Finding Calm After the Holiday Storm

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Ever felt the rush and then the crash after the holiday season? This episode of Mental Health-ish takes you on a personal journey through the whirlwind of Christmas madness, from the exhilarating highs of gift shopping and gingerbread house building to the post-festivity fatigue that hits hard. 

But wait, there's more! Just when everything seemed to be going perfectly, an unexpected scam turned into a lesson on staying vigilant during the holiday season. I'll share essential tips on protecting both your mental and emotional well-being, and why post-holiday self-care is more important than ever. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, welcome back to Mental
Health-ish.
It is the day after Christmasas I am recording this and I
can't help but feel just sorelieved that Christmas is
finally over.
As much as I loved it and asfun as it was this year because
I actually had Emma with me I'mjust glad that it's over.

(00:21):
I don't know about you guys,but just the days I mean month
and days leading up to Christmasare so stressful.
Not only are we rushing to getgifts and like finding the you
know the perfect gift and goingshopping and dealing with
holiday crowds and trafficeverywhere.

(00:41):
It's a frenzy.
It's basically a frenzy, rightLike it just feels so rushed to
just get to Christmas.
And there's just so muchadrenaline that week leading up
to Christmas and I feel evenlike for myself, the two days
leading up to Christmas werecrazy.
They were fun, but they werecrazy.

(01:04):
I had Emma with me, so we did alot of movies, we played a lot
of games, we did a lot ofactivities and even on Christmas
Eve I felt like we there's justso much pressure to like make
it a fun day, and not that Ididn't want it to be a fun day,
like I enjoyed, you know,hanging out with her and doing
all these things, but still itjust takes up so much energy.

(01:27):
So we were making gingerbreadhouses, we were coloring, we
were singing Christmas songs, wewere dancing and just doing
like so many different things.
Right, we stayed up tillmidnight and opened presents all
night Christmas Eve.
And I mean I also added somestress to myself because I

(01:49):
bought us tickets to the PolarExpress train ride.
So we did that on Christmas Eveduring the morning.
So then I was editing our videofor YouTube, because I've been
posting a lot of experiences onYouTube, so then I stayed up
doing that.
So, anyhow, I feel likeyesterday, for Christmas Day,
when I finally had to come backto work, it finally kicked in.

(02:13):
Like all the tiredness fromChristmas, all the energy
draining from the past two days,I feel like everything just hit
me at once and I felt soexhausted.
Yesterday, christmas day, I wasjust like coffee didn't even
help.
I got some coffee and it stilldidn't wake me up.

(02:35):
So I feel like everything justkind of hits us on that day,
christmas, the day afterChristmas, like everyone's just
kind of emotionally recoveringfrom the holidays and all the
Christmas shopping, all theChristmas, everything, christmas
energy.
I feel like it's yeah, it'scrazy.

(02:56):
And so during the holidayseason, as much as everything is
like so much fun and everythingor not fun like, just remember
to take a few moments or a fewhours, a few days, if you can,
to recover from all thecraziness and holiday energy
sucking that has been happening.

(03:17):
I feel like all my energy waslike drained out of me.
Remember to just take some timeto recover yourself, recover
your mental health, rechargeyour energy and yeah, but yeah.
I hope all of you had awonderful Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day.
I was having fun and then I gotthis email.

(03:40):
So I almost got scammed onChristmas Eve and that was
annoying.
I literally was having.
I think I was in the middle ofbuilding a gingerbread house.
I want to say, when I checkedmy email and I got an email from
the Marriott hotels, it was abooking confirmation I was like

(04:02):
what the heck?
Like booking confirmation?
At first I thought it was a scam, like an email scam.
You know how you get emails,like fake emails that say, oh,
you know, order confirmation orblah, blah, blah.
And it's a scam like to get youto click like the link in the
email or and like put in yourpersonal information, things
like that.
So at first, when I saw theemail or and like put in your

(04:23):
personal information, thingslike that.
So at first, when I saw theemail confirmation for this
hotel booking, I thought it wasa scam and I was like I'm not
going to click on it and, youknow, put in my personal info
and things like that.
So what I did was I just wentdirectly to the Marriott Hotels
website, like separately, likeon my phone, and I did this

(04:46):
because I remembered, I think awhile back we had taken, we had
took a trip somewhere.
I don't remember if it was whenwe went to Niagara Falls, I
don't know, but I know that I'vebooked hotels through Marriott
before, so I know I do have anaccount.
So, although I thought it waslike complete spam, like I also
remember like, hey, well, I dohave an account.

(05:06):
So like what if someone youknow hacked into my account and
like book the room and a lot ofthese websites nowadays to like
when you're booking and buyingthings like it has you save your
credit card info and thingslike that on there?
So I was like, oh hell, no.
Like what if someone's using,like my credit card and you know
they hacked into my Marriottaccount this account that I that

(05:29):
is forgotten and booked a roomor I don't know.
So I went into their actualwebsite, I signed into my
account, you know, with my email, and I went to my booking
history and I found a booking onChristmas Eve.
There was a booking for tworooms, two different rooms, at a

(05:52):
Marriott hotel, and I think itwas Minnesota somewhere or
Minneapolis, I don't know, butit was somewhere outside of
California that I've never beento.
And so I was like what the heck?
Like it's actually real, Likesomeone really did book a room,
you know, with my account.
And so I went ahead and canceledthe two reservations and I

(06:13):
changed my password to thatMarriott booking thing and I
also went to, like the paymentsection where it has, like the
saved cards or whatnot.
Thankfully it was an old cardanyway, so it would have gotten
declined, but still, you know.
So I deleted all the cards offthe account and, yeah, I was

(06:34):
like oh my gosh.
And then after that I got thecancellation emails in my email
and then after that I got asorry, we were unable to process
your travel insurance, you know, request or whatnot.
So I'm like these people likealso try to purchase travel
insurance so that they could getlike some kind of reimbursement

(06:57):
or something.
I don't know.
But I was like, oh my gosh, Ican't believe people are
seriously scamming people duringthe holidays and so just be as
if we didn't need something elseto stress out about during the
holidays in general, or ingeneral, be careful with
scammers.
Be careful with scammers duringthe holidays, with scammers.

(07:22):
Be careful with scammers duringthe holidays.
People are hungry, people are,you know, wanting to be festive
and wanting to do things right,go to stay places, I don't know.
But just be very careful.
And just a quick reminderscammers are out there.
Scammers are lurking.
So make sure.
If you have any old accountsthat you have forgotten about
that may have your credit cardinformation stored or

(07:45):
identifying information stored,just go in there and delete it.
If you're not going to use theaccount no more, delete it, or
at least delete your creditcards off of the account,
because, wow, I was about to bescammed on Christmas Eve, but
thankfully I was able to cancelit.
So, anywho, happy holidays.

(08:05):
Christmas is done, new Year's iscoming up.
Next week New Year's Eve andthe New Year, so I'm really
excited to just get started on aclean slate and just kind of
think about what my goals arefor the next year.
Let me know if you have likeany type of ritual that you

(08:27):
follow for the new year and howyou get yourself organized.
But other than that, thank youfor listening to this episode.
Remember to subscribe, like andshare.
And yeah, thank you guys.
So much.
I hope you all had a greatChristmas.
Talk to you soon.