How to Handle Holiday Anxiety During Quarantine

Are you feeling anxious about the holiday season this year? It will surely look different due to quarantine. But we can handle holiday anxiety during quarantine by choosing peace based on the timeless principles in God’s Word.

Name Your Anxieties

I’m thinking back to Easter 2020, which was the first holiday to look totally different due to quarantine. I had a low-grade bundle of anxiety heading into it, and I found greater peace once I named my feelings rather than letting them silently simmer in a mental stew.

Afraid of feeling disappointed, I fretted about letting my emotions spoil the day for my family. I was worried that it would be a big let-down, a blah and unremarkable day compared to normal. On top of that, I was worried about how long the lockdown would last (and let me say, I NEVER thought it would last all the way through November and beyond!).

On my daily prayer walks, God invited me to be honest with him about my feelings. So, I voiced them aloud, no matter how silly or petty they seemed. As soon as I let them out into the open, I felt a little better. Nothing had changed, except that I was no longer bottling my feelings inside.

Several Psalms tell us to cry out to God. Literally, voice our concerns to him aloud. Naming our anxieties about this season can help. Here are several psalms to remind you to cry out to God, all in the New Living Translation:

But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry to him reached his ears. Psalm 18:6

Listen to my prayer for mercy as I cry out to you for help, as I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary. Psalm 28:2

Morning, noon, and night I cry out in my distress, and the Lord hears my voice. Psalm 55:17

I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. Psalm 57:2

I encourage you to name all your anxieties in vocal prayers to God. When you sense anxiety rising in you, name it. Give it to God and tell him you are trusting him to help you. He will draw you closer with each instance of your crying out. This is a great way to handle your holiday anxiety during quarantine.

When you sense anxiety rising in you, name it. Give it to God and tell him you are trusting him to help you. #anxiety #prayer #peace Click To Tweet

Choose Your Mindset

In April, I realized I had a choice. I could fret and fume and complain, or I could set my mind to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. Just because it would be the first Easter ever that I wouldn’t attend church didn’t mean I couldn’t celebrate. The pandemic couldn’t stop Easter from coming.

The same is true about Thanksgiving and Christmas. The pandemic can’t stop these celebrations of gratitude and joy. Quarantine will only sap the wonder and beauty from these seasons from us if we allow it.

Now, if you’re grieving over the holidays being different, that’s an important part of changing your mindset. We’ll cover grief as a main topic next week. Today, we’ll focus only on the anxiety track.

This past week, I was faced with a decision about my mindset. Anxiety was running wild in my mind. Yet, I knew that peace was within reach if I took hold of it. I remembered my meditation verse from 2017, which is Isaiah 26:3 NIV –

Because I had meditated on that verse literally thousands of times before, I could pull it up in my memory even while I was driving. I repeated that verse again, several times in a row out loud, meditating on the truths inside it:

• God will keep me in perfect peace. I don’t have to manufacture peace myself. He will provide it.
• I must keep my mind steadfast, focused and fixed on him rather than on my anxiety-provoking situation.
• God never changes, and he’s always with me. That’s why I can trust him.

By meditating on the truths packed in this single verse of Scripture, I was able to reframe my mindset. I was quite literally setting my mind on things above, as we are instructed to do in Colossians 3:1-2. When we choose a heavenly mindset, we can overcome our holiday anxieties with God’s help.

Quarantine will only sap the wonder and beauty from these seasons from us if we allow it. #mindset #holidayseason #christmas Click To Tweet

Christian Meditation for Greater Peace

Moving into this holiday season, I’m choosing gratitude during my quiet times in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. I’m setting my sights on the smaller, simpler joys I experience every day, rather than pouting about the “normal” things I won’t have this year. Counting these blessings helps change my mindset.

During Advent, I’ll be immersing myself in the Bible storyline, rather than simmering in the anxieties of my current situation. I’ve determined in advance to not let the enemy mess with my mindset. Satan would love nothing more than to steal the joy and gratitude God wants me to choose in this holiday season. But I’m fighting back with the truths I uncover through Christian meditation, which I’ll be unpacking with you in coming weeks.

Need help choosing your mindset this season? I have several resources for you:

• the daily scriptures in this Christmas book
• the problem areas in my thought life book
• the meditation prompts in this course for anxiety
• and in this course on choosing joy.

Christian meditation is a key to handling holiday anxiety during quarantine. I hope it helps you as much as it is helping me!

Satan would love nothing more than to steal the joy and gratitude God wants me to choose in this holiday season. I’ve determined in advance to not let the enemy mess with my mindset. #christianmeditation Click To Tweet

Rejoice in the Differences

This Easter, my family of five purposely chose to celebrate in different ways. Our older children enjoyed big plastic eggs filled with candy and ITunes gift cards, set at their breakfast plates. The online church experience was surprisingly joyous. We had a steak dinner for the first time ever on Easter, and it was fabulous!

We also played fun minute-to-win-it games, which ended with a fishing contest between my two sons. All of us enjoyed the strawberry slab pie made by my daughter, who has honed her baking skills during quarantine.

Our Easter celebration didn’t have the regular traditions of in-person church services or visiting my in-laws. It didn’t have the egg hunts of past Easters, when our children were younger. But it had its own new and different joys. They required a bit more planning, which was worthwhile because we had more reasons to rejoice.

We can rejoice in the differences of this season when we are intentional about how we celebrate them. A bit more planning can make an enormous difference in the fun factor for your family. Planning ahead can help you anticipate goodness despite the differences. Planning also gives you something healthy to focus on instead of your anxieties. I’ll be sharing more ideas for how you can celebrate this different season in coming posts.

We can rejoice in the differences of this season when we are intentional about how we celebrate them. #anxiety #holidays #intentionallife Click To Tweet

I love that this famous passage on anxiety contains a directive to rejoice. Let’s break it down here:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:4-7 NIV

Here are the actions you can take from this passage:

Rejoice.

We can always rejoice in the Lord’s unchanging character, even when we don’t find our situations worth rejoicing over.

Be gentle.

When I’m anxious, I lose my gentleness and become harsh. Does this happen to you too? God can help you stay gentle when you go straight to him with your anxiety.

Do not be anxious.

In every single situation we face, we can cast off anxiety and choose God’s perfect peace. The Holy Spirit will empower us to make this choice as we ask for his help.

Present your requests.

How do we do this? Through prayer. With thanksgiving. And what will we get in return when we lay out our requests to God? We receive the peace of God which transcends all understanding – it will be a guard on our hearts and minds against further anxiety. Even if the answer is “no” or “wait,” God promises to give us his peace every single time.

How to use Philippians 4:4-7 to choose peace when holiday anxieties tempt you. #christianmeditation #peace #anxietyrelief Click To Tweet

Handling Holiday Anxiety During Quarantine

I hope that you now feel more prepared to handle holiday anxiety during quarantine. For further help, check out these related posts:

How to Handle Holiday Anxiety with God’s Help

How to Fight Holiday Overwhelm with Christian Meditation

Trading Anxiety for Peace, Part 1

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