“The Energies of the Holiday Season: Understanding What You Carry, What You Give, and What You Allow In”

The holiday season has a way of stirring up all kinds of energies — some comforting, some heavy, some surprising, and some we wish we could politely return to sender. And depending on our history, our healing, and what this year has demanded of us, the way we hold those energies can look very different.

Every December, I notice something in myself and in the people I walk alongside in therapy:we move into the holidays without checking in with our energy, and then we’re confused when we arrive at January feeling spiritually empty, emotionally wrung out, mentally foggy, or physically exhausted.

So this week, I want to sit with you and unpack the layers — the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual energies that show up during this season — and how we can be more intentional about what we offer and what we allow.

Because your energy is not infinite. It is sacred.And this season will take it if you don’t protect it.

✨ The Mental Energy: The Overthinking, the Anticipating, the “What Ifs”

The holidays carry a mental load most people don’t talk about.There’s the planning, the list-making, the decision fatigue, the “Who’s hosting this year?” and the “What will they say if I don’t go?”

There’s also the quiet mental rehearsing — the way you prepare yourself for certain conversations, certain looks, certain comments, certain dynamics you know all too well.

Before the holiday ever arrives, your mind is already tired.

Mental energy this time of year feels like living in two places at once: the moment you’re in… and the moment you’re preparing for.

If you’ve been feeling mentally stretched, forgetful, unfocused, or overwhelmed, it’s not a flaw — it’s a sign. Your mind is asking you to soften your pace, to release what isn’t yours to carry, and to let go of the pressure to make everything perfect.

Your mind deserves ease. It deserves room to breathe.

✨ The Emotional Energy: The Feelings That Rise, Invited or Not

Holidays can be beautiful — but they can also be layered. Joy walks with grief.Excitement holds hands with anxiety.Connection sits next to memories you thought you were done with.Hope shows up in the same room as disappointment.

Emotional energy during this season rises from deep places — from what we’ve lost, from what we never received, from what changed this year, from what stayed the same even when we prayed it wouldn’t.

Sometimes the emotions arrive quietly.Other times they knock loudly and sit right in your chest.

This is not you being “too sensitive.”This is your heart telling the truth.

And the most compassionate thing you can do is listen without judgment. Let your feelings be information, not burdens. Let the tenderness of this season show you what still needs care.

Your emotional energy deserves gentleness.

✨ The Physical Energy: When the Body Speaks for You

Our bodies tell the truth long before our mouths do.

This season asks a lot of the physical body — cooking, traveling, hosting, shopping, running errands, being “on,” socializing even when every part of you wants to rest.

And underneath all of that?Your body is carrying the mental and emotional load, too.

You may feel tired in your bones…or overstimulated in your skin…or tense in your shoulders…or restless in your sleep…or drained in ways you can’t fully explain.

Listen to your body. It’s not betraying you. It’s communicating with you.

Your physical energy deserves rest — real rest, not the five-minute break you squeeze into the cracks of your day.

✨ The Spiritual Energy: Your Inner Compass, Your Knowing, Your Alignment

The holidays can either ground you… or pull you so far off center that you barely recognize yourself by New Year’s.

Spiritual energy is your intuition.Your peace.Your discernment.Your connection to God and to your own inner wisdom.Your sense of meaning beyond the noise.

But this season often becomes so loud — with gatherings, obligations, traditions, expectations — that the quiet voice within gets drowned out.

You might feel disconnected from yourself.Or spiritually scattered.Or like you’re moving on autopilot.Or like you’re performing joy instead of experiencing it.

This isn’t failure. It’s feedback.

Your spirit may be asking you to slow down, to reconnect with meaning, to come back to the truth of who you are beneath the roles you play.

Your spiritual energy deserves nourishment — not depletion.

✨ So What Energy Are You Carrying… and What Energy Are You Letting In?

Before you go any deeper into this season, I want you to pause and reflect:

What is the real state of your mind right now?What is your heart trying to say?What is your body holding onto?What is your spirit craving?

And then ask yourself:

What energy am I offering the world right now?And what energy am I allowing the world to bring to me?

Because here’s the truth:

You don’t have to match anyone’s chaos. You don’t have to absorb anyone’s emotions. You don’t have to carry what isn’t yours. You don’t have to entertain anything that disrupts your peace.

You get to choose your energetic boundaries. You get to choose how you show up. You get to choose what you release. You get to choose what you welcome.

This season does not have to drain you. It can ground you. It can soften you. It can restore you.

But it starts with paying attention to your energy — all of it.

✨ A Closing Reflection

As you move further into the holiday season, may you honor every layer of your energy with tenderness and wisdom.

May your mind have clarity.May your heart have space.May your body have rest.May your spirit find alignment.

And may you remember that you are allowed — fully allowed — to protect your energy, replenish it, and offer it only where it can be held with care.

You deserve to experience this season from a place of fullness, not depletion.