How to summarize the year and not get depressed: psychologist’s advice

Every year at the end of December people summarize the results, analyze the past year and set goals for the future. It would seem that the New Year is a good holiday, and it should bring only positive emotions. But, alas, sometimes it is not without negativity. Many feel disappointed in themselves and in life, because of which they fall into depression. How to avoid this?

psychologist, candidate of psychological sciences

To summarize – a useful practice, but you need to apply it ecologically for yourself and your psyche.

It is especially relevant in today’s world, when in social networks people actively share their successes, achievements and busy lives. We are encouraged to set goals, grow, achieve and earn a lot. Instead of self-flagellation and disappointment, how can we learn to see the positive?

Don’t compare yourself to others

If your parents compared you to your classmates or friends as a child, this habit will remain as an adult. Every time you look at the lives of others (classmates, friends, famous people), especially online, where the perfect picture is presented, you involuntarily compare yourself with them.

Today, the importance of success and material wealth is very overrated. The constant race for money and recognition, in fact, exhausts a person and does not make him happy at all.

The New Year is a spiritual holiday, which is not connected with material status. Therefore, it is important to emphasize the psychological state.

People often engage in self-criticism, but do not praise themselves. However, it is useful to compare yourself only with yourself. Remember how you were a year ago. What has changed now? Life goes on, everything changes, and so do we. The task is to move into the position of an adult. Analyze what you have gone through, what events and how they have changed you. Such processes are not measured by the amount of money earned.

Do not fixate on the negative

Life does not consist only of happy moments. We make mistakes, lose people, jobs. This is normal. We tend to focus on the negative. That’s how the psyche works. These events are fewer, so they are lived more vividly. But no negative event makes the past year a failure.

Look for the positive. Look at everything as a new experience and new opportunities. Any failure is a potential opportunity to revise your life strategies and become happier.

Make it a rule, when summarizing, to remember only the good things. Emphasize it. Learn to praise yourself rather than berate yourself.

Continue to live

When a person summarizes the past year, they concern not only personal events, but also global ones. Everything that happens around us inevitably has an impact on us.

Depression here can arise due to the fact that in difficult times it is difficult to make an image of the future. This affects both the mood before the holiday itself and the general life mood. Also, the lack of an image of the future affects our self-confidence.

Do not forget that the New Year was celebrated even in the hardest times. Life always goes on. We need to rejoice and not put anything off for later.

If it is difficult to cope alone, you can seek help from a psychologist. In addition, now there are many free counseling. The world is not without kind people. Do not forget about it in difficult times.