Author and host of the podcast 'New Mindset, Who Dis?' Case Kenny shares his mental health tips for protecting your holiday joy, including what not to do on social media and remembering that the reason for the season is gratitude towards yourself and others.

Case Kenny Explains How to Protect Your Mental Health at the Holidays

Shannon holidays known usually as the happiest time of the year, but they can also weigh on your mental health quite a bit here to help us protect our seasonal joy is case Kenny host of the podcast, new mindset who dis it's good to have you here. Thanks so much for joining us. There's this study from the National alliance on Mental Health and it showed that 63% of people felt too much pressure during the holiday season, 66% actually felt more lonely. So why can the holidays be a tough time for people with their mental health? Yeah, for sure. Well, thank you for having me. Yeah, I mean it's called the Holiday Blues and it's a very studied thing. And you know, I think the fact of the matter is for for two reasons and I think we can all relate to this first is there's a lot of pressure to have the perfect holiday. I think the holidays are the ultimate romanticized time of the year. And if we spend a lot of time on social media, we tend to compare ourselves to other people and they're overly romanticized holidays and as a result we can feel lonely, we can feel like an outsider and not to mention, I think we all know that family can be stressful as well. And then also I tend to think about the hollow not only in the sense of celebrating and spending time with family, but we tend to do a lot of year in review or look ahead and the tendency I found as humans is that we're very unfair to ourselves, especially when we look back on the year, we say things like, oh, you know, I'm still single, I didn't want to be single, or I didn't get promoted. I said that as a goal for myself. So I think at the time of year where there's a lot of pressure and it's also the time of the year where we can be very unfairly self judgmental of ourselves, and it's something that definitely pay attention to. Yeah, so we need your help then. So what are a few tips you can give us to really protect our joy this month? Yeah, I think it's all about practicality here, especially if you feel tend to feel lonely or you compare yourself your holidays with other people. Stay away from social media. It's the simplest thing to do. If you find yourself unfairly comparing yourself, remove the comparison, stop, stop spending so much time on social media. Second you know, to my point about looking at the year in the past, Looking ahead, maybe give yourself more credit for the things you've accomplished rather than all the things maybe you didn't accomplish. It's great to set big goals and often times we fall short, but find a way to give yourself more credit for what you have done, who you are, how you have grown this year, rather than harping on maybe where you fell short. And also I would say no is a powerful word during the holidays. It's great to make time for other people? It's great to give but say no to spending above your financial means? Certainly say no to overly filling your social calendar, leave some room for yourself. The holidays are brought you just as much as it's about spending time with other people and say no to your kids, They don't need everything. Are there other holidays by the way? Our traditions and routines, maybe we don't realize could actually be hurting our mental health? Yeah, Well, I mean, I think in general, you know, the holidays are about coming together with other people being grateful, celebrating that time of the year where things are a little bit slower and you can make time for other people. And, you know, as you get older, there's there's more people in your life, there's family, there's friends, there's maybe romantic partners, their maybe their family, their friends, There's a lot of pressure to be everywhere, to be everyone to everyone. Um, and that's that can get complicated and I think that pressure can can really weigh on you. So, you know, my recommendation is to find the right balance that works for you. Make time for the people that make you happy and and call it a day. Don't beat yourself up for not being everywhere or having that overly romanticized holiday. Just be aware of the pressure, choose what makes sense for you and just commit to it now despite hearing you speak here and on your podcast, you emphasize that you're just a normal guy, you're not a licensed therapist. So how do you think that that impacts the way you talk to your audience about mental health and how they receive that information as well? Yeah, I think it's the greatest thing for for me, just being a regular guy enables me to be a regular guy and that I hop on the podcast in my writing in my books, everything I do, I share what I've learned in my life. I stay away from topics I'm not qualified to talk about. I stay away from topics that I haven't personally experienced or observed have been very close to and that's very freeing and that I get to be just who I am and I get to share what I've learned over 34 years of what makes me happy. Being confident and fulfilled. And I also realized that when it comes to wellness content and mental health advice personally, as a consumer of that content myself, I get the most value from regular people. People who are working in 9-5 who have realized this makes them happy, that this doesn't make them happy. People who have found, you know, ways to make a have a more fulfilling dating life. I get a lot of value from regular people because they're so relatable and I think it's my mission to turn around and be relatable as well, to not be who I'm not. And it's great. I have a long line of long network of very qualified therapist should a topic come up that I don't want to touch referred to a therapist, but otherwise it's very easy for me just to be a normal guy and share what I've learned living a normal life. Alright. Great advice case. Thank you so much for joining us. Case ken a host of new mindset who dis for those who are looking for more tips to stay joyful this holiday season. Thanks so much for joining us.