[00:00:00] In today's takeout therapy episode, you'll learn how to gently transition from the chaos of the holidays back into your regular routine. Right back into your regular routine. We'll cover why the post holiday period feels so overwhelming, the importance of mindfulness and slowing down, and some simple steps to rebalance work, family, and self care in the new year.

Welcome to take out therapy, a quick session to help you learn stress reduction, emotional intelligence skills, and self compassion for more work life balance and inner peace. I'm Rebecca Hunter, a therapist who specializes in helping empathic executives break free from anxiety and overwhelm. If you're ready to stop overthinking, let go of people pleasing and truly thrive, you're in the right place.

Thanks for listening. Let's get to work.

I am so glad you're here for today's session because can't the joyous, beautiful season [00:01:00] be really overwhelming, leave us feeling drained and completely out of balance.

Oh, the joy of the holidays. Today's episode is all about finding your footing again in the new year. Let's explore why the post holiday period can feel so challenging. The power of mindfulness to ease back into your routine. And I'll give you some simple tips. simple intentional practices to help you rebalance work, family, and self care.

Here's the thing though, the holidays just disrupt our routines. It's hard enough to ~kind of~ do all the things that you have to do on the daily. And then let's throw in Whatever your holiday tradition is, and good luck getting out of it. You know, the whole season just leaves people completely spent. And I think more importantly, really out of sync with themselves.

You know, it's like we [00:02:00] have all this stuff that we have to do in a pretty short amount of time And then we got to get back to returning to work managing the kids schedules Reconnecting with our partner and maybe even our own interests, which all just feels completely impossible Doesn't it? Here's the thing if you jump back into business as usual Without addressing the chaos that your body, your brain, and your soul just went through, you're gonna risk burnout, my friend.

You might feel a lot of pressure to like really get back in there and tackle projects immediately. Like get the kids back on schedule or dive into your New Year's resolutions. All the while you might ignore a need that your body and your brain have for rest and reflection. So imagine easing into the new year with a calm centered mindset.

Just picture [00:03:00] yourself managing all of it. The work, the family, your self care, your sanity with a sense of balance. And a lot of intention that you've put in with a mindful slower approach, you might be a little bit more successful here.

Oftentimes I have clients that come to see me after not seeing me for a while, or right after the holidays, because they're super out of sorts and they try to dive back into their regular routine, but they don't. really quickly and they get a return of symptoms and you know, I specialize in anxiety. So people end up like, why am I so anxious?

~Like~ I was doing so well. When we go back to the basics of a slower, more mindful approach. Then, ~and getting like these small,~ setting small and achievable goals, you're gonna get more traction. You'll be able to balance your responsibilities [00:04:00] better while staying connected to what you actually need. So here's what I want to suggest to you as you come out of the utter chaos of the happy happy holidays and you go back into regular old busy ass life, here are a couple of things you can give some thought to and some intention around.

You're gonna want to pause and reflect. What do I mean by that? Just process the season. Like if you had to drive to the next state over to have dinner with family members that you can hardly even stand to be around, just pause and reflect on how that was for you, friend. If you had to leave big work projects on the table to like take the week off and you were feeling kind of tossed up about it.

It's okay to just ~like.~ Process that now, spend a few moments journaling or meditating, whatever your jam is. [00:05:00] Okay. Identify what you've just been through and how you want to feel moving forward because keeping those two things in your peripheral vision is really going to help. Like what just happened and how do I want to move forward from it?

The second thing I would say is. Yes, absolutely prioritize rest. And I know you, I know that you don't just lay around and do nothing that that's really hard for you, but I would say allow yourself time to recover. physically and emotionally, because you just took your really busy life and you amped it up significantly, And you're not just gonna be able to bounce back to normal.

So it might mean just laying around and reading a magazine for a little while taking a bath going to bed a little earlier just prioritize rest do some porch sitting, you know, that's my favorite activity just [00:06:00] porch sitting! It's really fun to just watch the world go by. Anyway, 10, 15 minutes. It will be prioritizing.

It will do the trick at times, and if it doesn't go back again. Also look at your to do list and get rid of all the things that you're not actually going to do in the near future. Put them on some other list or bring them down to the bottom. Simplify your to do list just for right now. So for a little while, break those tasks into manageable pieces and focus on ~the things, the~ only the things that are essential.

So give yourself permission to ease into life, right? I know the kids need a lot of things for this and you've got to do a bunch of stuff over here for work, right? Of course. But give yourself permission to ease in instead of tackling everything at once. In terms of [00:07:00] family life, you, you've had a lot of time together.

And so what often helps people is like plan some low key activities or plan to spend time apart. Right? This will help re establish connection. It's like we spend all this time with each other and then we get to the end of it and we're so I'm still like pretty amped up and feel like we need to keep playing all this stuff for everybody to do like family game night or let's go do this or let's go do that.

So I'm suggesting just take a little break from that. Let everybody in the house just take a deep breath and that will reestablish connection. And watch that happen ~ ~in, in this gap that you create, where you're not planning all the things for everybody all the time. Carve out some time for yourself, friend.

Start to look at doing a few little activities that you enjoy, whether it's [00:08:00] journaling or a hobby, even. Something frivolous and fun with no productive outcome. Maybe reading a book. And start to schedule it into your week. To get some of your interests rekindled, because I think that the holiday season can burn us out to the point where it's like, we don't even care about what we did care about before.

And then an important little practice to do is when you see that you're all sped up, because it'll kind of be, As you ~kind of~ come down from the holidays, your system's all trained to like roll quickly. Does that make sense? And so it will want to do that, but you're going to drive it. So incorporate some mindfulness in, which all that means is like, When you see yourself start to spin, come back to the present moment.

Get some deep breathing going. Do some like one minute to three minutes short [00:09:00] meditations. I love insight timer for this. Work these things into your day to stay present and to stay ~like~ grounded in what you're doing as you transition back to your regular life routine. So I'm just encouraging you as you come out of this holiday haze.

To just be a little bit more gentle with yourself. And next week we'll talk about ~kind of~ looking over the past year and looking into the new year. So I'll help you to set some intentions as far as ~your, you know,~ your personal growth work, your self help work that you do all the time. We'll ~kind of ~look at that.

So we want to first just ~kind of~ step back and get your body recalibrated to like that calm, chill life that you're looking to create. Right? These little mindfulness tricks like short meditations, [00:10:00] um, deep breathing and other fun little places to focus. These little small intentional steps will help you to feel more balanced.

Trust me. Just pick something from today's episode and, ~and~ get it going this week. Just start small. And let it guide you toward a more balanced and peaceful start to the new year, which will really get going on next week. So in today's episode, ~I just wanted to reassure you that the post holiday feel it period.~

I just wanted to reassure you that the post holiday period can absolutely feel overwhelming, but it's okay to take your time to get through the elevation that you've just been through basically. Mindfulness and slowing down are going to get essential for rebalancing work, family, and self care. So pay attention to that and use small intentional practices to make the transition smoother and more sustainable.

The holidays [00:11:00] are almost behind us. And the new year is a blank slate. By approaching it with mindfulness and a little self compassion, my friend, you can create a balanced, fulfilling routine that supports your wellbeing. Thank you so much for spending your time with me today. I really appreciate you listening.

New episodes are released most Fridays, so be sure to tune in. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it with someone who might need it. it and leave a review, please leave a review. It helps the podcast reach more people just like you. And if you want to work directly with me to learn to live a more peaceful life, less hectic, just reach out to book a free discovery call.

I'll help you come up with a good game plan. I'm changing the way I work with people to create massive impact. So if that sounds good to you, get in touch. ~Thanks for listening. While this is a great educational, ~[00:12:00] while takeout therapy is a great educational resource, always get the level of support that you need for your situation.

Head to takeouttherapy. com to get on my mailing list and learn how to work with me until next time. Take really good care of yourself. ~ ~