Why Resting During the Holidays Is Not Lazy — It’s Healing

The holidays have a way of amplifying everything.

The expectations.
The noise.
The responsibilities.
The pressure to keep showing up — smiling, giving, holding it all together.

And if you’re a mom, caregiver, or woman who’s been carrying a lot for a long time, you may find yourself craving rest… while also feeling guilty for wanting it.

That internal conflict — I should be able to handle this — is not a character flaw.

It’s a nervous system signal.

Rest Is Not Indulgence. It’s Repair.

When you’ve been under prolonged stress, your body adapts by staying in a heightened state of alert. This is often called survival mode — where your nervous system is geared toward getting through the day, managing demands, and putting your own needs last.

Over time, that constant “on” state takes a toll.

You may notice:

• Exhaustion that sleep doesn’t fix

• Irritability or emotional numbness

• Difficulty concentrating or making decisions

• A sense that even small tasks feel overwhelming

None of this means you’re lazy or unmotivated.

It means your nervous system hasn’t had the chance to downshift and recover.

Rest is how that repair happens.

Not scrolling.
Not numbing out.
Not collapsing at the end of the day from sheer depletion.

But intentional pauses that allow your system to settle — even briefly — so it doesn’t have to stay in fight, flight, or freeze.

Why Rest Feels So Uncomfortable for So Many Women

Many women — especially caregivers and mothers — have been conditioned to believe that rest must be earned.

After the to-do list is done.
After everyone else is taken care of.
After you’ve been productive enough to deserve it.

But when stress has been chronic, the to-do list never truly ends.

So rest keeps getting postponed — and guilt creeps in the moment you try.

That guilt isn’t intuition.
It’s conditioning.

And it’s one of the biggest barriers to healing from burnout.

Doing Less Is Not Giving Up

If I slow down, everything will fall apart.

In reality, the opposite is often true.

When you allow yourself to do less — even temporarily — you give your nervous system the chance to regulate. And when your system is more regulated, you think more clearly, respond more calmly, and feel more like yourself again.

This isn’t about becoming more productive.

It’s about becoming more present, more grounded, and less constantly overwhelmed.

Sometimes the most healing thing you can do is stop trying to fix yourself — and start listening to what your body has been asking for all along.

A Gentle Pause (If This Is Landing)

If you’re realizing how long you’ve been running on empty, therapy can help you slow things down and support your nervous system — without pushing you harder.

👉 You can reach out here:
https://www.risegentlytherapy.com/contact

Rest During the Holidays Looks Different for Everyone

Rest doesn’t have to mean disappearing or opting out of everything.

It might look like:

• Saying no to one obligation instead of all of them

• Leaving earlier than usual

• Lowering expectations for yourself (and others)

• Allowing quiet moments without filling them

These choices can feel radical when you’re used to holding everything together.

But they’re often the first steps toward healing — not signs of failure.

You’re Not Broken. You’re Exhausted.

If the holidays feel heavier than joyful, it doesn’t mean something is wrong with you.

It means you’ve been strong for a long time.

And strength without rest eventually becomes strain.

Therapy isn’t about fixing you or telling you to “do better.”
It’s about creating space — emotionally and physiologically — so you can breathe again.

So you don’t have to keep powering through.
So your nervous system can finally exhale.

You Don’t Have to Carry This Alone

If this resonated, you don’t have to carry it alone.
Therapy can help you slow down, reset your nervous system, and breathe again — without guilt.

Take the next gentle step — schedule a consultation here.

Making Space for Mixed Emotions During the Holidays

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

How to Find Calm When Life Feels Loud

You don’t have to match the noise — not this season, not ever.

December carries a particular kind of noise. Some joyful, some heavy — expectations, overstimulation, emotional labor, family dynamics, financial pressure, grief, and the constant sense that you’re supposed to make everything meaningful.

If you’re heading into December already stretched thin, burned out, or emotionally overloaded, the noise can feel deafening — especially if you’ve been operating in burnout mode for a while. In this earlier post, I talk more about what burnout really looks like behind the scenes, not just in a checklist.

And then there’s social media. What you see online is curated, not real life. If you’re stretched thin, the noise can feel even louder.

“You don’t have to match the noise to have a meaningful holiday.”

Finding calm in a loud season doesn’t require a major life overhaul — just a few grounded shifts that help you move through December with more steadiness and less overwhelm. Here are six ways to create more calm, clarity, and emotional breathing room when everything around you feels loud.

1. Release the pressure to create a picture-perfect holiday.

For example, when I bought an Elf on the Shelf years ago, the tradition was simple: he moved at night after ‘visiting the North Pole.’ That felt manageable.

Then social media added elaborate scenes and nightly performances. Moving the elf at all was sometimes more than I could manage — so I didn’t. And my kids turned out more than fine.

“Traditions don’t require performance — they require presence.”

2. Identify where the “noise” is coming from — and respond intentionally.

Holiday noise can come from sensory overload, decision fatigue, pressure to make memories, family dynamics, grief, finances, and the mental load.

Once you name the source, choose the response that matches the need:
• Sensory overload → lower stimulation.
• Decision fatigue → simplify and delegate.
• Family pressure → set boundaries.
• Grief → compassion over performance.
• Financial stress → simplify gifting.
• Mental load → write things down and remove non-essentials.

“Clarity is calming. Naming the noise tells you what actually needs support.”

If you need help finding calm in the moment, I created the Gentle Reset Tools — simple grounding practices you can use anytime you feel overstimulated or emotionally overloaded.
Grab them here: Gentle Reset Tools

3. Create micro-moments of quiet.

Calm doesn’t require long breaks; it comes from small resets: slower breaths, dim lights, stepping outside briefly, or pausing in your car.

If you want more ideas for gentle ways to reconnect with yourself, I share additional small-but-powerful shifts in my post on tiny moments of joy and why they matter, especially when you’re overwhelmed.

4. Honor the boundaries that protect your emotional well-being.

One grounding boundary in my family: my kids almost always woke up in their own home on Christmas morning. We broke that only for deeply meaningful reasons connected to loss and family connection.

And if setting boundaries feels especially hard because you’re used to being the “reliable one” or the peacekeeper in your family, I go deeper into this in my post about setting boundaries when you’re a people-pleaser.

5. Choose honesty over guilt.

Guilt says you should be doing more. Honesty says your capacity matters. Shift toward honesty: ‘Simple is enough,’ ‘My bandwidth is lower,’ ‘I don’t need to perform.’

“Honesty creates calm. Guilt creates noise.”

6. If calm feels impossible, you’re not failing — you’re overloaded.

December magnifies everything you’ve carried all year. Therapy offers space to set the noise down and regain steadiness.

You’re allowed to choose calm — even in December.

If you’re craving a steadier season, I support burned-out women and moms in East Cobb/Marietta and across Georgia (in-person and online).

You can schedule a consultation when you’re ready.