5 Ways To Cope With the Still-Single-Holiday-Blues

“The holiday season is the most difficult time of the year for single people,” said GinaMaria-622671, 29, a pediatric nurse practitioner from Houston. That’s why she was kind enough to offer CatholicMatchers five tips for coping with the still-single-holiday-blues. “I’ve had success in these five things.”

• Reach out to a lonely elderly person. Visit an aging relative or stop by a local nursing home and hand out hard candy or prayer cards.
• Stop by an Adoration chapel and sit with Jesus, the most intimate and healing friend. Go to Mass one extra time during the week and receive Christ in your heart.
• Strengthen a friendship with another single friend, someone you haven’t talked to in a while. Notice how God has provided you with good friends for the single journey.
• Talk to God in prayer. Pick a short prayer or a scripture passage you can pray every morning. (Leave suggestions in the comment box below.)
• Visit sick children in the hospital. Most hospitals have programs to volunteer. Children remind us of the innocent excitement of Christmas; despite being seriously ill, away from their homes and friends, they still relish the pure joy of Christmas. Believe me, it is a humbling experience and it will help you cultivate a grateful heart.

Gina has one more tip for battling holiday blues: Embrace the CatholicMatch community more fully. “Put yourself out there, make comments on the blog posts and forums, don’t just read them like a fly on the wall,” she said.

“Engage, make friends, and offer advice. If one person grows or is touched in some way by your comment or insight, you have made yourself a gift, which is an act of love.”

Gina continued, “Don’t just use CatholicMatch to meet a spouse, use it to meet friends. I met a great friend a couple of months ago, another devout Catholic woman in my city, and this Advent we’re doing a Christmas novena together.

“God is always opening doors, but it’s up to you to take the action of walking through it. What you put into CatholicMatch is what you’ll get out of it.”