The Bad Elf
I spoke to a few of you over the Christmas period and for the most part everyone is feeling a bit flat after the big day. There was a full moon last night and if ever I can blame an external force on my internal feelings, I will.. so let me let you off too.
Christmas Day is a sensory overload from all directions. Whether you had a great day or not is irrelevant. My Christmas was fairly subdued but also one of the best I’ve had in years. No drama, nice food, not too much alcohol and a long nap once everyone went home. I still went to bed feeling somewhat off though. Boxing Day felt stranger still and (besides the looming moon) I’m going to blame it on the overstimulation of the day.
We’re overwhelmed leading up and then there’s so much to do on the day itself.. it’s a lot. Coupled with the tense feeling a lot of us have when gathering after the pandemic, it’s almost too much. We power through, we put on a happy face and we ARE enjoying it but after the fact, we crash.
I’m actually working the rest of this week and happy to be. The pressure to ‘relax’ and ‘enjoy this time’ is taken away entirely, I’m not using up annual leave in a haze of ‘what day is it?’ AND I’m in a room on my own.
ANYWAY, you came to hear about the elf, so here we go.
When I was small and in a bad mood, my Mum would say ‘I think you’ve got a bad elf’. I’m 80% sure a psychologist would take exception to this but I think it’s great so bear with. She would get me to open my mouth and she would mime removing the ‘elf’ and throwing him away. The premise is that the elf was the reason for my mood and getting rid of him gave me an opportunity to reset without any of the leftover ‘ugh’ of whatever behaviour the elf had caused.
We’re grown ups now, of course, and so we know the elf is eye roll nonsense.. BUT, did I tell you about the moon? There was a FULL MOON last night. Perhaps all that anxiety and feeling of UGH was just the moon!! Today is a fresh start, that pesky moon was messing with us all and now we can shake it off and feel more like ourselves again. It wasn’t US.. twas the moon that did it!
I hope the rest of your twixmas period is free from stress but remember, a locked bathroom and a pair of headphones can work wonders in less time than you might think.