Coping with the Holiday blues

I am going to drew in from ACT (Acceptance and Commitment therapy) and Cognitive Behavioral therapy (CBT) some ways of coping with the Holiday blues. Let’s start on the emotional side. The blues may be from sadness you feel. Or perhaps struggling not to feel so much of the pain from sadness. But what happens to you when you try to ignore, distract or avoid these feelings? They are going to still pester you and often be at the forefront of your mind. If you were able to practice what ACT espouses to: allowing in painful emotions and sensations without struggling with them. This is often not an easy task and if too difficult you may want to consult a therapist who practices ACT and or CBT to be of help to you. So when you feeling sad because you think others are happy during the holidays and you are not, or sad because the holidays are associated with the lost of somebody, or sad because you are alone, as painful as it is it may be helpful to not struggle with the sadness.
On the thinking end of the issues that can up you may need to use CBT and or ACT to deal with them. If you are blue because of the loss of somebody watch out for thoughts like it is all my fault or I cannot manage without that person. If you try ACT or CBT techniques to cope with these thoughts and you still buy into them you may want to look at how buying into these thoughts help you and how it harms you. If you are still stuck with buying into them seeing a therapist who uses ACT and or CBT may be helpful.