Let’s Talk Mental Health: It's Always the Season to Celebrate
By: By Mrs. Athena M. Diesch-Chham, MSW, LICSW


 As Fall winds down, and we inch closer to Winter, we often find ourselves being pulled to have the energy and space to get into the Holidays and lean into the celebrations of the season. However, so many find themselves forcing or faking it due to not having gas in the tanks to genuinely attend to this. The concept that Holidays are predestined to be joyful often leaves many people feeling excluded as this has not or is not their experience. When celebrating has so much pressure surrounding it, there becomes a very real opportunity for disappointment to occur.

Most of us are good enough at celebrating the BIG things. Weddings, Births, Graduations… Monumental life occurrences. Additionally, most of us are dismissive at best at celebrating the littler things. Career accomplishments, children’s milestones, our MN sports teams doing well, and anniversaries just to name a few. To take it a step further, none of us are good at celebrating the daily things, the occurrences that are big in the moment but fade quickly and often aren’t remembered a week later. When we completely push past situations and events that made an impact on us in the moment, we open that door to disappointment feeling bigger or deeper when we do take the time to celebrate those BIG things.

So instead of pushing past the daily wins or events, let’s start to embrace them. When things go smoothly, a high-five in the hallway with a peer is a great way to embrace this. When the team rallies behind each other, notes or tokens of gratitude absolutely land strong. When a patient leaves this world in a peaceful way, taking a moment to embrace the end of suffering would be powerful. Seeing these moments in their entirety and celebrating the pieces that did go well, allows for more space for celebration to be embraced, and normalized.

When we can celebrate all experiences, big and small, daily, or monumental we open the door for joyful celebrations to have less pressure and less opportunity to land in disappointment, and possibly feel like we can be in the “Holiday Spirit.”