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Curing Holiday Blues!

By Marie Slayton

While you might be by yourself a few nights this season, there is no reason to feel alone! If this holiday season you are feeling down, there is a simple cure for those dark night blues!

Being alone and feeling alone are quite different. Being by oneself in one's residence is a respectful thing to do, because one can take the time to ensure that peace is brought in. However, the feeling of loneliness is a feeling of being without, of isolation, misunderstanding. There are simple ways to rid oneself of the unnecessary feelings of loneliness and, most likely, one is waiting in the living room.

Movies afford us the opportunity to be visually stimulated or calmed. In addition, we can feel like we are participating in the action we are watching. Such is the process of observation. Identification with scenarios, characters or emotions reminds that our grief walk is not without companions. Consequently, they offer a healthy respite in what might be unwelcome solitude. Taking time out to cry, find a touch of humor or hope in your grief is so important! In addition, watching movies can bring you much needed time out and relaxation.

Curl up with a comfy blanket, a cozy pillow and unwind, be entertained, or perhaps cry. Share your feelings with those on the screen.

1)Miracle Mile

Cry until nothing matters anymore! Susan Sarandon, a depressed Dustin Hoffman and a too cute Jake Gayllanhal make this family drama one of the better grief movies out there. It is so sad it can be freeing.

2)Ghost

Laugh a little! It never hurts to watch Patrick Swayze or Demi Moore - if you are a guy. This classic is out of this world, the kind of movie that brings tears and laughter in the same breath!

3)Waking The Dead

Life beyond death! Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly provide more than adequate visual stimulation in this heart-wrenching tale of love beyond life! Again, cry, love and be found again!

4)Tuesdays with Morrie

Find meaning in it all! A moving and mesmerizing tale of learning, letting go and being challenged, this classic is good in the search for meaning in it all. Filled with life tips, spiritual advice and just good common sense, it helps provide a feeling of grace!

5)Steel Magnolias

Cry and laugh and cry again! The small town drama of love and life in the eyes of beauty shop patrons! Filled with characters you know, stories you have lived and loses you have endured, this tale is engaging. Let Julia Roberts lead you through a holiday night.

6)Love, Actually

Feel Great! Quite possibly the world's best Christmas movie! And, because life and holidays are like that, it just so happens that it lets you cry and laugh and identify and feel twenty times better when it's all over. Let your heart be warmed by this gem!

FOR THE KID AT HEART!

1)Home Alone

Classic Christmas favorite!

2)Shrek

Wildly entertaining with a lovely moral to boot!

3)Harry Potter: The Sorcerer's Stone

The first Harry Potter movie is filled with so much magic and possibility you can't help but be happy just to watch it!

4)Spiderman

Another fantastic adventure!

5)Tomb Raider

The search for truth leads a beefed up Angelina Jolie across more than 3 continents in this action packed thrill ride.

6)Amelie

Possibly one of the best "feel good" movies to come out of France in years!

GENTLEMEN, START YOUR VCR!

1)Caddyshack

One of the comedy films of the century. Bill Murray and Chevy Chase head this all-star cast as they fumble and stumble their way through the famed Bushwood Country Club.

2)Big Daddy

Great comedy from Adam Sandler and a great soundtrack too! If you thought being a dad was hard, try being this Big Daddy!

3)Dogma

Never ceases to split the old sides in laughter! Director Kevin Smith strikes again with this "angelic" comedy staring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and the prophetic Chris Rock, complete with a little tale about life after death.

4)Something About Mary

Poor Ted's adventures are hilarious, at the very least! The Farrelly brothers put this comedy masterpiece out years ago and nothing has compared to it since. That, and, Cameron Diaz is in it. What more needs to be said!

5)Rushhour

Action, jokes, great marshal arts! Jackie Chan picks up a new partner for this knock-em down adventure in the far east!

6)Primal Fear

Scary, suspenseful, thought provoking, brilliant. Totally lose yourself in this Edward Norton thriller!

SPEND A MOVIE NIGHT TOGETHER:

1)Good Will Hunting

Everyone must discover their own gifts, eventually. The circumstances for finding and using those gifts are different for everyone, even for a down and out kid from Southie.

2)25th Hour

A remorseful Monty Brogan re-evaluates his two best friends, his father and his girlfriend, his life and what he's done with all of them.

3)Saving Private Ryan

There is a good deal of violence in this movie. The relationships between men and the processes through which they go, however, are second to none.

4)The Shawshank Redemption

This story's potential for teaching is realized as a stunning cast makes its way through years of imprisonment to find salvation in hope.

5)The Green Mile

Tom Hanks finds that there is so much more to life than he initially expected.

6)My Life

A struggling Michael Keaton comes to terms with life, children and what comes after.