How to survive the silly season

20 December 2022

By Tim Baker

It’s the happiest time of the year, apparently, but for those of us living with a life-threatening, chronic illness, it can be the most challenging time of the year.

The isolation many of us experience living with cancer can be compounded by the expectation that we are surrounded by loved ones and extended family, gorging on ham and Christmas pudding and swilling beers and white wine in the summer sun. If you’re trying to live a healthy life, need your quiet time, or find your sense of loneliness heightened this time of year, know that you are not alone.

I find many of my healthy lifestyle habits get derailed during the Silly Season. My M.E.D.S – Meditation, Exercise, Diet, Sleep – can come a cropper in a Yuletide wave of social events, decadent dining, strained family relations, Christmas shopping and the expectation that every sunset is greeted with a round of drinks.

I’ve learned to duck most non-essential Christmas parties, to spare myself the exhaustion of making small talk, the fried finger food, the late nights and carousing. But it’s a fine balance. It’s easy to end up feeling like Cinderella and the dreaded F.O.M.O can quickly kick in. Like most things in life, it’s all about balance.

Herewith then, a few tips to survive the silly season:

• Be real. Feel into whether you really want to do something, to attend that Christmas party or brave the local shopping mall. If something feels exhausting, don’t do it. Shop online. Make excuses. Honour your energy levels and if you need to rest, rest.
• Find your happy place. For me and my family, it’s a little beach town just down the coast where we rent a modest holiday home for a week before the Christmas madness descends. Thus, we see out the year with surfs, beach walks, prawn sandwiches, Scrabble, the cricket droning in the background along with the cicadas. The best kind of therapy.
• If you want to go easy on the booze, or abstain all together, make sure you have an appealing, non-alcoholic alternative close at hand. We are spoiled for choice in this regard these days with the growing range of zero alcohol beers, spirits and wine. Ginger beer, mineral water, fresh juices, fruit smoothies are all good options too.
• It’s not hard to make your Christmas dinner a healthy one. The Australian penchant for Christmas seafood is our friend in this regard, if you’re prepared to join the insane queues for fresh prawns, crayfish and oysters. Or pre-order and spare yourself the drama, or go for options no one is prepared to punch on over, like a side of smoked salmon, or try curing your own fish for a tasty entrée. Healthy salads make a great accompaniment.
• When I’m on holidays I tend to take a little holiday from my regular nutritional standards too. If you’re someone who tries to follow a strict, healthy diet, the stress of trying to maintain those standards when away from home or confronted with the Christmas lunch bounty is probably worse for you than having that cheese, cured meat, fine wine or cake. All things in moderation, including moderation.
• Holidays are a great time to embrace the siesta. There’s a reason many of the world’s great cultures manage a post-lunch kip. Charging through the entire day without a rest is a peculiarly western, capitalist mindset that the rest of the world regards with disdain. Request a hammock for Christmas and find a shady quiet spot to hang it. If it’s all feeling a bit much – the shopping frenzy, the in-laws, the crushing cycle of the kids or grandkids’ sugar rushes and comedowns – find a darkened room, lay down and close your eyes, one hand on your heart, one on your abdomen and focus on the rise and fall of your breath. A short rest, even if you don’t actually fall asleep, can be wonderfully restorative.
• Give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve made it through another year, endured the anxieties and uncertainties of a cancer diagnosis, the scans and blood tests and treatment, and you’re still here. That alone warrants a loud, enthusiastic, Hell Yeah! Solidarity cancer comrades. And Season’s Greetings to you and yours.

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