Slowing Down for Midwinter and the New Year.

This month’s blog applies the theme of slowing down to the festive holidays. Less Ho, Ho, and more No, No!

The final weeks of the year often arrive already crowded.

Appointments multiply, expectations thicken, and emotional volume rises. For many psychotherapy clients, Midwinter, Festivities and New Year feel less like a pause and more like an endurance test. Slowing down at this time of year is not about doing the season properly. It is about protecting your nervous system and offering yourself care.

Why This Season Can Feel So Hard

This time of year tends to amplify what is already present. Joy may feel brighter, but stress, grief, loneliness, and complicated family dynamics can also come into sharper focus. There is often pressure to feel grateful, connected, or hopeful, even when your inner experience does not match the external story.

For those in therapy, old patterns may resurface. Family roles can reappear. Boundaries may feel harder to hold. Endings and beginnings can invite reflection that feels both necessary and overwhelming.

Slowing Down as Nervous System Support

From a therapeutic perspective, slowing down is not indulgent. It is regulating. When pace and stimulation reduce, the body has more opportunity to settle. Breathing softens. Thoughts become less urgent. Emotions feel more workable.

Coping is not only cognitive. We cannot think our way out of stress while the nervous system remains on high alert. Small acts of slowness send a different message. You are safe enough to pause.

Letting Go of the Perfect Season

Many people carry strong internal narratives about what Christmas and New Year should look like. When reality falls short, self criticism often fills the gap.

Slowing down invites a gentler question. What do I actually need this year?

That might mean fewer social commitments, simpler routines, or allowing yourself to participate differently. Emotional honesty is often more supportive than seasonal perfection.

Small Ways to Slow the Pace

Slowing down rarely requires big changes. It often begins with subtle shifts.

Pause intentionally. Take a few quiet minutes before checking your phone in the morning or after coming home.

Simplify expectations. Notice where obligation outweighs care and allow one thing to soften or fall away.

Stay connected to the body. Gentle movement, warmth, or grounding exercises can help regulate emotional intensity.

Practise compassionate boundaries. Saying no, leaving early, or taking breaks can be an act of self respect rather than withdrawal.

Approaching the New Year Gently

The New Year is often framed as a moment for decisive change. For many people, this carries pressure or self judgement.

A slower approach allows reflection to unfold naturally. Instead of asking what you should fix, you might notice what supported you this year and what depleted you. Change rooted in awareness tends to feel more sustainable.

A Brief Grounding Exercise

If things feel overwhelming, you might try this simple practice.

Place your feet on the floor and notice the points of contact beneath you. Take a slow breath in through your nose and a longer breath out through your mouth. Gently name five things you can see, four things you can feel in your body, and three things you can hear. Let your shoulders drop as much as they are willing.

This can take less than a minute and can be repeated whenever you notice yourself rushing or bracing.

A Reflective Prompt

As the year draws to a close, you might gently explore:

What helped me cope this year, even in small ways?
What asked too much of me?
What would it mean to move into the next season with a little more kindness toward myself?

Christmas and New Year do not require you to be more cheerful, more social, or more resolved. They simply arrive. Slowing down allows you to meet them as you are, and that is often where care begins.

If you find this season brings up more than you expected, you are not alone. Many people notice that holidays and transitions surface feelings that have been waiting for space and safety.

Therapy can offer that space. Whether you are continuing existing work or considering returning after a break, sessions can help you slow things down, make sense of what is emerging, and support your nervous system through the season and into the new year.

You do not need to have everything worked out before showing up Arriving as you are is more than enough.