As someone who thinks a lot about mental health, I have always been a sucker for December. Even though our climate gives us dark days and cold temperatures, our consumer-driven culture pushes us to gobble up the bargains and drain our wallets and our pandemic-laden times gives us an unrelenting barrage of stress, the 12th month of every year has elements that can boost anyone’s mental health, if you look for them.
If you never thought about your mental well-being, it seems to me like it’s a good time to start. Recently, the respected Gallup organization announced that they are partnering with powerhouse Magellan Health “to execute the largest wellbeing study ever” so that everyone – especially employers — can find ways to help people thrive. Why? Because in 2020, seven out of 10 people were struggling or suffering in their lives. Those signs have to do with the rising number of suicides, deaths of despair caused by substances (what they call “suicide in slow motion”), self-reports of anxiety, depression, violence and unending stress. While all these phenomena were present before the pandemic, our battle with COVID-19 is making them all worse.
But from my vantage point, December is pac ked with potent messages of health and hope. First of all, consider the emotions that for most of us in the United States bookend our holiday season.
It starts with Thanksgiving, a holiday that should be about something bigger than football or a Macy’s parade. Most people would agree that it’s about gratitude, a feeling that many see as a fundamental key to happiness. Less known is the fact that when President Abraham Lincoln set the day on the path to becoming a national holiday, he also hoped that a day of prayerful reflection would help “heal the wounds of our Nation.”
On the other end, the month has an abundance of messages about and opportunities for altruism. We should probably thank Charles Dickens for that because his “Christmas Carol” reinvented Dec. 25 to slowly brand it to be about charity. These days, there is a ton of research behind the fact that thinking of others through acts of kindness strengthens our own mental and physical health. Giving seems to help both the giver and receiver alike.
Before it’s over, December extends one more invitation that some people can’t resist – they make a New Year’s resolution. To do so seriously, one would take stock of the previous year, assess and make a goal. Quiet reflection is most often a good mental health thing; you can’t do it with a computer screen, nor by texting, nor by watching videos or TV. Sitting with your thoughts, what some people call meditation, need not be devoted to worrying or anxiety but a time to slow down, rest and reflect.
There’s a reason that the brainy people at Gallup are stepping up their focus on mental well-being around the globe. While they’ve been studying that since the late 1970s, they explained their new sense of urgency a few weeks ago. Looking at their mountains of survey data from many countries and reading the tea leaves, they conclude that the next pandemic on our planet could well be about mental health. Perhaps we’d all do better by giving energy to our mental well-being and finding the opportunities for that whenever they come around.
Phil Wyzik is chief executive officer of Monadnock Family Services.