Electronic Winter 2024 | Issue 61

Holiday Season Reflection Prompts

By: Nandita Gupta IPS Medical Student Committee Co-Chair M4, Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University 

(Written originally for the IPS Medical Student Committee.)

Disclaimer: These prompts and reflections were inspired by my own experiences. I am not a mental health expert (yet!)

Setting yourself up for success in 2025: As we are approaching the end of the year, I want to invite you to reflect on how your mental health has been over the past year. What are strategies that have helped you take care of your mental health this year? What are ways you want to improve or take better care of your mental health next year? Forming new habits or breaking old ones takes time, and it does not happen overnight. I also would like to say that you do not need to wait until 2025 to try out new strategies for maintaining your mental health! Why not start now? Here is a video that I have found helpful from Youtuber Muchelleb on forming habits. She also has a video specifically about how to form a habit for exercising. I think this is an area that many people (myself included) struggle with! So, if creating a habit for exercising is on your 2025 resolution list, this might be helpful.

The Holidays are not always fun!

I also want to acknowledge that while this time of year can be joyous for some, for others it can be a time of loneliness, grief, or conflict with friends or family members. Navigating these emotions or situations can be difficult or feel isolating, so I wanted to share a resource that might be helpful. This is a video by YouTuber Ingrid Nilsen that I watched years ago, but I still think has a lot of good and relevant advice that I still think about now. She gives advice for navigating challenges during the holidays in regards to family conflict, grief, and food (i.e. if you don’t have a great relationship with food, have very specific dietary needs that you have to advocate for, being a support system for someone with an ED, etc.).

If you are in crisis, please call or text the following numbers for immediate support:

• Call or text 988 (988 Lifeline - If you need emotional support, reach out to the national mental health hotline: 988.)

Crisis Text Line: Text “HOME” to 741741 (Crisis Text Line | Text HOME to 741741 Free, 24/7 Mental Health Support)

For my fellow M4s- hang in there! As we continue to move through the residency application cycle, you might be feeling excited or disappointed about where you have gotten interviews, your match prospects, etc. You may also be dreading having conversations about residency with family or friends over the holidays. Whenever I have felt uncertain about the future or whether I would end up where I want to be, I have always found it to be helpful to hear the stories of others, and how they came to be where they are now in life. What I have found from talking to so many people about their life stories, is that very rarely is anyone’s career path a direct linear line. And I think often the most interesting people have wandered a little on their way to their goal destination. In this spirit, I want to share one of my favorite videos on Youtube. It is a commencement address given by social worker and researcher Brene Brown. She shares the story of her career, including her failures, and how often times she has had to contend with the fact that things often do not happen according to our plans or on our timelines. I hope you find it helpful:

I am wishing you a Happy Holidays (to those who celebrate), a wonderful end to your year, and sending you all of the good energy for 2025!