I love the holiday season, but I dread when it’s over.
For someone like me that works alone (and has a lot of quiet time to myself), I look forward to having friends and family home for the holidays. It’s so different from my normal day-to-day.
I love the transformation that happens when our house is full of people and there are a million different conversations all happening at once. There’s so much life! And noise! And excitement!
But every year, right after the holidays, I find myself in a rut.
Our house goes back to its quiet state as people go back to their own homes, and all that’s left is another three to four months of gray, bleak winter ahead of us. Not to mention it’s the end of the year, which is naturally a time of reflection. It compounds things a bit.
As a result, I find myself feeling pretty sad, and for the past several years, I’ve really struggled through the first few weeks of January as I try to get myself back on track with “normal” life and work.
After tweeting a similar sentiment last week, I thought it’d be good to talk a bit about this--and if nothing else, it might serve as a reminder to anyone else who’s feeling the same way.
You’re not alone, and I can tell you that at least for me, it goes away with time. It does get better.
I’ve written before about how I often find working from home (or at least independently, without co-workers) isolating at times. I saw a study recently that showed loneliness is the #1 drawback of freelancing. I believe that.
For me, living in an especially rural area, I feel like it’s even harder during cold winter months when:
1. I don’t want to leave the house because it’s so cold
2. There’s not a lot else going on anyway
However, this year I’m at least trying to be mindful of the fact that I know the post-holiday blues are pretty normal for me--and I’m working to anticipate that. I’ve found that keeping busy is a good distraction, so I have plans to:
Work through the list of library books I’ve been wanting to read
Take a few classes on MasterClass and learn some new skills
Find out how I can volunteer at the local pet shelter
Continuing to work on things for the Domina Retreat
In reality, there’s no magic wand I can wave that’s going to make it all better.
It’s a work in progress, and I think just being aware of the fact that it happens is a good start.
If you're dealing with the same: Hang in there.
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