For highly sensitive people, the holidays can be challenging. As I’ve written in several posts, including here, and talked about in the free webinar called “How to Maintain Your Sanity During the Holidays” (you can access it at the bottom of this page), the holidays, as transitional and highly-charged days, can trigger a host of uncomfortable feelings that we’re conditioned not to feel because we’re sold the fantasy that holidays are supposed to be only happy and harmonious times.
The reality in the best of times often reveals a different picture, one that deviates from the Normal Rockwell expectations. And when you add a pandemic to the emotional pie, things ramp up several notches, as the holidays may look very different this year than they have in the past.
Some of you will be celebrating with family. Some of you will be alone. Most of us will experience something quite different this year both externally and internally.
This has been a year like no other. We’ve been in unprecedented territory since March and this groundlessness continues as we enter the holiday season. We’ve all experienced loss, heartache, disappointment, fear, uncertainty, and many other challenges this year. There have also been silver linings, and it’s important to make space for those as well.
Holidays, like all transitions, bring the emotional tenor of the year to high relief, which means that whatever you’ve been feeling throughout the year will likely be amplified in these coming weeks. We don’t need to fear the heightened emotional awareness when we trust that not only can we handle the emotions but also that when we move toward them instead of trying to squirrel them away among the holiday nut bowls we give ourselves the gift of tending and healing.
Here’s the reminder that lives at the center of my work: the more we allow ourselves to feel our vulnerable feelings the less they’ll morph into anxiety, intrusive thoughts, irritation and panic. The contents of the heart need to be released. The soul needs tending. And especially so during heightened times.
Sending love and gratitude for all of you. This too shall pass.
