I’m a therapist — play my ‘holiday bingo’ game to stay sane while spending time with your family this Christmas
Does going home for the holidays stress you out? Bingo!
One very creative therapist has gone viral sharing the stress-relieving game she invented to help her patients navigate another Christmas with their frustrating families.
“Okay, so I have a tip on how to survive the holiday season,” psychotherapist Kristina Virro said in a video which has been blowing up on TikTok and Instagram.
“I honestly may go to hell for it but it’s just too good to not share,” she joked before she introduced her “holiday bingo” game.
“What you do is make a bingo card and each square represents one of the f-cked up things that’s going to happen at your family event,” Virro said.
Basically, you predict what your family will do to upset you and write down whatever you’re anxious about.
“If every year your uncle makes an offensive comment, put it on the bingo card. If you have an almond mom who’s going to make some sort of comment about how much you’re eating, that goes in a square,” Virro said.
If you get five in a row horizontally, vertically or diagonally, then you win — and get to give yourself a prize.
The therapist explained that the game allows people to remove themselves from annoying and frustrating situations, “rather than absorbing all of the stuff that’s happening.”
“This game helps people detach emotionally from things that might normally cause them stress and enables them to take a ‘witness stance’ to events, rather than taking things personally,” Virro told The Post.
“In essence, it helps them create emotional boundaries, which are about owning your own emotions and not absorbing the emotions or actions of others,” she said.
“Plus, I’m a big fan of inserting humor into a situation so that we just don’t take life too damn seriously.”
Family gatherings can be stressful situations, especially during an already hectic time of year, for a long list of reasons, including the pressure to be in a relationship or finances, causing a lot of people anxiety heading into these festivities. That’s why Virro recommends going in with a game plan.
Along with secretly playing holiday bingo by yourself or with a few trusted loved ones, Virro suggests indulging in “silent self-care,” the practice of doing sneaky things to take care of yourself that other people won’t recognize as self-care, leaving them with nothing to comment on.
“For example, if listening to your family arguing about politics at the dinner table is stressing you out, you can excuse yourself to do dishes in the kitchen,” Virro said. “This isn’t about you being a polite guest; this is about you giving yourself a moment to breathe and recuperate.”
“You also might ‘forget something at the grocery store’ that you need to go out and get, so that you have some quiet time.”
The mental health expert shared that she’s also encouraged clients to wear a Superman t-shirt under their sweater to remind themselves of their strength, or carry a stone in their pocket to remind themselves to be their own rock whenever they touch it.
“Our families, knowing us best, know how to push our buttons,” Virro warned.