometimes and I continually have to remind myself to change my interpretation of the situation. The holidays are a great test to see how we do.

If you are fortunate enough to be in therapy, take some time to make an individualized plan for your holiday plans.

If you are in group therapy, I hope the group would address people’s conce
s at this time of year.

Past Historyr
If you feel emotionally strong enough to visit your family or to have the family celebration for the holidays, you must bring boundaries. It is not your job to have everyone “like” you during the holidays. It is your job to take care of yourself and have the holidays that you want for your memories. If you are visiting family here are some boundaries that have worked for some of my clients:
Continue reading here: https://www.recovery.org/pro/articles/how-to-have-a-holiday-in-recovery/