How to Stay Grounded (and Grateful) While Managing Holiday Stress
The holidays are meant to be joyful – full of connection, laughter, and cozy traditions. But let’s be honest: they can also be a lot. Between family dynamics, financial pressures, and endless to-do lists, even the most festive of us can find our nervous systems stretched thin.
If you’ve ever caught yourself holding your breath during a tense family conversation or feeling guilty for not being more grateful, you’re not alone. But managing holiday stress isn’t about pretending everything’s perfect. It’s about learning to meet the season with more presence and compassion for yourself (and everyone else).
This year, instead of aiming for a picture-perfect holiday, what if you focused on staying grounded, calm, and genuinely connected? Let’s explore some of my favourite mindfulness-based tools to help you respond (rather than react) to whatever the holidays bring this year.
Why the Holidays Test Our Mental Health
Even if you love the holidays, it’s easy to feel your emotions swing between excitement and exhaustion. In fact, 62% of people feel their stress levels are “very or somewhat” heightened during the holidays. There’s the push to finish work deadlines, find thoughtful gifts, and show up (sometimes literally) for everyone around you. Add travel, family dynamics, or loneliness into the mix, and our emotional bandwidth can wear thin fast.
From a mindfulness perspective, this all makes sense. The season piles on stimulation – bright lights, packed schedules, high expectations – which keeps your nervous system in a low-grade “on” mode. Your brain, trying to juggle it all, starts to slip into survival. That’s why managing holiday stress requires us to learn how to regulate our bodies and minds when the chaos hits.
Thankfully, it’s entirely possible to train your brain to do that. I know, because I’ve done it myself, and it doesn’t take hours of meditation every day to get there. With a few simple mindfulness techniques, you can nurture your holiday mental health, restore calm, and reconnect with what really matters during the holiday season: feeling at peace, present, and maybe even a little joyful!
The Pause That Changes Everything
When emotions start running high – whether due to a snarky comment at the dinner table or a never-ending to-do list – your instinct might be to react. But the real power lies in pausing before you do.
One of my favourite mindfulness tools for managing holiday stress is called the SBNRR technique (short for Stop, Breathe, Notice, Reflect, Respond). Think of this as a five-step checklist to calm your nervous system and respond with intention instead of impulse:
Stop. When you feel tension rising, take a brief pause. You don’t need to fix anything yet – just create space.
Breathe. Slow, steady breaths tell your body you’re safe. Inhale for four counts, exhale for four. Consciously drop your shoulders.
Notice. Pay attention to what’s happening in your body. Maybe your heart’s racing or your jaw’s tight. Awareness is the first step toward regulation.
Reflect. Ask yourself: What’s really going on here? Are you tired, overstimulated, or taking something personally?
Respond. Choose a response that reflects your values, not your frustration. Maybe it’s changing the subject, setting a boundary, or simply smiling and moving on.
It’s a simple practice, but it works, because it creates that vital moment between stimulus and response. As Viktor Frankl wrote, “In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” And when the holidays get hectic, that space is a gift you can keep giving yourself.
The Gratitude Shift
Gratitude can feel like a stretch when stress is running high. But mindfulness and gratitude work hand in hand, helping you notice what’s steady when everything else feels chaotic.
It’s important to note that practicing gratitude doesn’t mean forcing positivity or pretending you’re not frustrated. Rather, it means anchoring your attention to something true and good in this moment. Maybe it’s the scent of a candle, the warmth of a cozy sweater, or the sound of laughter down the hall. However small, each acknowledgement helps your nervous system shift from threat to safety and from tension to ease.
Try this quick grounding exercise the next time you feel overwhelmed:
Pause and take a deep breath.
Name three things you can genuinely appreciate right now.
Let yourself feel that appreciation for a full breath or two before moving on.
This simple practice rewires your brain toward calm and connection. And when the holidays feel like too much, that small act of noticing can gently bring you back home to yourself.
Peace and Presence are Practices
Here’s what I want you to remember: managing holiday stress isn’t about staying zen 24/7 or keeping every interaction smooth. It’s about noticing when you’ve drifted off-centre and choosing to come back. Over and over again.
So this season, let yourself be present for it all – the messy, the magical, and the human moments in between. And if you want a little extra support in finding your calm, join me for my Peace + Presence 7-Day Challenge. It’s a week of simple, connected practices to help you breathe deeper, stress less, and show up for the season (and yourself) with a little more ease.
