Krystel Clear

Navigating Holidays & Making Time for Self-Care

• Krystel Beall • Season 2 • Episode 8

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The episode explores the complexities of the holiday season, focusing on topics like grief, gratitude, and the importance of self-care amidst celebrations. Listeners gain insights on navigating family dynamics and traditions while honoring personal feelings and boundaries.

• Reflecting on taking time off and honoring personal needs 
• Exploring grief and its impact on holiday celebrations 
• Acknowledging family changes and celebrating new traditions 
• Balancing expectations with joy during busy seasons 
• Strategies for nurturing oneself and managing holiday stress 
• The significance of simplicity and meaningful connections

Don't forget to check out our resources and reach out if you need support!
www.ResilientRetreat.org
www.krystelclear.com


Thank you for joining me today. Please know that this podcast and the information shared is not to replace or supplement any mental health or personal wellness modalities provided by practitioners. It’s simply me, sharing my personal experiences and I appreciate you respecting and honoring my story and my guests. If something touched your heart please feel free to like, share and subscribe. Have a beautiful day full of gratitude, compassion and unconditional love.

Speaker 1:

What's up you guys? Welcome to this episode of Crystal Clear. Happy holidays If you celebrate, if you don't celebrate, that's great as well, and that's really what leads me into the studio today. I've actually taken a few weeks off from recording because I needed to honor my own space and time, my sanity, and just kind of moderate my activity level throughout the holidays. And I actually facilitated a resilient retreat program, an empowerment journaling program, and I do it once a month. I love it. I feel like I need it just as much as our participants do.

Speaker 1:

But this one was really on honoring what you need during the holiday season. So I wanted to take some time to kind of go over some things that came up for me during that journaling session and I just thought it was worth putting out there, and it doesn't even really have to pertain to holidays, it's just really any time. But I will say this time of year it's just overstimulating. There's commercials and lights and music and just people. It's just. The energy is just, it's intense and it's a little different and while, yes, in some ways it can be more vibrant, but it can also be more chaotic at the same time. So really taking time to honor what it is within us that we need to really focus on. So it's like for myself, like I said, I had to kind of take some things off my plate that I really wanted to get to, but I knew I needed to be in the headspace for that. So we'll back it up a little bit. So we've had kind of a crazy November December.

Speaker 1:

My husband and I went to Peru for two weeks Amazing, amazing trip. We were gone for like 10 days, really saw some gorgeous ancient sites and had some intentional time together because, honestly, I'm just going to be really like candid, Like we don't get a ton of that in real life day to day. So it was really nice to be able to go away. Kind of I felt like I had some stress leading up to it, Like, oh you know, I'm going to miss the kids and I need to make up for it by doing this when I get home and this when I get home, and so I'm like booking this Disney trip for me and my little guy because I felt bad leaving him for 10 days. And I mean, honestly, in reality he was totally fine. We have an awesome village of support and we had my great friend and one of his nannies spend the night every night, and then another great friend and someone that helps in our village one of our nannies and picked up from school. So we really had this great rotation. The teenagers kind of, you know, fend for themselves and they're great and along for the ride, so they're pretty easy. But I was realizing I was causing more of the stress than needed to be caused.

Speaker 1:

Once I was there, out of sight, out of mind, I was totally fine, but I really had to go in and soul search a bit on why, like what, what is it about you? Leaving and going on vacation makes you feel like for some reason, your son's going to have abandonment wounds. And of course it goes back to my own um, from childhood. So it was really good opportunity for me to observe some stuff in myself that I still needed to work through, but also like also to just be there and give myself permission to just be there and soak in those moments with my husband, and it was amazing and it was precious memories.

Speaker 1:

We got back, we had board meetings, we had Thanksgiving, we had the next week I took my son to Disney for the three days, the trip that I booked before I went to Peru. Yeah, it was a lot of back to back for the three days the trip that I booked before I went to Peru. Yeah, it was a lot of back to back. In hindsight, would I really plan like that again? No, absolutely not. But you know what it all worked out. There's some stuff that surfaced in our household that really just, I think, needed to surface and release. So we were able to get through that and navigate through a lot of the things that you know.

Speaker 1:

I feel like these situations. For me, it's like maybe it's like you go through these healing journeys and you go through and you do mindfulness stuff and all of the meditations and the journaling everything's great, but until you're in real time and you're feeling that turbulence or you're feeling those underlying, it's just opportunity to let more stuff surface and release it to make you lighter. It's just opportunity to let more stuff surface and release it to make you lighter. So one thing my husband and I have talked about back and forth is you know the things that we've had to navigate during holiday seasons and I realize a big one for me is grief. So I lost my grandmother who raised me in 2013. So it's been like 11, almost 12 years now, which is wild to me, but I realized I was carrying grief and memories into the holidays, Whereas now this year I mean, I've been really working on the past five years critically, but this year especially, really noticing what it is that's coming up and where the feelings might be coming from. So, instead of looking at it with like a grief perspective, I miss her. I just want her here. This isn't fair, you know. It's not the same without her. Of course it's not. But you know what I believe? She's a guardian angel and she's here with me and I get to pass along these beautiful traditions and things to my children that she instilled in me. So really shifting the grief to gratitude has been huge for me.

Speaker 1:

Obviously, if it's a more recent, my father-in-law has Alzheimer's and I'll be really honest, it's living grief. It's really hard. It's really hard during the holiday season to know that this is my mother-in-law just can't host Christmas Eve the way she used to. It used to be like a big party at their house every year and things are just shifting and changing and I was actually just telling my husband last night. I feel like there's a dramatic shift that's about to happen. I don't know if it's because I'm like turning 40 in February I just had a wedding of a kid I used to nanny. So it's interesting, it's like a seasonal shift. But you know my grandfather, who I was raised with, you know he's 82, 83 years old and my husband's parents are 82. And you know they're not getting any younger.

Speaker 1:

So really coming into this new stage of life with our family and doing things a little differently sometimes by choice, sometimes because we have no choice things just, you know really working on that acceptance at the same time. So accepting like this is the situation at hand and it's my responsibility how I navigate it. So we're just really trying to work together to support each other through this. If you have family members who are going through the aging process or have any sort of terminal illness or things just aren't the same, I just want to encourage you to give yourself that permission to grieve it appropriately. But also try to find the gratitude and for me that looks like cherishing all of the years we did have together and also looking at new opportunities to change things up, Like, for example, this year Christmas Eve I get to host at my own home, which I'm really excited about and we're going to do it differently. I went to Italy in September and I'm going to make homemade pasta and just make it kind of different. My cousins are coming down and just doing things differently and knowing that it's okay to allow those seasonal shifts, Because I think when we hang on to it, we hang on to it thinking that if we change it up we're going to lose it forever, and that's not really the case, Like we can still honor the past and traditions and things that we used to do, but also be open to a new season and allowing ourselves to accept and be empowered in this new way to shift things. And, trust me, it's okay to be the first person in your family that does it differently. I kind of set that boundary for myself a few years ago, Before Brody was born, our little guy, our kids go to their mom and dad's house on Christmas Day.

Speaker 1:

So we usually, historically, have always had the kids Christmas Eve. They wake up, open presents at our house and then go back to their mom and dad's house to open presents there, and we've worked that out with our ex-spouses and it's always just worked out nicely for the kids and we're going to keep that tradition going and realizing this is the last Christmas with all of our kids living at home is pretty humbling, Really, really fast. My oldest bonus guy is going off to college next year, so of course he'll come home for Christmas, but it's not quite the same. So the boundary a while ago is we would get invited by family on Christmas day, Like, oh, you should come over for Christmas dinner, blah, blah, blah. And it's like you know, we always spent Christmas Eve with my in-laws. Sometimes my sister-in-laws would come into town and it was a big party, a lot of fun. But, like I said, that's been winding down over the years, especially as my nieces and nephews get older. And you know we kind of all have our own lives and busy schedules and when your kids are in town from college you just want to kind of be home and settled. So we're all really honoring that for each other and it feels really nice and something.

Speaker 1:

Christmas day I was just kind of like you know what that is our day to be home in our pajamas if it's hot outside because, let's just face it, Florida Christmas isn't always chilly we turn the AC down as low as we can without blasting it out, Watch Christmas movies in our jammies Pre-Brody, we'd have mimosas and hang out and do whatever. Now it's more of watching Brody open his presents and hanging out at the house and that's just like our day to do nothing. We don't really invite anyone over. If someone wants to stop by and say hi, that's great, but that's just really.

Speaker 1:

I feel like, because when I was a child as awesome as it was that we had so many grandparents to go see and things to do it was like you had to go to this person's house and this person's house and you ate here and you ate there and you had presents and you took turns and it was just as a child. It was fun. But I kind of vowed to myself internally that I wasn't going to do that to my kiddos and I think that it's hard enough having a blended family and going from one house to the other Although it's like let's face it like quadruple the presence for them because they have different sets of grandparents and all the things and so they love it and they get to spend that intentional time In the past few years we have. I'm not going to lie. So segue into.

Speaker 1:

Another kind of conversation here we'll get into is comparison. So I used to get FOMO by looking at everyone's Christmas travel vacations. And people are in Europe for Christmas and skiing and this and that, and so I think when Brody was two, we decided to start traveling for the holidays and one year we went before Christmas. We went to Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina. It was a really cute resort montage. We had a little house. It was awesome. However, going on that trip, coming home, kids going back and forth, it just seemed like a lot. And then the following year we went to Montana. So we went to Big Sky, Montana and stayed at Lone Mountain Ranch, I believe was the name of the resort, which was super cute Again, had a house, had this cute like coffee and hot chocolate delivery in the morning and we went skiing. It was so much fun. We did that after Christmas.

Speaker 1:

But realizing the kids, especially with teenagers, they just want the downtime and I think that's been one big realization for me this year is it's just too much. Because what did I end up doing all of those years? It was like, oh, we won't do a big Christmas, We'll just go on vacation. Well, guess what? We did the big Christmas and we went on vacation and of course I mean that's all on me and my responsibility. But I just realized from those couple of years and we needed to do it to kind of get it out of the system but realizing what I really value and what I know and what the kids, I think really realize they value is just having that stillness and that alone time and the family time and just time to sleep in until 11 if they want to, and not just have something every single day, because it makes those things that you do participate in more enjoyable, things that you do participate in more enjoyable.

Speaker 1:

So this year, for example, I'm like, oh, I'm going to go super light, super low key. I'm not going to buy anything anyone doesn't need or anything anyone doesn't want. And like three pages of people I bought gifts for later which they didn't ask for them, it's me feeling like, oh, I want to do this for this person and this person and this person. So I realized I do this to myself and it is really important to understand that you can be joyful and exhausted at the same time and you can have a joyous and just excited experience and also be overwhelmed at the same time, and that's okay. It's really just acknowledging the fact that, wow, I'm having a lot of fun. This is great. The kids are so excited. However, there's stuff everywhere. I'm feeling a little chaotic. There's music in the background, there's people all around, whatever. It is Like I was tripped to Disney, for example.

Speaker 1:

First of all, I don't know how people afford to go to Disney for days at a time with a family of six. It is so expensive and so crazy. I took just me and the little guy. We stayed at the Boardwalk Resort for two nights and did the Florida resident three park pass or whatever Park Hopper Pass, and I did the fast pass because this time of year it's like worth it to just skip the lines. It was a lot. So if we hadn't done the fast pass, I don't think I would have survived, but we had a great time. So it was really nice to see the joy and the gratitude and the excitement through the little guy's eyes.

Speaker 1:

But also, like I was just explaining to people, it's funny when you get to the park you see these families in the morning and they're like yay, like where are we going? What ride are we going on? Next we have a pass. And then you see them about noontime and everyone's like okay, like ready for lunch, looking for something to eat, kind of like a little hasty, and then you see them like at the end of the night and they're, you know, slamming their kids down in their strollers and pulling people by their arms. They were done right.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, just knowing that, like I know, we want to give our families and our children ourselves, our neighbors, our communities, whatever these great experiences and participate our neighbors, our communities, whatever these great experiences and participate, but also know it's okay and not to feel bad or feel guilty. I heard that a lot in our program, like people feeling guilty, that they don't feel super excited about the holidays or they feel guilty because they don't necessarily want to go to this event but they have to. Like I'll use myself and my husband, for example. We have a busy life and a lot going on and I know that when it comes time after Christmas for the Selby Lights in Bloom, for example, I'll take the kids and I don't really expect for him to come along to all the things because I know he needs that quiet time and that downtime too, and you know it's the weekend.

Speaker 1:

This morning, for example, like you took the little guy out and ATVs and build a fire and did some stuff when I was doing stuff around the house, because it's just a lot and really honoring the communication in the household and with your partner or your roommate or your family, whoever it may be that you're surrounded by, just kind of tag teaming and communicating with each other. Like I need a minute, I need some time and space. You know we're lucky enough to live where we can just walk outside and it's beautiful and sunshine, but I know that all over the place and especially you know, some of you in really awesome like Finland and places like cool places are listening to my podcast now, so thank you for that, but you don't always have sunshine all the time like we do. So do you really just honoring and finding a safe place for yourself where you can decompress, gather your thoughts? You know, kind of thought dump or like dump your brain of whatever it is your to do list, Like I've realized I was kind of cycling in my head of like I need to do this, I need to do that, Did I do this, Did I do that, and what really helped me is like creating a list, Like so writing it down, getting it out of my head, getting it on the paper and then, once I check things off, I just it feels like satisfying to check things off, because then you almost have a visual wow, I've gotten a lot of things done. So that's something I try to practice anyway, but especially around this time of year A, it helps me hold myself accountable for what I need to do and what I want to do, and I kind of separate the list that way, like what I need to get done and what I want to get done, and usually my want list is a hell of a lot longer than my need list. But also by getting it out of my head and putting it on paper, it makes me see like, okay, the list of things I need to do isn't quite as long or exacerbating as I thought it might be, but the wants, however, and I just take that in stride or maybe even delegate.

Speaker 1:

I bought these Uno cards for a charity and we had to wrap like 300 boxes of Uno cards to give to kids in the community, and so I recruited my daughter to help me. She loves wrapping. It was a fun bonding experience. I gave her some service hours because it was for community service and just honoring that space and delegating and asking for help, and that's another thing that one of our nannies is out of town for two weeks visiting her boyfriend's family, and I'm super excited for her. Also, I realized like I need to pace myself. I'm going to take some time off.

Speaker 1:

My kids are out of school, little guys. You know, I signed him up for like a gymnastics camp next to my yoga studio so I can still make sure I get in my quiet time and the things that fill me up and he stays busy and does something of his own, and I realize that not everyone is able to do things like that. But whatever it is that you have within your resources, please do yourself a favor. Maybe even make a list of resources for yourself, which is also helpful, Like if you need help, if you have older kids and your laundry is piling up, you know, help them, like, teach them these things, these life skills, when they're at home, because guess what, Like, school only takes them so far. So the more we involve them in home activities A it takes some stuff off of our plates. B it teaches them life skills that they'll need because they're not going to live at home forever Maybe not all of them. And C. It's just, it can be fun, it could be good bonding, it could be a good way to.

Speaker 1:

You know, we kind of have a little rule in our house, Like if you want something new we have to give something away. I like to say rule, but kind of a I don't know a courtesy, something that we kind of just keep in realm. It really started with me in my closet, I'm not going to lie. I got to the point where I could not fit anything else in it. So I'm like if I'm going to get anything new, I need to give two of something away. And that's worked out really well and I purge all the time. But it's really important for the kids and you would be surprised at how excited the kids get to give something back to the community or to a friend or to a neighbor or just making a donation pile and knowing that I mean there's a lot of places that'll even come and pick things up, like if you feel overwhelmed.

Speaker 1:

So really just trying to outsource, like decluttering your life. I've been really working hard on decluttering my life, especially around this time of year. Like I said, the trees go up. I kind of went crazy with decorating this year and we have quite a few trees up at our house and they're beautiful and I get super into the decorating and I love wrapping presents and making these big, beautiful bows and everyone has a different wrapping paper and I do this to myself again, but it's when it's all over and it's time to take it all down. It's almost like going through some sort of like grieving process because it's overwhelming, so taking it in stride, like one day I'll take one Christmas tree down and I'm going to call my girlfriend Kelsey to come help me do these things, or recruit my husband to help me, or the kids, or and just really owning. And you know what, if it's not done by January 1st or whatever, that's fine.

Speaker 1:

It's just really trying to release expectations for yourself, Like it's not going to go seamless. There's always going to be opportunities for things that come up within your realm of circumstances. You know there's going to be people that get sick and they can't make it. There's going to. I really feel like this is a time of year that I've this year especially been able to reflect on how powerful releasing expectations are, Because the more you set an expectation for something, the more you set yourself up for disappointment. And what is that? It's just kind of like a story and a way that we construct something and it's just in our head. So, if we can allow ourselves to just let it be what it's supposed to be like, the people that are going to show up are meant to show up. The people that are, you know, coming up sick and staying home, maybe they need to honor their bodies and rest and that's what they need for them, Trying to come into the season and the new year with compassion and realizing, you know, not everyone's family situation is a beautiful situation.

Speaker 1:

So not everyone has family to be around and even if they do, they might not want to, and that's okay. And if you're one of those people, it is okay to do things differently. It is okay to be the first person to be like. You know, I think I'm doing it differently this year. I'll catch you guys. I just need to honor my space and time and I'll catch up with you at a different time. I mean, and if you are honoring yourself and you are honoring what you need, try to do it with the least amount of guilt as possible. And if you have people in your life and in your family or in your circle that are projecting their shame or guilt and things onto you. Just know that that's a reflection of them and their personal history. It really doesn't have anything to do with you, so I'll use myself.

Speaker 1:

For example. I haven't been to Tallahassee in a while. That's where my family is. I love them and they haven't been down here in a while, and that's okay. Like I realized, my grandfather's getting older and he doesn't really have a reliable vehicle to drive down here and I wouldn't think I really feel comfortable with him being on the roads right now in the season. Anyway, he's got a little bit of road rage, but other than that I mean he's 83 years old and it's just honoring a season for me. I don't really want to drive up there either, but I love him and I can love him from a distance and this is the glory of the age that we live in. Right now there's FaceTime, there's technology we can use. Like I said, my in-laws aren't hosting, but we're going to host at our house and my mother-in-law likes to stay with my father-in-law, so she's probably not going to come for Christmas Eve dinner and that's okay, and not feeling guilty, Like yes, we're going to actually go this afternoon and spend some time with them and and knowing that it's okay to do something differently and just honoring the space that we used to have and not allowing it to pull us down or make us feel not good about honoring just a new season. Those are just some things that I've been processing through lately and I just felt like I needed to put it out there to the world.

Speaker 1:

A lot of things that came up on our journaling session were the guilt, like feeling guilty about not being excited, and a lot of people have holiday trauma. I mean, let's just face it, there's things that could have happened at Christmas parties or substance use, and I mean there's a lot of different things that go inside of different celebratory events and myself included, like realizing I used to hold a lot of kind of turbulence and just on edge and a lot of that came out in different ways. Like it's the quote unquote nervous energy allowed me to set and maintain a beautiful landscape of a table for hosting. But it's like where does that perfection paradigm come from? Where does the table being perfect come from? Like the need for everything to be perfect and to go above and beyond on all the things. Well, I think for me it came from, like when I was a little girl I always wanted it like an extravagant celebration like that and I never got it. So I wanted to do it in my way. But you know what Things happen, Things spill.

Speaker 1:

So just learning that you can honor what you want and what you feel like you might need, but honoring what you want and still being able to release the expectation, Like knowing if I put out all of the beautiful china and all the things that we got for our wedding, having a four and a half year old, there's risk for something to break. So if I'm going to choose to do that, just know that you know what there's, anything could happen. And kind of just releasing also really kind of takes me into releasing attachment, and this is something my husband and I have talked about. I think both of us are just facing the hard truth of, just like I said, seasons are changing and he said to me this morning you know at some point you have to lose everyone in your life. Like at some point we'll all seasons as they come along and try not to hold on to it.

Speaker 1:

My life coach actually sent me a video and one of the topics in the videos is having memories without attaching feelings to them. And that's impactful because I find myself a feeler and I like to feel all the feels. But allowing yourself to remember things and have memories without attaching feelings to them, whether it be good feelings or bad feelings that is like a level of healthy detachment and it's interesting because we feel like, oh, it's okay to have such good memories associated with all of this. But then again, if that doesn't happen in a new situation, are we comparing it to that old situation and allowing room for disappointment there? A second if you find yourself comparing your life, your experiences either to A things out there in the universe, things online, which we all do, we all get the FOMO, we all see the Christmas parties, we all see this, but guess what? None of that shit is real. It is what people want you to see on the outside, on social media. Yes, I'm sure the party was great, I'm sure her outfit was fabulous, but I guarantee you there were things that happened that you'll never know about. And that's okay, because that's a point of having a private life too. It's not full disclosure online.

Speaker 1:

So just try your best not to compare during the holiday season, because I think that's something that really leads to the self-sabotage triggers in all of us is like, well, I could have done this differently, I could have done this, and I think that that's just like a really icky, sticky road to go down and more of shifting it to well, what are the things that I would like this season for myself? Whether that be peace. Would like this season for myself, whether that be peace, whether that be parties. I also encourage and know from my previous and past experiences that during a season like holiday season, there is an increase in caffeine, with all the coffee, sugary drinks and sugar and all that and alcohol and those are things that really kind of dysregulate our internal system. So if you can really try to be as mindful as possible, if you know that you're going out and you're going to a cocktail party and you have another party the next day, like maybe try to get some movement, try to get some sunshine, try to balance it with something that will nurture your adrenals and your nervous system, rather than just making it go so thin and like stretching yourself too thin. So that's really been something I've been really trying to be intentional about.

Speaker 1:

I don't really drink alcohol that much anymore, but I did have a couple of glasses of champagne at a wedding and, honestly, it wasn't really worth it. But it's okay. Like I realized, like you know what, I allowed myself to have a couple of glasses of champagne. I had fun, it wasn't a big deal, Didn't even get tipsy, Excuse me, but honoring the fact that I didn't really miss it and I don't really like it. So, going into the next party, I'll skip it and do the mocktails, and I think that for so long I've been having mocktails that they taste so good. Now I can just taste the alcohol and all the drinks and it's just not good. Plus, I think I've done so much research. I'm like, oh, it's going to cause inflammation, it's going to cause blah, blah, blah, so it's just yeah, for me it's not worth it.

Speaker 1:

You do you, though, but I do encourage you to balance it as much as possible, whether that's movement, exercise, rest, sleeping, hydration. But when we're out and we're partying and we're eating crap and then we wake up and we have a bunch of coffee and we keep going, going, going, it's like climbing a mountain. You're going up, up, up, up, and it's like you go down pretty quick. So that's kind of what happens to our system and our immune system. So really trying to keep away the ickies and the bugs and the germs as much as possible.

Speaker 1:

Nurture yourselves, honor yourselves, like, go out, have the fun, do all the things, but make sure you take time to recover mentally, physically, emotionally, whatever that looks like for you. It could look like a really long warm shower, just to just decompress and just picture all of the energy and the emotions and all the things just washing away. Sometimes that's like the most therapeutic thing you could do and we most of us have access to a shower or a bath or sometimes water, and just visualizing all of the energy washing away is super therapeutic. If you have not tried it, I highly recommend it. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I just felt really compelled to get on and chat with you guys about just nurturing yourself, honoring where you are, honoring what you need. Like I've been really trying to check in with myself on a daily basis, Like have I rested enough? Have I drank enough water? What is it that I need today? What is it that I want today? And really trying to check things off my list and just being honest about it and, you know, got to the point where I was like in tears with my husband the other day. I'm like I love you and I just want more intentional time with you and it's like, not that he's not giving me intentional time, it's that I feel like I'm running so thin in some ways that he's my safe place. So do I need to just rest or do I need that intentional time? It's definitely both, but also honoring.

Speaker 1:

It's not his responsibility for me to get rest. You know, I have to be the one to be honest with myself and take time and just chill out and honor. What I need that's being quiet in my car when I'm driving and not listening to the radio, Because when you get out it's going to be Santa Claus is coming to town and Mariah Carey Christmas music and it's so overstimulating out there right now. I'm not even like I don't care where you live. I guarantee you it's that way where you are. And then after the new year, what happens? Like we take down the trees, we take down all the decorations, we get back to normal life and I think there's a grieving process that can happen there when the sparkles and the glitter and the magic is gone, where it's a breath of fresh air. It's also like I personally was like, oh, I love when the sparkles and the pretty lights and I love all those things, but also love the simplicity and the cleanliness of just kind of clean slate new year.

Speaker 1:

I look forward to having a few fun guests on to just talk about like intention setting for the new year, being honorable with and realistic with where you want to go, what you want to do, taking it step by step instead of like giant big picture. I have to get a million things done, like little micro things you can do daily, which I've talked about in several podcasts. But we're going to revisit that a bit because I feel like I need to revisit that a bit. Because I feel like I need to revisit that a bit. I looked at my vision board I did for 2024, and I was actually quite taken back because I feel like all of it kind of manifested in its own way.

Speaker 1:

There was a lot of travel. We had big trips this year. We went to Switzerland, I went to Italy, we went to Peru all of these amazing adventures. I'll say that hiking Montu Picchu and going there with my husband and just really soaking that in was like such a vortex of healing and there's so much to Peru other than just Machu Picchu. And it was just such a cool time to be able to reset, to allow just like the spiritual energy of these ancient sites and the beautiful culture there, Like they live simply but happily.

Speaker 1:

And I came home and really just felt like there was so much excess in our world, like excess things in our home excess. So it really gave me a perspective that like simple is better sometimes, Like we don't really need all the things that we have, so why not give it to those who don't have it? So we've really worked hard on doing that this season, as well as just kind of cleaning out and repurposing and refurbishing and giving away some of the resources because we have an abundance and we're fortunate for that. You know, giving away some of the resources because we have an abundance and we're fortunate for that. However, it can also lead to overstimulation and nervous system dysregulation, to be quite honest. So, yeah, I'm excited, we're going to ride this out and look forward to connecting in the new year and I'll probably do a podcast or so before that. Maybe, maybe I will, maybe I won't, I don't know.

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I'm honoring my time and space and just really want to wish you all a wonderful season of rest and rejuvenation and recovery and honoring yourself, honoring your boundaries, allowing yourself to grieve and to feel joy and to feel the overestimate like. Just feel your feels, but try not to stay stuck in them and, honestly, when you feel like you are being dysregulated, like, find something that works for you. Find, you know there's resources out there. I always mention Resilient Retreat. We have people they call the kind line all the time, so they're up Tuesday through Friday, resilientretreatorg. We have programs. You know there's suicide hotlines.

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This time of year can bring up a lot of icky, yicky stuff and I just want everyone to know that you're not alone. You are seen, you are heard, there is someone out there for you and if you know, please message in the comments. If you need more resources, I am happy to pass them along. There's just. There's always someone available to help. You are seen, you are heard, your feelings are valid, Even if your family, your friends, your community doesn't realize that they might be, there is someone out there to hear you. So from's a wrap. Have a good day.