Welcome to Nurturing Notes,
the blog for Rise Gently Therapy.
This is a safe and gentle space for you to explore topics that matter to you — from coping with burnout and overwhelm to finding small ways to nurture yourself amidst life’s challenges. Here, you’ll find encouragement, practical tools, and reflections to help you feel less alone on your journey.
Whether you’re curious about starting therapy or just looking for a moment of calm, I hope you’ll find something here that speaks to your heart.
Making Space for Mixed Emotions During the Holidays
The holidays can bring joy, stress, nostalgia, and exhaustion all at once. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or emotionally stretched thin, you’re not alone. Learn how to make space for mixed emotions, reduce holiday stress, and find support through burnout therapy in East Cobb and Marietta.
The holidays have a way of stirring up everything at once—joy, stress, nostalgia, grief, tenderness, resentment, overwhelm, love, loneliness. It’s all there, layered and real. And if you’re feeling pulled in ten different emotional directions right now, nothing is wrong with you. You’re human.
Most women I work with come into December already stretched thin. And then the season piles on more expectations, more decisions, more emotional labor, more pressure to “make it special” for everyone else. You’re carrying years of memories, family dynamics, losses, traditions, and invisible responsibilities that no one else sees.
So of course your emotions feel mixed.
Of course you feel both grateful and exhausted.
Of course you’re trying your best while also wishing someone would take something—anything—off your plate.
This season doesn’t require you to choose one emotional lane. You’re allowed to feel everything that’s true for you.
Here’s what it looks like to make space for mixed emotions:
• Letting yourself enjoy the good moments without pretending the hard ones aren’t there. Both can coexist.
• Noticing tension, resentment, or grief without judging yourself. Your feelings come from somewhere real.
• Allowing exhaustion to be a signal, not a failure. Your body is telling you it needs care.
• Remembering you don’t have to “perform” emotional cheerfulness for the world. Authenticity is easier to carry than perfection.
Mixed emotions don’t mean you’re doing the holidays wrong—they mean you’re showing up with your whole self. And that’s enough.
If this season feels heavy, tangled, or just too much, therapy can give you a place to slow down, breathe again, and feel supported instead of stretched.
If you’re craving steadiness and space to process everything you’re carrying, you can reach out anytime:
https://www.risegentlytherapy.com/contact