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With Thanksgiving right around the corner, its a good time to think about how to get along with your relatives.  For many people, the holidays are a joyous occasion filled with food, fun, and people they love.  How is it that those people we love can trigger in us so many different emotions?  Whenever we get back together with our family of origin, all those old family dynamics come right back into play if we are not mindful and conscious about how we interact with one another.  If your big brother yet again says something to make you feel like a bug under his shoe, take some deep breaths to cool your limbic system (emotion center in the brain) and respond quietly yet assertively.  If your Mom puts you right back into little kid mode with some unwanted advice, take some deep breaths and let her know you appreciate that she wants to help you, but that you really don’t need advice about something as much as just being heard. 

Post-holidays depression is a real and difficult thing to manage, especially if our family still acts out some of the dysfunctions we grew up in.  Be kind to yourself (and others) knowing that this is a normal (not necessarily healthy) phenomenom and that you can take in the good aspects of the interactions and keep out the toxic interactions by remaining in control of your own actions. 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.