Dealing With Loneliness During Holiday/Festive Season

Connecting back with old memories or relatives reminds us of the strong bond that we hold with each other, and how we feel about each other.

Festive seasons are happy times, they are a reason to connect with family, friends and relatives. Festivals or holiday times have hidden intent of bringing happiness to the table. It usually involves shopping, exchanging sweets, visiting relatives, and brings back old memories. They are the times of reliving old memories and connecting back with people. Connecting back with old memories or relatives reminds us of the strong bond that we hold with each other, and how we feel about each other.

Festivals or holidays from golden days are celebrated with our families and friends, where we see their importance in our lives. The festivals come periodically in the year, so they break the monotony of the routine. The festive times help us to connect with people breaking our routine and connecting with them. The festivals have a tendency to rejuvenate and re-energise us from the tiring routine we follow. Some festivals have a significance to be performed with family members like Raksha Bandhan, Karva Chauth, Bhai Dooj, Teej, etc.

But there are some situations of times in life when the festivals are seen to be over-rated or the chirpiness of the festivals are found as useless. It is usual to happen in situations where a person is missing the presence of family members or is bound to be away from family because of occupational engagements may be.

People who can get affected with loneliness during holiday season or festive season could be falling in the following situations:

1. Living away from home – students who stay in hostel, soldiers posted away from home, citizens living internationally, etc.

2. Lost someone recently – family who has lost someone recently. This was commonly experienced by many in the deadly wave of Covid-19

3. Living alone – when living alone in old age, or because of separation from close family members

4. Elderlies – often elderlies are left out because they can’t match up the energy levels, or the ones living in the old age homes

These situations are not invited by anyone and may come as an accidental event in the life of a person. While being in a such a psychological state, suddenly the festivals don’t hold any importance in that family or to that person and more so seem like a burden. Like Raksha Bandhan may not hold as much importance when someone’s brother or sister are away or when someone has lost their husband/wife then Karva Chauth or Teej would lose its significance to them. Only the memories are left in the life of those times that were spent with them.

It has been found that under normal conditions also people feel lonely in the times of festivity. They may get the feeling because of the extra energy present in the environment around and possibly they do not have as much energy to match the levels of energy created around them. It is a normal feeling to experience by people.

There are some ways that I would like to suggest to overcome the loneliness and its impact created in the times of festive season or during holidays. Let’s see what could be done to remove or reduce the levels of loneliness:

1. Connect with your friends and family – there may some long lost relatives with whom you bonded well in early stages of life, try to bring them back in your life by connecting with them

2. Get to know the rationales behind the festivals – instead of cribbing over the times of festival, one may get to know their significance and existence

3. Find new ways to enjoy the festival – there may some fixed ways for you to enjoy the festival with your family so far, but now you can find some new customs or new rituals to give a new meaning to the festival for yourself

4. Build new relations – you can seek for new relations, from your neighbourhood, office, etc

5. Be a part of neighbourhood celebrations – having strong bonds with neighbours you can be a part of their celebrations

6. Establish and improve existing relationships – some relations may be getting loosened, possibly because of distance, reduced communications, familial disturbances; festivals could be the time to improve those existing relationships

7. Engage into volunteer opportunities – if nothing then one can engage self into volunteering activities to bring happiness in life of others who need it too

8. Cherish old memories – the times that can’t be brought back need not only be dismissed for their nature but can be cherished well through stories, pictures, or mental imagery

9. Nurture gratitude – we usually forget to connect with super-powers at other times in life, festivals can also be seen as opportunities to display gratitude of life to them

10. Rethink about your expectations – do not hold unreasonable expectations for self and readjust if they are there

11. Do good for yourself – instead of waiting for surprises or goodness from others, do something different and new for self