Handling Holiday Stress: A Guide to Creating a Joyful, Easeful, and More Meaningful Holiday Season

The holidays are often portrayed as a magical, glittering season filled with warmth and connection — but for many people, the reality looks very different. There are crowded schedules, financial pressure, emotional triggers, family dynamics, travel stress, and the exhaustion that comes from trying to make everything “perfect.”

If you’ve ever reached December feeling depleted instead of delighted, you’re not alone. And you’re not doing anything wrong. The holidays carry emotional weight, cultural expectations, and an overload of stimulation that can make even the most grounded people feel stretched thin.

But here’s the truth: the holidays don’t have to be something you “survive.”
With some gentle mindset shifts and nervous-system-friendly practices, you can create a holiday season that feels more easeful, spacious, joyful, and aligned with what truly matters to you.

Let’s explore how.

Buccal Massage: The Face Massage You Never Knew You Needed

The newest trend has hit TikTok and I wouldn’t be surprised if you start wondering what the hell is buccal massage? Well for years the rich and famous have known about this technique. It’s popular in Hollywood before major award events and press rounds because it’s like getting a face lift without the surgery. In my profession, there’s a quiet revolution happening inside the wellness and aesthetic world: people are discovering that the inside of the mouth is a doorway to dramatically better facial tone, less tension, and real cosmetic improvement. Buccal massage — also called intraoral or inside-out facial massage — is an advanced hands-on technique that works the muscles and fascia from inside the cheeks and oral cavity, targeting the masseter, buccinator, levator and depressor muscles, and the connective tissue that shapes the face.

Play, Rest & Recharge: How fun+Rest Heals Burnout

Two years ago I was doing research on burn out, learning that is was not just being tired, but emotionally depleted and creatively blank. The more I learned though, the more I realized I was actually burned out! I was honestly shocked. I was out here thinking I was doing all the right things but then as I sat there in my living room, reading through a burnout workbook I had bought, I realized I was deep in the thick of it. I checked 8 out of 10 boxes evaluating levels of burnout. One of the symptoms that really jumped out at me was that creative pursuits I used to love, like making bread, taking photos and knitting, no longer held any joy for me (classic sign of burnout is that things you once loved doing feel like chores). Signs of burnout also include: