Past me helpfully set a reminder in my calendar to say that between 27th and about the 5th are often peppered with a few low/ despsir days. I feel all right. Good actually
But this time of year can crash at you unexpectedly. Old griefs mixed with new ones, slide shows. So.

My top tips of how to ride it out are mostly about doing small immediate lovely things (for me drawing, playing my guitar). Not trying to plan a whole future or make sense of a whole past. Not wondering Where You Went Wrong with certain times/ people. Paying yourself compliments.

I have a tendency towards being messy. It's not going to change. It needn't necessarily. As long as I keep the kitchen clean the rest can froth up a bit. Now is not the time to create a sanitised, magazine feature, version of you. They'd feel sad about loss and time passing too.