How to Stay Grounded During Holiday Stress With Mindfulness
Nov 24, 2025
The holidays can be a beautiful season… but they can also be heavy.
Every year around this time, I see the same patterns:
People feel pulled in every direction.
Old wounds surface.
Family dynamics trigger emotional imprints.
Stress rises, presence diminishes, and overwhelm takes over.
And as we enter Thanksgiving week - a time that marks both celebration and the start of holiday intensity - I want to offer a reminder:
Holiday stress doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re human.
And mindfulness gives you the tools to move through this season with presence, steadiness, and self-compassion.
In this Gentle Mindful Moment, we’ll explore:
• Why holidays trigger emotional stress
• How mindfulness helps you stay grounded
• A simple breathwork practice to shift your energy
• How to protect your inner peace in triggering environments
• Meaningful ways to support yourself (or someone you love) this season
Why Holiday Stress Hits So Hard
Many people imagine the holidays as joyful, effortless, and full of connection — but the emotional reality can be very different.
Holiday stress often comes from:
• Returning to environments that no longer fit who you’ve become
• Navigating strained or triggering relationships
• Pressure to “hold it all together”
• Feeling responsible for others’ emotions
• Trying to balance expectations and traditions
• Old emotional patterns resurfacing
If Thanksgiving feels complicated, overwhelming, or emotionally charged… it doesn’t mean something is wrong with you.
It means your nervous system is responding to familiar emotional conditioning.
This is exactly why mindfulness is invaluable during this time.
It offers space, neutrality, and choice - so you can respond rather than react.
Shift the Lens Before You Enter the Room
Mindfulness helps you prepare from the inside out.
Instead of going into the holiday with:
• dread
• tightness
• fear of repeating old patterns
• emotional bracing
• “here we go again…” energy
You can shift into a new lens:
✨ presence
✨ intention
✨ gentle awareness
✨ gratitude for small moments
This isn’t forced positivity.
It’s conscious grounding — a way of choosing how you show up.
It begins with awareness, breath, and reconnecting with who you are at your core.
A Breathwork Moment to Shift Your Energy
(Inspired by my holiday meditation, now available here: Coping with Holiday Stress)
If your emotions feel heightened this week, here’s a simple practice you can use anytime:
Choose a soft gaze downward or rest your eyes closed.
Observe the flow of your breath. Feel its cadence.
Now, take a slow deep breath — belly rising, belly falling.
And imagine breathing in crisp, cool, cleansing air… the kind you feel on a clear morning when the sun warms your face.
With every inhale, repeat silently:
“I am strong.”
“I am secure.”
“I am grounded in who I am.”
Visualize yourself anchored into the earth — drawing up strength from below, drawing down light from above, letting both energies meet in your heart.
And on each exhale imagining anything not aligned be released- mentally, emotionally and physically.
Each breath clears your emotional lens… helps you see from presence instead of protection… and reconnects you to the truth of who you are.
You can listen to the full 9-minute guided holiday meditation here.
Holiday Stress and the Nervous System: What’s Really Happening
When the nervous system is overwhelmed, it shifts into protection mode:
• Breath becomes shallow
• Awareness narrows
• Irritability rises
• Old emotional patterns intensify
• The body prepares for “emotional impact”
Mindfulness interrupts this cycle by helping you:
âś“ regulate your nervous system
âś“ access higher emotional states
âś“ stay grounded in chaotic environments
âś“ reconnect to your breath and your body
This is how you shift from emotional reactivity to emotional clarity.
Give Yourself (or Someone You Love) the Gift of Inner Peace
This season, instead of giving more “things,” consider gifting something meaningful:
✨ calm
✨ clarity
✨ emotional balance
✨ inner strength
✨ spiritual connection
✨ nervous system support
Here are heartfelt ways to nurture yourself or someone you love:
Join the Awaken With Light App Community
The Awaken With Light App is a digital sanctuary designed to help you stay grounded — especially during the holidays.
Inside you’ll find:
• The full Pathway to Inner Peace® self-paced course
• Twice-monthly live Energy Activation sessions
• Micro-practices for real-world stress
• Mindfulness + neuroscience tools
• A supportive, uplifting community
• Ask Me Anything access
And you’re invited to our very first Energy Activation session:
December 3rd at 12:30 PM ET
This 30-minute session will help you regulate your nervous system, soften emotional overload, and reconnect with calm and clarity as you move through the holiday season.
(If you can’t attend live, the replay will be available inside the app.)
Please note: You must be a member of the Awaken With Light App to join the session or access the recording.
Thanksgiving Gift:
Enjoy 10% off any subscription with promo code: Thankyou10
Join here: https://nancygentleboudrie.joinkliq.io
Gift a 1-Hour Intuitive Reiki Session
Perfect for:
• emotional release
• nervous system soothing
• clarity
• grounding
• energetic reset
Remote or in-person.
Purchase here: https://www.awakenwithlight.com/offers/PFFm6Hzv/checkout
Holiday Gift Certificates
Choose any amount — for Reiki, coaching, or app access.
Beautiful digital or mailed certificates available.
Reply to request yours.
A Final Reminder for This Week
You are not your emotions.
You are not your thoughts.
You are not the old patterns your family remembers.
You are the observer —
the one who breathes, softens, chooses, and creates space.
As you move through this holiday week, may you return to yourself again and again…
with gentleness, awareness, and deep compassion.
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