It’s that time of year. We are moving into holiday season and hurtling our way to the end of the year. These final weeks of the year can feel like a mental, emotional, and physical sprint. Often layered with expectations, family tension, loneliness, loss, and the barrage of messaging about what the season should look or feel like. The reality is it’s a tough time for many people. Or at the very least, a time that holds a very mixed bag of emotions.

We can help mitigate some of the disappointment, burn out, angst, and tension of the season by going in thoughtfully, approaching these next weeks with groundedness and a sense of what we each need to feel a little more ok.

As someone who sat staring at her calendar this week and felt immediately overwhelmed, first, be mindful of overscheduling. There are a lot of things and people and gatherings and to-dos during this time. Remember, you don’t have to do them all. Take a look at your calendar or your holiday to-do list and see what you might need or want to forego. Simplify the gifts, meals, obligations where you can.

This dovetails with the commitment to family time. This year is feeling particularly rife with family tension, conflict, or different values or opinions. We’re coming out of an intense election season and going straight into potentially back-to-back time with family. So enjoy your time with family, with limits in place that work for you. Communicate your limits clearly, kindly, and gently. Be respectful of differences. If you’re hoping for respect from your family members, then be sure to go into your family gatherings with a respectful attitude. We are always going to encounter differences when spending time with other people, and emotions can escalate around family differences. We need to find ways of being together in the face of difference. Regardless of the cultural or political landscape, we will encounter difference. Consider how you want to model respect in hopes of also getting respect in turn.

In light of the potential for escalated emotions during the holidays, take time for yourself. Take breaks. Maintain your rituals of self-care. Get good sleep. Our critical thinking and emotional processing skills suffer on poor sleep. Exercise, journal, have a quiet morning or evening to yourself, get outside, do something that feels nourishing or restorative.

The holidays are also a season where our time together is often centered around food and alcohol. There are a lot of wonderful treats and festive beverages. Be mindful of your food and alcohol consumption. What do you know about how these things affect you? Many people feel more anxious the day after drinking. We also know our energy crashes if we eat a lot of sugar. Your brain needs nourishing food to operate well. You can both enjoy this time of fun and festive food and drink and be considerate of what will help you feel more ok during this time.

Lastly, this time of year is a worthwhile time to honor what the year has held for you. Honor the losses, whether they be people, jobs, relationships, hopes or dreams about how things would go. This has been a challenging and grievous year for many people. Make space for sharing about what your year has held. It helps our nervous systems to find movement and flexibility if we talk about our experiences and share our emotions in a grounded and supported way. This kind of vulnerability can also help you to feel closer to the people around you.

If the holidays are an especially hard time for you and you could use some additional support, reach out about how somatic therapy can help you cope during this season or in the post-holiday recovery.

How to Cope During the Holidays