Three powerful practices to optimize your mental fitness this holiday season. That’s right. The holiday season is an amazing mental fitness challenge. Can we be there? Can we be present? Can we deal with all of the challenges from materialism to having more gratitude and feeling the holiday spirit? I think you can. I’m Dr. Drew Ramsey. I’m a nutritional psychiatrist. I’m a board certified psychiatrist and psychotherapist.
That couch right there I use every day to help people enjoy their lives more. I want to talk about three of those powerful practices that I recommend during the holiday season in particular. Now they come from my book, Healing the Modern Brain. My most recent book is all about building mental fitness. How do we do a better job with the new knowledge of mental health? How do we get into better habits? How do we build skills that help us have a more enjoyable, more mentally sound life? That’s mental fitness and it applies so well to the holidays.
Self Awareness
So let’s get into the first powerful practice. It’s where all mental fitness starts and that is the tenet of self-awareness. Now, self-awareness is super important during the holidays because we’re all bringing different things to the holiday table. Some of us you have a wonderful loving family you get together in a quaint almost Norman Rockwell setting. For other folks it’s a really triggering and traumatic time where you’re aware that you don’t have that. Or maybe it’s a year you’ve had a lot of loss. Or maybe it’s a year you’re getting to know new members of your partner’s family. Or perhaps politics have made the holidays a kind of really awful, divisive time. Whatever it is for you, self-awareness is the first thing you got to bring to this mental fitness fight because it lets you strategize, plan, and have more of what we call clarity.
A good example is, I think you should make a list. Naughty and nice. Think about the people that you’re going to have to interact with. And some are nice, some are going to help you have gratitude, get into the holiday spirit, feel wonderful and alive, all the stuff we want during the holidays. And other folks in our lives maybe are more challenging. They might not be naughty, but working through the relationship with them is maybe more challenging. Maybe you need better boundaries or you need a little bit more of a strategy. But again, self-awareness. That idea that there’s a different set of dynamics that you’re walking into.
Another part of self-awareness I think is really key are expectations. So often we have really high expectations and it really leads us to getting disappointed and being much more vulnerable to disappointment. So these are some of the ideas for the practice of self-awareness.
If you see me on social, I love to journal and think about the journal page that works for me. It might not work for you. Maybe talking through the holidays with a friend works well too. It’s a great time for a walk and talk. These are all ways to work the tenant of self awareness.
Nutritional Psychiatry
The next tenet that applies so much is around nutritional psychiatry and applying the principles of nutritional psychiatry to your holiday season. For example, that rule of nutrient density. We want to bring foods to the holiday table that are doing a lot for our nutritional status. They’re bringing us the nutrients we need. Those omega-3 fats and magnesium and iron. But so often when we think about holiday eating, it’s cookies, it’s cake, and it’s not just the eating, if we’re honest. The holiday season presents a big challenge for our mental health because of all the drinking. It’s more clear than ever that alcohol really causes huge increases in inflammation in our brain, and actually real decreases in our brain’s ability to deal with inflammatory factors.
So one of these ideas that is really important for you this holiday season is nutritional psychiatry. And what do I want? Well, I think what would be great this holiday season, if you’re the person who’s bringing nutritional psychiatry to the table. What does that mean? It means focusing on dishes that have more colorful plants. It means thinking through what you’re planning, maybe bringing to a potluck or serving for a holiday meal, according to that great nutritional psychiatry rhyme. Seafood, greens, nuts and beans, and a little dark chocolate, rainbow celebrations, don’t forget the fermentations. This means we’re looking for these food categories on the holiday table, more plants, more seafood, more fermented foods, nuts, beans and seeds, the foods that again have the most nutrient density.
Another note about nutrition during the holidays is certainly about alcohol and along with being the person who brings that wonderful, delicious, festive, amazing nutrient dense dish, I wonder if you might also be the person who’s helping provide non-alcoholic options. There are a lot of opportunities for alcohol during the holidays but it’s also a great opportunity for amazing mocktails to celebrate all the great kombuchas and non-alcoholic options that are available now more than ever. If you’ve stopped drinking alcohol or you’re trying to do a better job with it this holiday season, be that person who helps everybody have more non-alcoholic options at the holiday table.
Engagement
The last practice that is so important for helping build your mental fitness this holiday season is the practice of engagement. Engagement is my request that you fight the algorithm, that you make your holiday yours. So often the holidays can be stressful, they can be filled with all kinds of messages about the things we need to buy or the FOMO that we’re not going someplace incredible. Perhaps for you, the engagement is around the complex emotions of the holidays that your family and your family system is just going through a lot. Whatever it is, engagement is, one of your secrets to having a great holiday season, because it really asks you to, again, that thing I say often, take a little bit of a step back, take some breaths, maybe do some journaling, but to really engage with the values that are important for you this holiday season.
If you’re someone who’s always scrambling and I’ve been there, you’re sending out the holiday card at the last minute, you’re filled with regret, you didn’t really spend any time shopping or you just bought a bunch of stuff, that’s a great spot for you to sit with and think about how you’re more engaged. How can you not be rushing and wrapping and scrambling, but how can you be in control and engaged with the joyous holiday time?
Building the mental fitness that you want and that you deserve and spreading that to your friends, your family and your community. Everybody, that’s what Healing the Modern Brain is all about. It really matters that you keep it up during the holiday season. I think it’s a great test for all of us on how are we doing. I wish you the very best. I hope this helps you connect and take control. And I hope that these three powerful practices are with you every day as you connect with people and have a wonderful, wonderful holiday time.
