When we’re feeling bad around the holidays, we feel extra bad because we ‘shouldn’t’ be feeling bad.  -  like we’re doing it wrong. We’re supposed to be happy this time of year, dangit. So we often just ignore or fight our discomfort because we ‘shouldn’t’ be feeling this way. Fighting and ignoring it can make it even more complicated and overwhelming, like something is wrong or off or bad and you can’t figure it out and the unclarity of it all makes it feel so elusive and unmanageable. So I want to propose a simplified way of seeing what’s going on. And it all comes down to those two emotional states of arousal that I mentioned in last week’s episode: hyperarousal and hypo-arousal – which, to simplifier even further, can be categorized as anxiety or depression. If you’re struggling around the holidays, you can likely sort your experience into one of these containers. Again, I’m not trying to imply these are simple arousal states, meaning they’re easy. But the more we can simplify them, the less scary they become and they easier we’re able to be with them and understand them and even show compassion to them and then, ideally, learn how to move through the wave of emotion without it taking us under-water, for too long.

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