SPECIAL CHRISTMAS EDITION - Open the Christmas treasure chest

PRETTY LITTLE Christmas decorations masquerade as happiness, peace and love. Happy façades masking deep sadness - this Jamaicans do very well with big cars, big houses, frequent-flyer miles and sad faces. The holidays, leading into the New Year celebrations, are really a melting pot of positive and negative emotions. Let's open the Christmas treasure chest of emotions.

Anger - There was an adolescent boy who was described by his mother as 'bad like sore' but we say he is a child with behavioural problems. As we start peeling away at the layers of the boy's anger, he revealed that he was sexually abused by an older male relative when he was much younger. This is not as uncommon as you think in Jamaica.

Anger is often described as a negative emotion, but anger is a normal gut reaction to acts of injustice. This youngster had to be trained to identify his anger, the source and to appropriately channel his angry feeling. Get angry about an injustice this Christmas - the state of your country, your life, the world - and do something about it!

Grief and sadness - Grief is the normal reaction to loss. There's grief at Christmas. Lost jobs, lost opportunities, lost relationships, first Christmas without a loved one. So, what to do about grief? You just cope and recognise its life-changing potentials. Allow yourself to travel through the natural process of grief - start a daily journal, find creative outlets, write a letter to the other person, talk to a good friend or find a trained counsellor if the burden is too great.

Compassion - Christmas is big on compassion.

Compassion is love transformed into action. Look around you and ask, "Who needs an extra shoulder to rely on this Christmas?" There are elderly people who are shut-ins, homes for children and other special groups, agencies already in the business of giving, such as the Salvation Army, Missionaries of the Poor, and other church-related groups. Make care packages, help with meals and drop more than your 'yellow coins" in the Christmas kettle.

Gratitude - Gratitude is an attitude and feeling of being thankful and grateful. It's when an older, wiser woman says in the face of tragedy: "It could be worse. at least I have my life." Positive psychologists now study this attitude and say that expressing gratitude actually makes us happier people. Can you be grateful for what you have while striving for more? Christians would say, "Count your blessings." This Christmas, be grateful and make-do with what you have as you strive for more. Happy Holidays!

Eulalee Thompson is health editor and a professional counsellor; email: eulalee.thompson@gleanerjm.com.