Holiday Survival Guide - How not to lose your sh*t

May I suggest a Beta Blocker?

Welp, I managed to survive Thanksgiving despite some rowdy house guests (two toddlers) running amok. After some grimy fingers touched the baby grand piano, we had to shut that shit down and close off the formal living room. Shout out to my loops for helping me block out the overstimulating noise, and to the new SSRI added to my daily cocktail for keeping me in a cheery mood.

This post points out the annoyances we often encounter during the beloved holiday season as we all go home and regress back to our high school selves, and offers a survival guide to help you take the high road. The travel, the family, the expense, and the expectations are all too much sometimes. But this year, I have some tricks up my sleeve.

Travel Annoyances

I have a confession. I am one of those people who stands up when the plane lands. *GASP* I know, I know. It’s cringy and people fucking hate it. But let me explain. I have long ass legs (brag) and a wonky right knee. During a flight, my knee locks up from being smushed into the seat in front of me, unable to straighten my leg. When the plane lands, I want to stand the fuck up and relieve myself of the discomfort as soon as possible. If I’m on the aisle, I’ll also pull my bag down so I am prepped and ready to roll on ahead when the cattle start moving. Does it save maybe 30 seconds? Yes. It’s 30 seconds I will take. I hate every second of being on a plane. Again, I realize this behavior infuriates people, but I would say it’s for the greater good. Logically, if every aisle-sitter stood up and got their shit ready to roll when the plane lands, we would collectively save a lot of time deplaning. Call me annoying - but I am an efficiency queen.

Air travel sucks. It is one of few experiences that has actually gotten worse in modern times. As airlines aim to maximize profits, they’ve crammed us in there like sardines, squeezing as many seats as possible into one aircraft, and charge us a premium to be horribly uncomfortable for a few hours so we may get to where we need to go. Oh, and you’ll probably get sick within 24 hours of deplaning due to close exposure to about 240 other people, which leads me to MY first travel pet peeve:

People who fly when they are sick.

This is an act of bio-terrorism on your fellow plane-mates and whoever they see when they land. You see, we all breathe the same air on a plane, so your plague is circulating around the vessel, infecting innocent passengers while you open mouth cough in your seat. Let’s cover a few things:

1) cover your goddamn mouth by coughing/sneezing into a napkin or fully covering your mouth hole with the crook of your elbow. DO NOT COUGH OR SNEEZE INTO YOUR HANDS. Oyyy veyyyy if I had a nickel for every pleb I’ve witnessed sneezing into their hands and then proceeding to touch everything in site, I would be rich enough to fly private.

2) Don’t sneeze. I’ve said this before, but openly sneezing into a small public space is punishable by death. Don’t be a fucking monster.

3) Wear a mask. This should be a no-brainer on the heels of a pandemic, but then again, people have a short memory. I understand there are arguments to be made about the effectiveness of wearing a mask, but it’s CERTAINLY better than open mouth breathing your sickness into the close quarters of an airplane.

How to not piss people off on an airplane

1. DO NOT watch videos or listen to music on your phone without headphones. It still boggles my mind when I see people do this. The audacity to think that everyone else wants to listen to what you’re listening to, or even worse, the failure to even recognize that other people might be listening. Headphones. Use ‘em.

2. Don’t put your giant puffer coat in the overhead bin when people are still trying to fit their carry-on luggage up there. If I catch you doing it, I will take your coat down and put it on your lap. IF there’s still room in the overhead after everyone has boarded and put up their luggage, then sure, go ahead with your coat.

3. Do not let your children kick the back of the seat in front of them. I’m always appalled at parents who let their children behave so badly on flights. Kicking seats, touching the passenger’s HEAD in front of them with their germy hands (WUT!!!), letting them throw food, or, in the case of one of my most traumatic travel experiences, letting their kid SHIT on the seat next to me. The crew on AeroMexico didn’t even offer me hand sanitizer or wipes (or let me move).

I feel like this post is coming across as “Trish hates children.” I don’t dislike children, I just wish parents raised better behaved children. Have you ever met an Amish child? Angels.

Anyways, if I haven’t offended you too much yet, let’s carry on.

On top of ALL OF THAT, being on the plane also attacks our skin. We all know planes are incredibly dehydrating, and with the added bacteria in the air and on every surface we encounter, it’s basically like dunking your face into a giant petri dish of germs. I am very anti “skincare on the plane.” To me, that’s reckless. I am not applying any products or touching my face during a flight. My skincare routine happens pre-airport, and looks something like this:

1. Double cleanse

2. Apply Glisten Up! hydro-boosting face mist with snow mushroom for a cushion of hydration that lasts throughout the day or night

3. Apply an occlusive barrier to keep the good stuff in and the bad stuff out. Vaseline is cheap and does the job.

Good Psyche Glisten Up! Hydro-Boosting Snow Mushroom Mist

There are a few ways I try to avoid getting overly stimulated, irritated, or sick from air travel.

To avoid overstimulation (I’m very sensitive to sounds - misophonia hive rise up), I bring my loops and Bose over-ear noise cancelling headphones. The loops are great when I still need to be aware and don’t want music playing, like waiting at the gate, in line at customs, or at baggage claim.

To avoid getting overly irritated and worked up over things out of my control (isn’t that why we’re all triggered by air travel?), I take two things before a trip. Sidekick, a plant-based mouth spray that literally makes you feel more empathy and optimism (seriously, it’s so cool), and a Beta Blocker. Sometimes combining traditional medicine with modern medicine is just what you need.

Good Psyche Sidekick Euphoric Mouth Spray

Everyone has their list of pet peeves when traveling, so please hop into the comments to share yours! It’s fun. It’s cathartic.

Family. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t kill ‘em

The aunt who over-serves herself at dinner, the uncle who brings up politics, your mother running around in a manic panic preparing for company to arrive, your father watching football in the living room, uninvolved, unhelpful, unbothered.

Here are a few suggestions to make the holidays run a little more smoothly.

1. For god sakes help your mother (or whoever is hosting the holidays). Ask her what she needs to take some of the pressure off. Hosting is hard work and the preparations for a big dinner or brunch or party should be a group effort. Help clean up. Boys that includes you.

2. If you’re worried about a certain family member spewing their political agenda during dinner, set some ground rules up front. That’s right. Don’t be afraid to use the toast as an opportunity to say something like, “and to celebrate us being together, let’s leave politics at the door and appreciate what’s in front of us.” If that doesn’t work, take a page from Dorinda Medley’s book and try the famous “CLIP.”

   

3. Have an escape plan. When the household dynamics all become too much, have a plan to make a brief escape and collect yourself. This may mean going for a walk, heading to the gym, or retreating to your room to read (or watch RHONY reruns). The important thing is to remove yourself before the annoyances peak and boil over. My favorite escape plans right now are to either flee to the basement and jump in the sauna for 20 minutes, or take a smoke break upstairs with my ultra-relaxing blue lotus bliss rolls while I scroll Pinterest or 1st Dibs.

4. Be prepared to answer to their expectations. We all have the family member who asks us at every gathering, “when are you going to get married?” “have you met someone yet?” “when are you two going to have children?” Be prepared with some canned and pointed responses. “Maybe some day, but marriage isn’t a priority for me right now.” “It’s rough out there in the dating scene, but I’m open to a relationship when the right person comes along!” “When we can afford to have children. Those shits are expensive.”

Good Psyche Blue Lotus Bliss Pre Rolls for a blissful relaxation

How to avoid overspending during the holidays

Overspending is not chic, but sometimes it feels unavoidable given the expectation to spend spend spend from early Black Friday sales through post-Christmas savings. Here are a few ways I avoid overspending this month:

1. Set expectations with family and friends. My family does a Secret Santa every year, which means each of us only buys for one person. I’ll usually go outside of that to make sure I get something special for Dave and my mom, but we keep the gifting scope pretty tight. I don’t exchange gifts with friends. If you do, I think that’s really lovely, but my friend group has an understanding that everyone has financial pressures in their life be it kids, businesses, mortgages, etc. and gifts are simply not necessary. I’d rather just host a fun holiday dinner for them.

2. Fly on off days or avoid flying altogether. This year, we’re spending the holiday with Dave’s family in the UK, so obviously we have to fly to London. If you’re within ~10 hours driving distance from your destination, just drive? Yes, you might hit traffic or bad weather, but you have SO much more control when you drive and the cost of gas for a road trip is probably one tenth of the cost of plane tickets. There’s nothing worse than being hopelessly stranded in an airport. If I can get to where I need to be within 10 hours by car, I’m driving.

Make a list of all of the things you want. Make a budget. Identify the items with the biggest savings this month. Out of those, narrow it down to your top 3 most desired items within budget to buy this season for maximum savings. For example, my initial list of things I wanted to buy myself while they’re on sale looked something like this:

Dior backstage face and body foundation

Dyson cordless straightener

Hourglass strobe lightning powder

Gray turtleneck

Black chelsea boots

Triangle scarf

Oura ring

Heaven Mayham laptop case

Bang & Olufsen - Gold Beoplay HX Headphones

Frame TV

Silver hoops

Refined list:

Oura ring - I’ve been eyeing this for about a year now and really want to find a device to track my stress levels. They got pretty out of control this year and led me to multiple break downs, so I’m trying to avoid that in 2025 and beyond. Oura rings are 30% off right now, so it feels like the right time to buy and invest in my health. Improved health = ultimate ROI.

Gray cashmere turtleneck - this is a wardrobe staple and something I can wear multiple times per week for the next four months. The ROI is feeling warm and put together. Plus, with the sales it doesn’t break the bank.

Black chelsea boots - again, a timeless wardrobe staple and something I’ll wear multiple times per week for the next four months.

And that’s it folks!

I hope you enjoyed this survival guide to the holidays. I would love to hear your survival tips in the comments!

See you next week

Trish

Ps: If you hadn’t guessed, Good Psyche is my wellbeauty company. I’m a solo, self-funded founder in my first year of business, and your support means the world to me. Today is the last day of our final sale of the year, with everything 25% OFF SITEWIDE. Not only that - if you sign up on our site, you’ll receive an ADDITIONAL $10 GIFT CARD to use on a future purchase.

If you’d like to support a woman-owned small business and get the best of beauty and wellness products, buy today and save. ㅤᵕ̈