#424: Dreading Christmas? 3 Mindset Shifts to Protect Your Mental Health During the Holidays

Kevin Lowe: It's because the year's been rough.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe you've gone through some stuff. Maybe finances aren't so great.

Kevin Lowe: Christmas just isn't looking like it used to.

Kevin Lowe: And it's been hitting hard. It's been making it really difficult to get into the Christmas spirit.

Kevin Lowe: Well, my friend, we're only a week away from Christmas, and I wanted to help you out.

Kevin Lowe: So if you're somebody who's been struggling, who's been really wishing that you could just sleep through Christmas, really hoping that December would just end, well, my friend, this is for you.

Kevin Lowe: I've got you three strategies to try to help make Christmas a little bit easier, a little bit better.

Kevin Lowe: And hopefully, if I do my job well enough, maybe it can just turn things around.

Kevin Lowe: So if you're up for a perspective shift, three strategies to help you turn this Christmas around for the good, well, my friend, you're in the right place.

Kevin Lowe: This is episode 424 of the podcast Grit, Grace and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: And I'm your host, Kevin Lowe. So, my friend, if you're ready for it, so am I.

Kevin Lowe: So let's go ahead and dive in. Yeah, I got.

Kevin Lowe: So diving right into our three strategies, we're starting with strategy number one.

Kevin Lowe: And that is, I want you to think about doing something different this year.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe in the past, Christmas Eve has always looked the same.

Kevin Lowe: You guys do dinner out with the family. Maybe you go to a Christmas Eve church service.

Kevin Lowe: And then maybe you end the night by everybody riding around looking at the Christmas lights. It's something you've always done.

Kevin Lowe: But now, this year, life looks different.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe it was from divorce, maybe loss. Something happened that has changed things, where it has Christmas looking different than it has in the past.

Kevin Lowe: Well, my friend, this is a perfect opportunity for you to enter into a new season of life, a new chapter of life.

Kevin Lowe: Because traditions are great until they're not.

Kevin Lowe: When a tradition no longer serves you, no longer brings you joy, then it's time to adopt something new.

Kevin Lowe: So I'm giving you the encouragement, the permission to do something different.

Kevin Lowe: If you've always done one thing that was related to your past life.

Kevin Lowe: Well, you're a different person now, and it's okay to try something new.

Kevin Lowe: So I encourage you, whether it's Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, whether it's New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, to try something new.

Kevin Lowe: Instead of going around and looking at Christmas lights, what about seeing what movie is playing at the movie theater?

Kevin Lowe: And go get yourself a nice big large popcorn, a nice big soda, and just veg out, pig out while enjoying a fun movie for Christmas Eve.

Kevin Lowe: Do something different. That's what I'm encouraging you to do.

Kevin Lowe: Now, in with that, like I said, maybe it's not a fact of life looking different because of loss or a divorce.

Kevin Lowe: But maybe finances are just tough this year. Well, my friend, maybe you're all adults.

Kevin Lowe: It's a situation in my family where this year, honestly, we've came to the reality.

Kevin Lowe: What do we tend to do at Christmas?

Kevin Lowe: We spend a bunch of money we don't have on a bunch of gifts that, yeah, they're nice to receive.

Kevin Lowe: It's nice to give, but is it really necessary?

Kevin Lowe: And instead, we've decided that we're just going to go out for dinner.

Kevin Lowe: That's going to be our Christmas gift to one another. So we've chosen one of our favorite restaurants, somewhere we only go to on those special occasions.

Kevin Lowe: We made dinner reservations.

Kevin Lowe: That's going to be our Christmas gift to one another. Is it like it used to be? No, not at all.

Kevin Lowe: Has it made Christmas a little less stressful, a little less expensive?

Kevin Lowe: 100%. And that is a win.

Kevin Lowe: Now, one thing that I want to encourage you not to do is a lot of people put too much weight on this idea because they look at it like they have to create a new tradition.

Kevin Lowe: We want to do something different with the family. We want to start a new tradition.

Kevin Lowe: That puts way too much weight, way too much pressure on trying something new.

Kevin Lowe: So my friend, I don't want you to try something new thinking that this is going to be the thing that you do from here on out.

Kevin Lowe: No, that's just defeating the purpose. I'm trying to take the stress off of you.

Kevin Lowe: I want you to just try something new because it sounds good.

Kevin Lowe: Not because it might become a family tradition, but because it just sounds good this year.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe next Christmas, you do something different. The Christmas after that, yet again, you do something different. There is no reason you have to stay stuck in a rut doing the same thing year after year.

Kevin Lowe: So again, to summarize strategy number one, simply do something different.

Kevin Lowe: It's okay to break the mold.

Kevin Lowe: It's okay to not follow in pursuit of your past traditions.

Kevin Lowe: I am giving you the permission to do something different.

Kevin Lowe: Strategy number two, my friend, do not do the holidays alone.

Kevin Lowe: Because I know one thing that you're thinking. If you're already thinking to yourself that you'd rather sleep away the holiday, that you wish you could just blink and it'd all be over with, And in that mindset, I guarantee you one thing is true, is that you're thinking you don't want to go to that Christmas party.

Kevin Lowe: You don't want to go to your family's Christmas dinner.

Kevin Lowe: And you're going to have a tendency to just want to stay home, lying in bed in your PJs, sleeping the day away.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, there is a time and place for that.

Kevin Lowe: Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, the holidays are not a time for you being alone, especially if you're struggling.

Kevin Lowe: If you are sad, if you're depressed, if you're just kind of struggling, being alone is the worst possible thing that you could do.

Kevin Lowe: I'm going to encourage you, urge you with everything I have to not be alone on the holidays.

Kevin Lowe: Whether it's going to your family's dinner or it's simply you just calling up your best friend and having them come over and hang out to sit with you.

Kevin Lowe: I want you to be with somebody. I don't want you to go through the holidays alone.

Kevin Lowe: Again, you're gonna have this tendency. You're gonna want to retreat, to draw in, to close out the world.

Kevin Lowe: But my friend, please listen to me when I say we are not meant to do life alone.

Kevin Lowe: And we're definitely not meant to do the holidays alone.

Kevin Lowe: And here's the really cool thing. Even though this Christmas might not look like you hoped, maybe those dreams of what it would be didn't pan out.

Kevin Lowe: It doesn't mean that it still can't be great. All you need is you and one other person to have a party.

Kevin Lowe: Just the two of you can make it amazing. The two of you can go out for a movie on Christmas Eve.

Kevin Lowe: Just the two of you can enjoy Christmas morning cooking at home.

Kevin Lowe: It doesn't have to be a big thing.

Kevin Lowe: So again, I'm encouraging you. Strategy number two for surviving the holidays and more so maybe making them more enjoyable than you thought they would be, I want you to be with people you love, people who have your best interest in mind.

Kevin Lowe: Be with the friends, the family who are always there for you.

Kevin Lowe: Do not retreat. Do not stay in your bed.

Kevin Lowe: Please listen to me when I tell you that is not what you want to do.

Kevin Lowe: And then strategy number three.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, it's about getting real, raw, honest, vulnerable.

Kevin Lowe: It's about feeling the feels, getting your emotions flowing.

Kevin Lowe: I'm telling you, this is not the time of year to have that whole attitude, the mindset of suck it up. Don't cry.

Kevin Lowe: Don't let anybody know that you're upset.

Kevin Lowe: No, this is a time of year when you're struggling and it's okay.

Kevin Lowe: Hey, I want you to give yourself permission to feel the feels.

Kevin Lowe: It's okay that you're not so joyful. It's okay that you're not happy.

Kevin Lowe: It's okay that you're finding it hard to smile.

Kevin Lowe: You've been through some stuff. It's why you're listening to this podcast episode is because something resonated.

Kevin Lowe: Something said, hey, you know what? This is for me. I need to listen to this.

Kevin Lowe: So therefore, I don't want you to beat yourself up.

Kevin Lowe: I want you to understand that it's okay to not be okay.

Kevin Lowe: So basically, I want you to remember this. If you cry, it doesn't undo healing.

Kevin Lowe: If you're tired, it doesn't undo all that you've been working on.

Kevin Lowe: It doesn't undo all the progress you've made.

Kevin Lowe: And if joy just doesn't seem to come, it doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you.

Kevin Lowe: It doesn't mean that you have forgotten about Christmas.

Kevin Lowe: No, you're just in a tough spot right now.

Kevin Lowe: We've all been there. And I can promise you one thing.

Kevin Lowe: It's going to get easier. It's going to get better. We just got to get through the holidays.

Kevin Lowe: You're almost there. You've already gotten through Thanksgiving.

Kevin Lowe: We're now coming up. Going to get through Christmas and New Year's.

Kevin Lowe: And then it's a brand new start, a whole new year.

Kevin Lowe: So my friend, I encourage you to give yourself grace, to just give yourself a break.

Kevin Lowe: And if you feel like crying, give yourself space and time to cry.

Kevin Lowe: If you feel like screaming, well, my favorite thing, so that you don't alert the neighbors, just scream into your pillow. It works every time.

Kevin Lowe: Muffles the scream. You get out that same amount of desire to scream, and you don't scare anybody in the process.

Kevin Lowe: I just want you to realize that it's okay to feel how you feel.

Kevin Lowe: I want you to get through these holidays. And I hope that one of these strategies is exactly what you needed to hear.

Kevin Lowe: So to wrap it up, I want to remind you, this year, I need you to be reminded that it's going to be okay.

Kevin Lowe: Sometimes maybe you just need to think about doing things a little bit different, trying something new.

Kevin Lowe: Then I want you to be sure that you don't do the holidays alone.

Kevin Lowe: I want you to be sure that you're spending them with at least somebody, if not at your family's dinner, have somebody you could count on who's there with you.

Kevin Lowe: And then, of course, our third tip, our third little strategy was to just give yourself permission to feel the feels. It's okay.

Kevin Lowe: Sometimes when we are so sad, the best thing we can do is to let ourself cry.

Kevin Lowe: Sometimes just having a really good cry finally just lets it all out.

Kevin Lowe: It kind of relieves all that pressure that's been building up inside of you.

Kevin Lowe: Just kind of lets it out and lets you feel free.

Kevin Lowe: You do all of this, my friend, I hope that maybe the holiday season won't be quite as bad as you'd been thinking.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, I'm going to be taking the next couple of weeks off.

Kevin Lowe: I'm going to be sharing here on the podcast two of our fan favorite episodes from the year that was 2025.

Kevin Lowe: So maybe you haven't caught all the episodes that have been released this year.

Kevin Lowe: Well, please be sure that you stay tuned so that you have something good to listen to the weeks of Christmas and New Year's.

Kevin Lowe: And yes, I will be back with fresh new episodes beginning in January, all geared up to help you be sure that you make 2026 your breakout year.

Kevin Lowe: So if you're tired of playing safe, if you're tired of another year passing without progress being made, well, baby, this is the podcast for you.

Kevin Lowe: So please be sure if not already following slash subscribing to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you're listening, please be sure you hit that button so that you are notified every Tuesday morning when a new episode is released.

Kevin Lowe: And my friend, lastly but not least, I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from my podcast studio to your earbuds.

Kevin Lowe: I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and this is Grit Grace and Inspiration.