Right from enjoying Christmas dinners, and partying night long with friends to viewing New Year’s fireworks, the year-end is regarded as the world’s ultimate grand festive break.

While some people are looking forward to new beginnings, many others find themselves stranded and riddled with a looming sense of anxiety despite all the cheering and happiness. This heaviness gradually creeps in as you finally come back home from the new year's eve party or simply keep away the phone and take a break to reflect on all the activities of the past year while making massive plans for the year ahead.

Well, anxiety in any form can never be a pleasant feeling. In between the tension and time constraints revolving around the holidays, having the full year planned, people, posting about alterations in eating and drinking habits, and the irksome “New Year, New Me” messages glaring around the media, it’s obvious for any person to feel anxious and dejected making the holiday season not-so-merry and bright! Additionally, it becomes extremely difficult to share your thoughts when you find yourself surrounded by people who are in great psychological shape, doing well in their lives, achieved a great lot in the last year and booming with lots of energy for the upcoming year.

If you too are feeling anxious and stressed about the new year, one thing you need to understand is that you aren’t alone. Many in the queue are trying to cope with the same!

And to beat this tension, the preliminary step is to perceive and acknowledge your true feelings; so that you can take baby steps towards being active, and making positive changes which in turn helps improve your overall mental health and physical well-being.

But before making small necessary changes, one needs to first understand the cause of their anxiety. Here is a list of reasons that might be the justification behind your heightened anxiety as the year draws quickly to a close:

• Getting captivated by past events and regretting the future
• The societal pressure of forging personal growth and improvement
• The stress to fashion new year’s resolutions and the act of accomplishing it
• The unpredictability of the whole new year
• Big modifications can be stressful to think about
• The uneasy feeling of not accomplishing anything good the previous year
• Being burnt out from the actions of the past year

Well, now that you are completely aware of your stressors, try these simple methods to let go of your tensions and welcome the new year with a positive attitude.

Simple Tips To Manage Year-End Anxiety

Practice Self-compassion And Mindfulness

For many people, the end of the year is a time of introspecting oneself by focusing on targets they failed to achieve creating more turmoil and anxiety regarding the upcoming year. So instead of aiming for perfection and thinking about the failures, try to be proud of however close you get to your target. This you can do by focusing on what you achieved in the past year; lessons of life you learned, relationships you forged with new people or the ones you built stronger and all the positive experiences you had in the past year. For an instance, if you would have created a goal to reduce 20 kgs, but have only gone past 10, think about the routine you have followed religiously and give a pat on your back. The good thing is to stick to the schedule but you need not rush with it, remember the saying ‘Slow and Steady Wins the Race.’ So, focusing on the good, helps one feel optimistic about the future year to come.

Also, Read New Year: Here’s Your Guide To Stay Healthy, Fit In 2021 & Beyond

Set Positive Goals That You Can Keep

Settle for small resolutions that you know you can achieve. It's pivotal to be realistic and true to your inner self rather than being someone you are not. Setting an aim of becoming a millionaire in a year might not be rational but saving 1000 Rs/- each month might help you work towards being financially mindful, and the same goes for suddenly turning vegan or banning alcohol! One needs to take small steps and not leap towards a bigger one. While dreaming big is not something bad, giving oneself a reality check every once in a while, helps create smaller, specific, and realistic goals that you know you can accomplish.

Also Read: How To Stick To Your New Year's Health Goals

Rest, Relax, And Recharge

Instead of contemplating on the past year and being anxious about the coming future, consider the year-end break as a way of unwinding yourself to rest and relax to the fullest. This requires nothing much but just being in the present and utilizing every moment without the push of yesterday and the pull of tomorrow. And to rejuvenate and recharge, catch hold of something you truly enjoy that not only eliminates stress and strain from your mind but also pacifies breathing and restores inner calmness. You can plan for a family trip, one with friends or simply a solo journey to remove the stressors from your life and find the inner you. By pacifying the brain’s stress factor, one can achieve clarity of thought process and psychological evaluation, which in turn calms the flight or fight mode in an individual and reduces the overall stress.

Let Go Off Cliche New Year's Phrases

The saying ‘New Year, New Me’, is quite a cliched phrase that is overused with each passing year, setting a bar for creating enormous goals and expectations over oneself within a short span of 12 months. This is where people make mistakes as a biblical standard does nothing but lead to anxiety and stress over failing to accomplish the task. Instead, one should create smaller goals throughout the year to rid the mind of stress. Deciding that you would be a completely new person from the 1^st day of January is quite overwhelming creating immense pressure and anxiety over the simplest of glitches.  Think of the resolution as a marathon and not a sprint race, one that takes some time to complete. Make sure you work on yourself little by little to visualize the changes in your personality and your life and not simply jump to the conclusion.

Do Not Hesitate, Bring In The Change Today

Yes, bringing in a change can be difficult, more so when you are comfortable with your daily schedule. But if you want to achieve something, why wait for a specific time or date? Surely, the idea of having a fresh start in life in the new year is a pleasant one, but who says that you have to procrastinate to get started? Procrastination can be a huge stumbling block on your path to success. Although a little delay isn’t always a bad thing, taking control of your life and incorporating simple changes can help you achieve your goal faster. Change is inevitable and getting used to it is the key. Once you accept it wholeheartedly and start by making small alterations in your daily routine, it will be easier to create bigger changes in your life later on to accomplish a set resolution.