Ep 19 - Holiday Stress, Mindfulness & Protecting Your Peace

In this week’s episode, Gina kicks us off with an energy update that’s nothing short of electric. The vibes are high, the momentum is strong, and the universe has a surprise waiting for you — an announcement, an opportunity, or a bit of unexpected magic. Your mantra this week? “I expect miracles.”

From there, we dive into a conversation that so many of us need right now: holiday stress, boundaries, and how to stay grounded during one of the most emotionally charged seasons of the year.

Between decorating, cooking, family expectations, gift giving, budgeting, and end-of-year deadlines, the holidays can feel like a marathon with no finish line. And according to research, women in particular carry the heaviest emotional, mental, and logistical load this time of year. No wonder stress skyrockets.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

In this heartfelt and eye-opening episode, Kim and Gina unpack:

🎄 Why holiday overwhelm happens — and why so many of us fall into people-pleasing, over-committing, and perfectionism this time of year.
🎄 How to reclaim peace by saying “no” more often — without guilt and without explanation.
🎄 The family rules, boundaries, and traditions that changed Kim’s holidays forever (including the one-house-per-holiday rule!)
🎄 Mindfulness tools to keep you grounded, from the “one-moment reset” to conscious transitions before walking into a room full of big personalities and bigger emotions.
🎄 The three-breath nervous-system reset that can prevent spiraling, conflict, or emotional overload — especially around family members who push your buttons.
🎄 How to navigate difficult conversations (or avoid them entirely) without losing your cool or abandoning your values.
🎄 Why your nervous system mirrors the people around you, and how to set the intention to be “the calmest energy in the room.”
🎄 Shopping and preparation tips that eliminate unnecessary overwhelm — especially if you’re a highly sensitive or easily overstimulated person.
🎄 Ways to simplify gifting, reduce pressure, and create meaning without overextending your time, energy, or budget.
🎄 How to create a “Holiday Vision” — your personal filter for deciding what to say yes to, what to say no to, and how you want the season to feel.
🎄 A powerful post-holiday energy cleanse to release other people’s emotions, expectations, and energetic residue so you can reset and recharge.

This episode is a blend of practical advice, nervous system wisdom, spiritual grounding practices, and heartfelt personal stories that will help you create a holiday season rooted in intention, presence, peace, and joy — not obligation or burnout.

If you want the holidays to feel magical (not manic), nourishing (not draining), and mindful (not overwhelming), this is the episode you need.

Tune in and give yourself permission to create a holiday season that actually feels good — for you, your energy, and your family. ✨🎁

Transcript

Speaker 2 1:38

Hi guys. Gina Garino, psychic medium and spiritual life coach. Here is your weekly energy read. So for this week, the energy is swirling all around us. You are feeling so excited, so vibrant, and you are just like all over pumped for everything. You've gotten things checked off your list, you're feeling good, you're on top of the world. And it's almost like you just have one or two more things to check off your list. Like you're pretty much flying high, but in the background, you know, you have some stressful things coming up. So this week get organized, stay on your. Super, super high vibe because life is going to get very interesting. You are gonna expect the unexpected. This week you are going to hear of an announcement of something exciting in your life, or someone close to you. Might be a baby, might be a wedding, might be a promotion, but this week there's gonna be something unexpected coming in. So your mantra is, I expect miracles. Claim it, power it up, and bring it on into your life.

Speaker 2:57

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. Today we are talking about holiday stress. It's that time of year where we are decorating, cooking and baking, running around buying gifts. We're also likely meeting end of year deadlines, starting to plan for taxes and budgets for the upcoming year. So it's a busy time. It perhaps is more busy or more stressful for women than it is for men. I know. Shocker. According to the American Psychological Association, studies have shown an increase of stress in women in particular during November and December. In addition to women having a harder time than men relaxing during the holidays and being more likely to fall into bad habits. To manage their stress. Like for example, by comfort eating, which we talked about intuitive eating last week on the podcast, especially during family gatherings, when it can be especially difficult. So if you haven't listened to that one, please go back and listen to that episode. But a survey of the top sources of holiday stress resulted in a lack of time, a lack of money, and the pressure of buying gifts for everyone. So I think this is really sad, right? This is supposed to be a time for family, for gathering together and being thankful and mindful, sharing our love for one another, but that is increasingly becoming more of an idea and less of a reality. So today we are going to talk about this holiday stress. We know we have it. We know why we have it, but we're really going to dig into what we can do to circumvent it. We all want to experience a peaceful, magical holiday season, and we know that we have the ability to create our reality. We just have to be intentional heading into this time period, and today we're going to take a look at how to do that. So I'm going to get us started by talking about some of the things I found in my research and some of the things that I do with my family that I've seen huge results from. So first, the biggest change that we made that contributed to a much more peaceful and enjoyable holiday season. We decided years ago, um, think. Knox was a baby at the time, but we decided that we are only going to go to one house on each holiday if we're hosting. That's our house, but we're not going to travel to multiple houses or see every side of the family. I know people who do this and no shade to you whatsoever if you enjoy it. If you don't though, my first piece of advice when it comes to holiday stress is to say no to over-committing because for every, yes, there's a no, and for every, no, there is a yes. And if you are saying yes to going to three houses on Christmas, you are saying no to ease and peace and rest. You're going to be making multiple dishes, buying more gifts, rushing. You're gonna be packing and unpacking the car. You'll be dealing with cranky kids because kids don't enjoy having to. Stop playing to get back in the car for the second and third time, you're saying no to nap time if that's a thing for you. And listen, you should never say no to nap time. And most importantly, the way I see it, you're saying no to connection for both you and your family, even though you may think you're doing the right thing by seeing everyone when you eat and run. You're only at each place for an hour or two. You really don't have enough time to connect on a deep level. It's just surface level talk. And this is true even for your own immediate family. You're not connected with your kids, with your spouse, you're in constant movement. You're spending less time with them trying to make your rounds, you know, talk to all the people at each place. Whereas if you stayed at one place, you'd be far more relaxed tuned into your kids and your husband and everyone else that's there. So just think about what are you saying yes to and therefore saying no to. And the way that we manage this is by rotating holidays. So we spend each holiday with a different side of the family so that we do get to see everyone at least once a year. But you can also rotate years for the different holidays if that works better for you. But the hustle and bustle of getting to everyone's house for each and every holiday is just not necessary, in my opinion. It was maybe this past year. Oh. No, it wouldn't have been this past year. But the year before that, we hosted Christmas breakfast and we thought, well, that's gonna be early. We're gonna have the rest of the day. We'll go somewhere else. And guess what? Everyone cleared out. Finally. We were tired. We had a house that was a disaster. It needed to be cleaned up. Food was everywhere. My daughter was a wreck. She was overstimulated and tired. It was nap time. So what did we do? We said, Hey, sorry, we're not gonna make it after all. But here's the thing. If we would've just stuck to our plan from the beginning and said no from the get go when we were invited, we wouldn't have had to have that back and forth with ourselves of feeling bad that we committed to something and now we're not gonna follow through on it, but maybe we should. But everyone's exhausted and basically feeling bad on Christmas Day. Who wants that? And that just reinforced it for us. Once again, it is an unreasonable expectation, I believe, to go to more than one party in a day. And you may feel differently, but if you feel like me. Here's your permission slip. You don't have to do it all. You should enjoy your holiday as well. A happy mom makes for happy holidays, and the most important thing is your kids. It is your immediate family, and that's not how you want them Remembering you at the holidays. A good rule of thumb when you are invited anywhere, is to implement the phrase, let me get back to you tomorrow, because this gives you space to decide and not just react. And this really leads into one of the concept. That kept coming up in my research, which was to just say no, just say no to the things that don't bring you joy, the things that stress you out, the things you do for optics or for others that really contribute to your never ending to-do list during this time. That could look like a lot of different things, and it's going to be different for everyone. It could be holiday cards. It could be the perfect Christmas pajamas for Christmas morning. It could be putting up Christmas lights. It could be the elaborate elf on the shelf. Scenes. It could be baking cookies for everyone, you know, or even wrapping presents. Maybe just buy gift bags. If you're stressed out this year about wrapping or putting your kids' gifts out in the morning. Unwrapped, they love that too, I promise. It could be having the perfect decor, like trying to keep up with the trends every year. Part of what I think makes Christmas special is pulling out all of those. Same nostalgic decorations every year. Here's the same tree we've had for 15 years. Here's the ornaments we made in the second grade. That's what makes it special if you ask me, not the latest and greatest decorations and something else that kept coming up. Was saying no to posting anything holiday related on social media. And as a matter of fact, going into the holidays with the intention of putting your phone down completely and giving that a rest so that you can just be present with your family and friends. Your phone is a huge cortisol stressor and it creates comparison in lousy feelings, rooted in jealousy and envy. So just say no, this holiday season. Let that be a time of rest from your phone so you can focus on what really matters. And while we're talking about what really matters, you really matter. You set the tone for your entire family, your entire home. So take care of yourself. You know it's going to be a more stressful time. So block time off the calendar for self-care, at least weekly, if not daily. Get a massage, get a pedicure. Go to a yoga class, go see a movie by yourself. Set aside time for reading or meditation. Plan to do something for yourself on a regular basis and schedule it ahead of time or else it won't happen. It's a very busy time, so if you're not proactive about it, you won't do the things that you need to do for yourself to keep yourself sane. And here's what I want everyone to do. I want you to sit down and create a vision for the holiday season. How do you want your holidays to feel? How do you want them to look? What is important to you during this time? This is where we are setting intentions ahead of time. Maybe you want peace and calm. Maybe you want joy and excite. Maybe you want softness and comfort and coziness and warmth. Maybe you want romance or play, whatever comes to mind, jot it all down. This is your holiday filter, and from this point forward, everything needs to run through this holiday filter. Keep this at the forefront of your mind while you're planning and while you're in the middle of it all, and certainly when you're asked to do something or go somewhere or fulfill some kind of request. Does this fit in with my vision? If it doesn't, just say no. All right, Gina, what do you have for us today?

Speaker 2 11:57

Okay, so I have to be totally transparent.

Speaker 12:01

Okay.

Speaker 2 12:01

In prepping for this episode, I got so angsty and so in my head of holiday time, like full disclosure. My family acts like a damn fool around the holidays. My family is so like, they're amazing and I mean this with so much love. They're amazing. They're perfectionists and everything has to be just so, which causes. So much angst in me because I am, I'm like, I'm a recovering perfectionist. So I even do things that like make things imperfect on purpose so that I can be like okay with it. And the holidays. Make me so angsty to the point where when Nicholas and I were planning our wedding date, I really wanted my grandparents' wedding date, which is on December 27th, and I have wanted this date like for forever, since the time I found out. I was like, oh my God, it's so romantic because in my. Imagination. Christmas is romantic and beautiful, and Christmas lights and engagements and like all of that, and I really wanted that wedding date. But then when I got to thinking about it, I was like, I will throw my whole entire family into a full blown panic. If I do that two days after Christmas, what am I thinking? I could hear my family gossiping behind my back of like, what the hell is she doing? This is absolutely crazy, My sister actually got married or had her reception on Derby Day last year, and she lives in Vegas. And so for us Kentuckians, we were like. Oh my gosh. It's derby And uh, it was such a funny thing, but because I know all of this and I know how I want my holiday to be I'm a very relaxed, peaceful person that is always at the forefront of everything that I do. So when I thought about this podcast, I was like, okay, how? How are we gonna infuse all of this and we're gonna infuse it with a thousand pounds of mindfulness? Okay, because the holidays are supposed to feel magical. But let's be honest, sometimes they feel like emotional Olympics between family dynamics, packed schedules, and endless expectations, stress can sneak in fast. So today we're slowing it all down. I'm gonna share some tools on how to help you stay mindful, grounded, centered, while also setting boundaries that protect your peace. All right, so the energy of the holidays. Acknowledging the duality between joy and pressure, they coexist. Okay? We can hold two things at once. Acknowledge it. Don't be silly, and be totally imaginative and be like, it's gonna be amazing. Nah, sister, get your mind right because you're gonna hold two things at once. Reflect on how the collective energy amplifies stress. Even if it's not yours. This is huge. So I want you to invite awareness before you absorb the chaos. Pause, just like Kim said, the power of the pause. Ask yourself, is this energy mine or am I tuning into someone else's holiday rush? That's imperative. Then you can take a deep breath, feel your feet onto the floor, and exhale any expectations that aren't aligned with your truth this season. So here are some, some real life mindfulness tools for holiday stress. The one moment reset. This is really big and it's helpful for me when stress hits stop. And name the one thing you can see, hear, touch, smell, and feel. Take yourself out of the mindset and out of the thought process. This grounds you in the present instead of spiraling an obligation or guilt. Two, the conscious transitions before entering in a holiday event. Take 30 seconds in the car to breathe and set an energetic intention such as I choose to stay calm and centered no matter what unfolds. That's gonna be a big one. All right. If you have like, uh, loose cannons in your family, like the power of the pause and taking that 30 seconds before you go in is gonna be lifesaver Number three, the three breath rule. Before responding, and I'm laughing to this because in an Italian family, we all speak so loudly that it out to outsiders. It sounds like we could be like raising our voices or yelling at each other and it's so not like that, but, but elevation, like emotional elevation is there. Okay, so the three breath rule before responding to anyone, especially family triggers. If someone's coming at you about anything, three breaths. Breath one, return to your body. Breath two, clear the emotion. Breath three, choose your kind. Respectful, respectful, respectful, respectful response. All right, take that all in. Now it's imperative that we talk about boundaries as self-love. Your boundaries help you so you have permission to protect your own energy. You are the only person that is going to protect your own energy. Boundaries aren't walls. They're energetic filters that keep your peace sacred. Here are a couple of examples. I'd love to see you, but I can only stay for an hour. I'm skipping that event this year. I need to recharge that day. Let's not talk about politics this time. I'd rather focus on connection Now. I will say that last one. I say this all the time, like weekly. Let's not talk about politics. Let's talk about something else. All right, so body-based boundaries. This is important to tune into because your body tells you everything. Notice where your body tightens. Where your shoulders go, up to your ears, your stomach, your jaw, when you are about to cross your own limit, that's your cue to pause and take a step back. So if you need to pause and take a step back, if you feel like you are being triggered, and I know that word triggered is so overused now, but if you feel an emotional response and you feel. Like you feel like irritability is rising up or you feel like. Oh my, oh my gosh. That really has upset me. Or you feel like, boom, you're getting some kind of emotional response. Stop. Drop and roll. Okay, stop. Drop and roll. Excuse yourself. And here's the thing. You can do this in real time. If someone is talking to you and it's just you and a family member, or you and a friend, and you're feeling that emotional. Response. You can stop them dead in their tracks in the middle of their sentence and say, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I need to run to the restroom. I'll be back in a moment. Run to the restroom. Stay in there as long as you want. You can take a 10 minute bathroom break. I do. And you go in there. You use a bathroom, you wash your hands, maybe put on a little bit more lip gloss. Look at your phone. Take a timeout and then come back with an appropriate response, or don't go back to that person at all. You've broken the energy hold and you can reframe and move on. So I hope these tips and tricks will help you during the holidays.

Speaker 20:33

I agree. Don't engage. Like if someone is saying something completely ridiculous, just let them say it. Um, it's like that saying, uh, never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it, right? They're talking about it because they want you to engage in this discourse. Don't do it. Just refuse. Because you're not gonna feel any better afterward. You're not gonna change their mind, that's for sure. Mm-hmm. And then that's what the holiday became all about, was this political debate or maybe this religious debate, or who knows, whatever it is.

Speaker 2 21:06

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And the power of listening. So here's the thing, most people engage because they're like, oh, they're wrong, and I have to show them that they're wrong and I'm right.

Speaker 21:18

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 21:18

Don't engage in that. Just be curious in the conversation and be the listener. And then also internally think, oh my gosh, this person's batshit crazy. But don't say it out loud, you know, just be the listener and be curious because you might learn something about them or learn something new. Don't get emotional. Who cares? You don't have to be right. Because you're never gonna change their minds.

Speaker 21:42

No. Let them, I, I read that book. Uh, the Let them theory, just let'em think what they're gonna think. That's all right. Yeah. They can have their opinions. Absolutely. It's fine. But I also like what you said about setting intentions before you step into a room filled with people on the holidays. And this goes to like nervous system regulation. Humans co-regulate. So. If your mom is frantic, your system mirrors her before you even have a chance to think about it. Um, this is why like some relatives always stress you out because you're actually responding to their nervous system state, not their personality. Hmm. And so, yeah, I think setting the intention before you go in because you know this is going to happen. Like, you know, those people, like you said, that triggered you. Yeah. Taking a second before you step into the room. I choose to be the calmest nervous system in this room. Everyone will sink to me and not the other way around. Speak your intentions. Your words are like spells. I always love to think about it like that. Anything that you say out loud, any intentions that you have, you could say it in your head, you know, if there's people around you don't wanna look crazy, but if you really speak it out loud, that is like. Casting a spell on the whole situation before you even enter. Mm-hmm. Um, so I really like what you said about that. And then also, yeah, you mentioned the three breath rule and you were talking about like coming back into your body and clearing the emotions. And if you don't know what that means, just do a count. Because I think sometimes, you know, that can feel like a lot of pressure, like trying to think of what does that mean and how do I do that? If you just count, if you inhale for four seconds, hold it for two, exhale for six seconds, do that three times. You are going to regulate your nervous system and you're gonna be a whole different person than when you started. Love it. So just a little. Little key there for anybody that's like, uh, how do I do that though? But yeah, that will shift the vagus nerve into parasympathetic mode. That's the rest and digest. And it pulls you, it basically pulls you out of fight or flight. So that returns you to your body. It clears the emotion. That's exactly what that's doing. I would, I would do this. I, you know, you can do this in the moment when somebody's triggering you, or again, you can do it before you walk into the room. Go ahead and get into the most calm state you can possibly get into before you even face the people that you're about to be around. Another thing I was gonna mention, that I kept seeing was, people get overwhelmed by crowds and shopping. Not everyone, but if you're someone like me, you might get overwhelmed by all of those different energies. Which I don't know, I don't. I don't see why anybody would walk into a store during holiday season and try to buy something because,

Speaker 2 24:47

because it's crazy.

Speaker 24:49

It's crazy. Yeah. And I mean, honestly, so I went to Walmart, which is notoriously like cheaper type items, right? The other

Speaker 2 24:56

day. I wish you all should see it. I wish you all could see my face when she just said Wally World. My eyes just like bugged out my head and I'm like, are you crazy?

Speaker 25:04

Never know what you're gonna find there, but it was, it was well in advance. So the holidays, you know,

Speaker 2 25:09

especially here in Kentucky.

Speaker 25:11

Yeah. Which Walmart? Um, so. Yeah. Okay. So, but I went to Walmart. I thought, I'm gonna go, just go ahead and get some gifts so that I feel a little bit better. I hadn't started Christmas shopping and I didn't really have a whole lot of ideas. That's the one good thing about going to a store is that you could just see it all, it's all laid out for you, right? Yeah. But I filled up my cart with all these different toys and then I was like, Hmm, I wonder, if they're on Amazon. Let me see. And I looked, and three fourths of them were on Amazon. For the same price or cheaper.

Speaker 2 25:40

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 25:41

And I thought, why am I doing this? Because, I mean, if you're a Prime member, you get 5% back, so it's gonna be cheaper, even if it's the same price.

Speaker 2 25:49

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 25:49

So just, you know. If you can order online and just avoid it all together. I would. Now, I do love shopping locally. I will say that if you're going to like different boutiques and things and smaller stores, that's a whole different energy and yeah, absolutely. Go and get those personal gifts. But like, you're not gonna catch me in a mall, for example, like especially around, I mean, anytime of year, but especially around the holidays. Yeah, absolutely. Um, but one of the key, one of the things that kept coming up was to where. AirPods with calming music and, oh, if you're gonna go into a place where, you know, the energy is gonna be frantic and crazy because it lowers sensory overload, and I thought, well, that's a pretty good idea. So if you can't avoid it altogether, that's an idea for you.

Speaker 2 26:36

And that's, that's a really, really good idea, Kim. Thank you for sharing that because as an intuitive, I'm a highly sensitive. Person and an HSP person. If you don't know that acronym, you can look it up. Highly sensitive person. There's a great book all about it called sensitive. It's one of my favorites. But that's actually super helpful for me because I get very overstimulated to where like my ears hurt and, so that is gonna be super helpful of going. Anywhere in my life of, oh, just put my EarPods on and listen to like some calming music when I have to be in that kind of container. So thank you for that.

Speaker 27:21

Yeah, calming music, uh, I think would probably work best. But you could also just do an audiobook, you know? Mm-hmm. Something that you enjoy listening to. Just something that's gonna keep you from really tuning in to all the frantic energy around you, because you know it's gonna be frantic. We know, I mean, studies show that this time of year, it's just crazy. And then something else that I thought I'd mentioned, which isn't gonna help anybody right now, but going forward, as you start next year is really planning ahead. I know, I used to get, and I still do sometimes, but I get really stressed out when we get close to the holidays because I'm like, oh my gosh, it's already here and I don't know what to get everybody and blah, blah, blah, blah. But I really have started. Keeping track. When I see something that looks like a good gift, I'm not buying it in the moment. I don't think that that's very smart because you might change your mind. It's then past the return date and then you gotta store things. I'm not gonna buy things. Mm-hmm. In March for Christmas. Yeah. But I do have a board on Pinterest and anything that I see that I'm like, oh, that would be a good gift. I'm putting it in there. Mm-hmm. And I think that that's really helpful to start. Just keeping your eyes open to things earlier on so that, because that is a lot of pressure, like, I'm sorry. That's why women are so stressed out because they're typically the gift buyers and trying to find something that's unique and that the person will love it is a lot of pressure. It sounds silly. But it is, and you're doing this year after year, trying to come up with something new and different. And it does get stressful as you get closer to the holidays and you just don't have that idea. So start keeping your eyes open for those things early on, not to buy them mm-hmm. But just to file'em away for when the time comes that you're ready to do your shopping.

Speaker 2 29:11

Yeah, that's such a good idea and something that my family does that I really love and appreciate. We don't buy gifts for everyone. In my family, it all started out when we were little actually, and we would draw names and do a secret santa, but we had to make the gift and we had to find the supplies within the house. You couldn't buy anything. And then once we got older, then the new rule was you can buy your supplies, but you still have to make it. And we still uphold that to this day, but we added in this year. Every year we have like a competition and whoever wins the competition gr gets to create the next competition. And this year we are creating stockings for the person that we drew their name. It's a$50 limit and we don't have to like make the contents, but we have to make up the stocking and, send it to that person. And it takes so much pressure off that you just have to focus on one thing. It's so, so helpful, and it's meaningful too, it's not just like. A transaction, you know?

Speaker 30:25

Yeah. I'm all for like, decreasing the pressure of buying gifts. My husband's the exact opposite, so he's always like, oh, I'm, you know, it's Christmas. What do you mean we're buying for everybody and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, we, well, yeah, but that means I'm, I'm buying for everybody

Speaker 2 30:41

for the most part, you know? Yeah.'cause

Speaker 30:43

yeah, IJ it's not that he wouldn't do it, it's that he would do it two days before Christmas and I can't. I can't live with that kind of stress in my life.

Speaker 2 30:51

That's true. Oh my God. He's one of those, he's one of those that's out on

Speaker 30:55

Christmas. He'll put it off off until the last minute and then he'll go shopping and he'll find what he finds. And a lot of times that works out for him. Things work out. But I can't live with that. Leading up to Christmas, thinking about not having that. I would yet, I would. I

Speaker 2 31:09

would. I would be like, oh my God.

Speaker 31:10

Yeah. So it ends up being mean just because I've gotta get it done. Yeah, it's gotta get it off the to-do list. Um, absolutely. But I'm all for that, you know. We, tend to do like gift exchanges and things, and it's like fun little games that we do with it. Secret santa kind of things. But you know, you can do games. It not involve gifts. And sometimes I think that that might be more enjoyable for everybody. But just kind of thinking about ways to get creative so that you can, again, just decrease that stress, decrease the amount of gifts that you have to think about and get, Some people might, yeah, call me Scrooge for that. My husband would call me Scrooge for that.

Speaker 2 31:48

But

Speaker 31:49

you know, I just, I think it's all about enjoying each other's company. There doesn't have to be gifts. Now it's different with the kids. Of course. You wanna spoil the kids. Yeah. But when's the last time that you, you got a gift in one of those gift exchanges that you just loved? You know, I mean, it's not very often.

Speaker 2 32:05

Exactly. Exactly. And here's the thing. So my family, we grew up very financially modest, like very, very financially modest. So we had to make our gifts. My family didn't have the money to go out and buy all of these gifts, even for the kids. And Santa would come, but Santa brought us one gift and a stocking. Mm-hmm. And so it really. Did incorporate more of that meaningfulness of us just being together. And of course, it's all about the food. Our holidays are about the food, not about the guests, you know? Well,

Speaker 32:41

Even when it comes to kids, when you are giving them a million presents, there is no gratitude there. There is no mindfulness there. You're really setting them up for Yeah, overstimulation and for just this unrealistic expectation of life. And when you. Have just a few gifts. It's the same thing with toys. When they have just a few toys, they really get creative with those toys. They really enjoy those toys. Mm-hmm. When you have a whole playroom full of a million toys, and don't get me wrong, that's me, but I've always thought, oh, I'll rotate out toys. I just can't get it together to do that. But, When they have a small amount of something, they really focus in on it, and they can really then be grateful for those things it's overload all round. Yeah. For their mind and everything. So if you need a reason to cut back this year. That's it. Mm-hmm. It's actually good for them to get less gifts. My brother-in-law's been, been preaching this to me for years, and I keep being like, ah, I can't hear you. What you know, but he's right and I know he is right. So

Speaker 2 33:48

he's he's totally right and is just like us. If our mind is too bogged, like if we have too many things on our mind, it's hard to focus on one thing. Same thing with like mm-hmm. Things in our life, it's hard to be grateful for one thing when we have so much else going on. Do we miss the gratitude moment within there? The last thing that I really wanna touch on, Kim, is post holiday recharge ritual. So you've gone through the holidays and you've either given yourself a big fat gold star or a big red X on whether or not you did a good job with handling yourself through the holidays. But regardless of. What you think about your performance, um, this is gonna be a great recharge ritual. So after your gatherings, cleanse your energy, take a walk, salt bath journal, or simply sit in silence to realign with yourself. Realigning your energy after the holidays and after being around so many people, so many different energies, so many different thought processes. It is natural that your body just kind of takes on other people's energy. So what you're gonna do is just one of these things that I just mentioned. And a way to cleanse your energy is to sit quietly by yourself, turn on healing frequency music, and I want you to imagine a bright, white horizontal line above your head. Like a bright white light, like a horizontal line that's gravitating above your head, and this white light travels down the top of your head, pushes all of the energy that no longer serves you down through the base of your feet. So the line of energy, that bright white light energy will go from the top of your head. Pushes the energy down through your head space, your jaw, your neck, your chest, pushing the energy down through your belly, your hips, your legs, your knees down through your calves, through your feet, and pushes the energy into the earth. And that is a quick, amazing way. To get other people's energy out of your body and to cleanse yourself. You can also take a walk and thinking with the intention of, I'm cleansing my energetic body of anybody's energy that no longer serves me or that does not belong, and I send it back to its rightful owner. You can also say, take a salt bath. That is a great cleansing ritual to take, and also taking a bath during the holidays. That sounds so luxurious. As well as journaling journal about your experience, your thoughts, your feelings, what transpired, get it all out on paper, and then ask your creator, how do I expand my vessel so I can change my perspective if you need to change it? Or how can I expand my vessel to hold more light? To be like the creator, to align yourself with the creator. And with doing these tools, you will feel in tip top shape. Just remember, cleanse your body, cleanse your energetic body after the holidays, it will help you tenfold. Thank you guys so much for tuning in today for Holiday Stress and Boundaries. We wish you a very happy holiday and blessings to all. We will return next week and we will have an amazing episode for you. So sending you all the love and light and joy for this holiday season.