{"id":2099,"date":"2009-12-23T07:04:41","date_gmt":"2009-12-23T07:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2009\/12\/john-mcmanamy-surviving-the-ho.html"},"modified":"2009-12-23T07:04:41","modified_gmt":"2009-12-23T07:04:41","slug":"john-mcmanamy-surviving-the-ho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/12\/john-mcmanamy-surviving-the-ho.html","title":{"rendered":"John McManamy: Surviving the Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"surviving the holidays.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/71\/import\/imgs\/surviving%20the%20holidays.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"160\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/span><br \/>\nFellow blogging buddy <a href=\"http:\/\/knowledgeisnecessity.blogspot.com\/2009\/12\/surviving-holidays.html\">John McManamy<\/a> has some great, simple holiday advice on his blog. Be sure to check out his witty insights at <a href=\"http:\/\/knowledgeisnecessity.blogspot.com\/2009\/12\/surviving-holidays.html\">Knowledge Is Necessity.<\/a> Among them:<\/p>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Keep your expectations low. We tend to do the very opposite, then find ourselves dealing with the disappointment. You will be a lot better off if you don&#8217;t think of the holidays as a time to strengthen your bond to your loved one, impress your parents, reconcile with a difficult brother or sister, or be a hero to your nieces and nephews.<\/li>\n<li>Take time out for yourself. The holidays put us in situations where we are easily overstimulated and overwhelmed. If you sense a force nine family fight about to break out at the table, don&#8217;t be afraid to summarily remove yourself from the scene. The same holds true even if there is no family tension, even if everyone is enjoying themselves. You don&#8217;t need a good excuse to make an exit &#8211; any bad one will do.<\/li>\n<li>Plan ahead. The less surprises the better. The less last-minute rushing around the better.<\/li>\n<li>Figure out your needs. Some of us need to be around people. Some of us are better off taking a Sabbatical from humanity. Don&#8217;t let family obligations and other duties affect your decision. We are all dealing with a severe chronic illness, with huge consequences when things go wrong. Interpersonal stresses can set us up for a crash and burn at one end, isolation can make us sitting ducks at the other. The only wrong decision is the one you make against your own best judgment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/knowledgeisnecessity.blogspot.com\/2009\/12\/surviving-holidays.html\">To get to John&#8217;s blog, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>*&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beyondblue1\">Click here to <b>subscribe to Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/thereseborchard\">click here to follow Therese on <b>Twitter<\/b><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/community.beliefnet.com\/beyond_blue\">click here to join <b>Group Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a>, a depression support group. Now stop clicking.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fellow blogging buddy John McManamy has some great, simple holiday advice on his blog. Be sure to check out his witty insights at Knowledge Is Necessity. Among them: &nbsp; Keep your expectations low. We tend to do the very opposite, then find ourselves dealing with the disappointment. You will be a lot better off if&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration-and-prayer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>John McManamy: Surviving the Holidays - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/12\/john-mcmanamy-surviving-the-ho.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John McManamy: Surviving the Holidays - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fellow blogging buddy John McManamy has some great, simple holiday advice on his blog. Be sure to check out his witty insights at Knowledge Is Necessity. Among them: &nbsp; Keep your expectations low. We tend to do the very opposite, then find ourselves dealing with the disappointment. 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Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet.com. She is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression &amp; Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist. 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