The Christmas Blues | 8th Day of Christmas
When I was planning my 12 Days of Christmas blog posts, I was obviously trying to think of festive themes to include. But I also really wanted to include a post talking about how Christmas isn’t a happy, festive time for everyone, despite what the media (and especially social media) presents. I’m definitely contributing to this festive facade of every day of December being one full of cheer with this series of blog posts and with my other content on social media this month and that’s why I was adamant about including a post such as this one, to remind anyone who might be reading my blog and who feels like they’re not feeing as Christmassy as they should be that they really don’t have to be!
Christmas can be difficult for people for a number of reasons; grief, loss, mental health issues, work, family problems… the list goes on. The holiday season isn’t this perfect month of happiness for anyone really, everyone has something going on in their life and it doesn’t disappear just because Michael Buble is back on the radio 24/7 (although a bit of Buble can definitely help, I have to admit!)
For me, Christmas generally is a happy time of the year and one that I always look forward to. But it still never lives up to my expectations of it being totally stress-free. I’m still thinking about Uni work and my anxiety hasn’t magically disappeared, if anything it’s escalated a little because this is such a busy time of year!
If you’re really not into Christmas this year, just try and treat it as an opportunity to rest. Hopefully you have some time off work and can treat the holiday season instead of the season of festive fun, as the season of self-care. Read a book you love or have wanted to read forever (a distinctly non-festive one would work well), watch your favourite films that have nothing to do with Christmas, take advantage of the huge selection of chocolate in your local supermarket at the moment and bury yourself in your duvet with it. Or do whatever else makes you happy, whether it’s festive or not!
I understand that it’s definitely not as simple as this though. Dealing with loss, grief or mental health issues isn’t just as simple as doing self-care and I can imagine it’s harder than I’m implying to remove yourself from the festivities of Christmas. That’s why this isn’t really an advice post. I don’t think I’m qualified to give advice on this subject and I don’t want to just hand out basic self-care advice like ‘try a face mask’ as I think that’s a little bit reductive and insulting.
Instead, this post is an acknowledgment and a reminder that Christmas doesn’t have to be the most wonderful time of the year for you and there’s no need to feel guilty if it isn’t. I also wanted to link to some other blog posts written on this same subject which I think could be really comforting if you are struggling with Christmas this year:
Some Thoughts on Christmas by Lizzy Hadfield (Shot From the Street)
A Different Perspective on Christmas by Isabelle Hardy (Fashion et Moi)
I hope you’ve benefitted from this post in some way and if anything I hope you’ve taken away from it that if you are feeling a little bit crap this Christmas, that’s ok! It’ll be over in 2 weeks time anyway and there’s really no obligation to get involved if you don’t want to- take it from Chloe in her blog post! I’d be really interested to know how you’re feeling about Christmas this year, whether it’s good or bad. And as always, my direct messages on social media are always open so you’re welcome to talk to me about it privately if you’d like to!
Finding A 'Work-Life Balance'
'Work-Life Balance' is a phrase that I've heard used lots since I've started following the lives of bloggers through their blogs themselves, YouTube, Instagram etc. It's something that they often talk about struggling with as because documenting their life is essentially their career, it's difficult to draw a line. Obviously, I am by no means a full-time blogger and I, for the most part, don't really see my blog as work at all- it's a hobby that I enjoy. However, taking pictures, editing HTML (which mostly consists of me watching endless YouTube tutorials) and actually writing blog posts is time-consuming and so adding my blog to the things that I do has made it difficult for me to relax over the past couple of months. It hasn't made me feel crazily stressed but I could feel the amount of time I was spending working taking it's toll on me so I'm trying to take some steps to change that. With studying for a full-time degree, working as an English tutor part-time (which involves lots of planning), having a significant role within the campaign Girls Against, plus running my blog, I often work from 8am-10pm on weekdays with minimal breaks, which is really unhealthy and bad for my mental health. I discussed how work took over my life during my A-Levels in a recent post about my experience with anxiety and I'm determined not to let that happen again this year, even if I do enjoy all of the things I class as 'work' now. So here are some of the things I'm doing to try and ensure I make time for myself:
1. Scheduling in 'holidays'.
People who work a 9-5 job obviously have a given amount of time for their holidays but, although with UNI we are given lots of time off for Christmas, Easter and summer, all of the other things I do continue throughout the year. So I'm trying to give myself official weeks off where I can just totally relax. I can't say I've managed one of these so far but I am planning on scheduling some in over summer and I definitely took a few days off everything during Christmas and Easter, if not a full break, which felt really nice in itself. However, I am currently on holiday in Corfu (as you might be able to tell by these photos), the week before my only UNI exam this semester, which is an attempt to try and force myself not to go overboard with revision. I am also in Corfu because I am not going to turn down a week of sun. I'm doing 2 hours of revision a day (ish) whilst I'm here, one in the afternoon and one in the evening and trying to relax for the rest of the day. I'm also writing blog posts (currently sat on my balcony writing this one) and taking photos for my blog because, as mentioned, I enjoy this and don't find it stressful whatsoever. Although I'm pretty sure this might be the only blog post for this week because I want to make the most of my time here.
2. Taking Weekends Off
This is something I've been trying to do since the beginning of university. I decided that I'd much rather work really hard throughout the week so I can have my weekends to myself. This is in part due to the fact that I mostly see my boyfriend on the weekends and I wanted to make sure I had time to see him but also because I struggle to take evenings off if I know I haven't got everything done that I wanted to do that day and don't enjoy the scheduled 'relaxing time'. Whereas with weekends, once it gets to Friday evening I know that I'm done for that week and anything else will have to wait till Monday. This is, of course, something I won't do during my second and third years of university as my workload grows, and something I don't do 100% of time now, so I will have to find another method of relaxation then, but it works great for now.
3. Making Plans and Sticking To Them
This is a really important one for me because I struggle to relax on my own because I'm always thinking that there's something more productive that I could be doing. However, when I'm with someone else, I know that there's no way I could be doing work at that moment and want to make the most of the time I have with whoever I'm with, so I'm really able to fully relax.
4. Planning My Time
Something I've started doing recently is realistically planning my days hour by hour. This means that usually I really have got everything I wanted to do done by 8pm and can relax for the rest of the night. I'm still a bit rubbish at switching off in the evenings though and often find something else productive to do without even thinking about it. But telling yourself that you're going to stop working at a certain time can be really helpful.
I'm going to leave this post here for today because I am hungry and I can smell the food from the restaurant of my hotel but I hope it helped you think about whether your work-life balance is truly balanced and gave you some tips to help it get there. I'm wearing this skirt from & Other Stories again because I just can't get enough of it along with this top also from & Other Stories, both of which I featured in my last post about what's new in my wardrobe. You've seen the shoes and the bag before but this bag is now back in stock on Zara (linked below)! I'm off to relax and enjoy the rest of the time I have in beautiful Corfu now but keep an eye on my Instagram to see what I'm up to.
