The holidays arrive like a wave: sparkling, loud, and full of motion. There’s beauty in it, yes. Connection, nostalgia, ritual. But there’s also a subtle pressure in the air: to be cheerful, productive, available, and endlessly generous.
✨ Before you keep reading – take one slow breath.
Let it travel all the way down to your belly. Now exhale through your mouth. Notice: did anything soften?
Beneath all that shimmer, most of us are craving the same thing – a pause.
The Season of Nourishment
If we take our cues from nature, this time of year is about stillness. The trees release what they no longer need. The soil quiets. Energy moves downward and inward.
Yet we humans do the opposite – we accelerate. We pile our days with errands, emails, gatherings, and expectations while our bodies quietly beg for a slower rhythm.
💭 Reflection: What is your body asking for right now that your calendar might not approve of?
When we override that wisdom, we miss the medicine of the season. Because this is not the time for expansion – it’s the time for exhale.
Urgency as a Habit
We live in a culture that confuses speed with significance. The faster we move, the more we’re praised. The more we do, the more “productive” we appear. But your body doesn’t measure worth by motion – it measures by aliveness.
🖐️ Wiggle your fingers and toes. Feel your body where it meets the chair or floor. For one breath, do absolutely nothing else.
That’s the antidote to urgency: attention. Rest may feel unsafe at first; you’re just stepping out of entrainment (i.e. being synchronized) with urgency. It takes practice to anchor inside your own tempo, no matter how fast the world moves.
Life Isn’t Something to Get Through
I hear people say: “If I can just get through the holidays…” But if life is something we’re always getting through, when do we ever enjoy it? This “survive-and-rush” pattern disconnects us from what actually feeds us: the small laughter between friends, the quiet breath before a meal, the scent of cold air on your morning walk.
🕯️ Pause right now. Look around. Find one thing in your space that brings a flicker of pleasure. Let your eyes rest there for three slow breaths. That’s enjoyment, not the concept, the experience.
A Somatic Reframe
Your nervous system doesn’t know the difference between holiday rush and threat. Both register as too much, too fast, too soon.
That’s why slowing down and pausing between breaths, eating slowly, or walking without your phone isn’t laziness. It’s regulation.
Every time you soften your pace, you remind your body that safety doesn’t come from finishing the list, it comes from returning home to yourself.
Slowing down isn’t withdrawal. It’s participation with awareness.
💭 How Do You Want to Feel?
Close your eyes and picture yourself in early January. How do you want to feel entering the new year?
Peaceful? Replenished? Connected?
Now place a hand over your heart or belly and ask: “What choices big or small would support me in feeling that way now?”
Let your body answer, not your mind. Maybe it’s saying no to one more event. Maybe it’s leaving the lights up longer. Maybe it’s doing absolutely nothing for one evening.
Each choice tells your body: My needs matter, too.
Enjoyment as a Somatic State
Enjoyment isn’t something that happens after the to-do list is done. It’s a physiological state. A signal that your system feels safe enough to soften, to receive, to take in pleasure.
You don’t have to earn it. You don’t have to reach January first. You just have to pause long enough to feel it.
The Soft “No” Practice
When everything around you is asking for “just one more thing,” try this mini reset:
1️⃣ Take a slow breath and feel your feet on the ground.
2️⃣ Imagine saying yes. What happens in your body?
3️⃣ Now imagine saying no. Notice the difference.
If your breath deepens or your shoulders drop, that’s your answer.
Try it gently: “Thank you for thinking of me, but not this time.” Or simply, “Not right now.”
Each Soft No is an act of nervous-system care, a boundary that creates space for joy, presence, and restoration.
Try This This Week
Pick one daily activity – sipping your morning drink, walking the dog, folding laundry – and do it at half-speed.
Notice your breath. Notice how time feels. That’s slowing down made practical.
You don’t need a retreat, just a few moments that belong entirely to you.
Closing Reflection
Slowing down doesn’t mean stopping. It means tuning in. You can honor the gatherings, the family, the work and still protect your peace. You can move through the world’s noise while staying attuned to your body’s quiet rhythm.
Because the truth is: the world might not slow down for you. But you can still slow down for yourself.
And maybe that’s what this season is really here to teach us, that peace isn’t something we wait for. It’s something we practice.
💌 End Note
If you try the Soft No Practice this week, I’d love to hear what shifts. Hit reply and share what you notice in your body when you say no with kindness.
