an empath's guide to holiday recovery:

The holidays are a fun time to be around family. A majority of the time everyone are in cheery spirits but it never fails that you’ll be cornered by someone with a story that is nothing less than a bummer. Otherwise, you’re responding to the same questions from everyone individually, because there’s no way we could all be in one place to ask/answer together. If you’re in a relationship, you’re definitely juggling the grandparents, parents, aunts/uncles homes for both your side and his. It’s undoubtedly and utterly exhausting. So, if you’re like me you crave that 10 minutes you get alone in the bathroom or finally crawling into bed after staying up until 4:30 am because your mom is a night owl. Those sweet, coveted alone time moments to just breathe and rest your cheek muscles from that painful “everything is great” smile. Okay, okay this is starting to feel a bit cynical and typical me, that’s not where I wanted to go with it but I had to set up the story, right?

Now, if you were thinking I had actual advice that is backed by science and a bullet point list you reached the wrong post. You should keep googling, there’s a BuzzFeed article out there somewhere I’m sure. There’s a certain solace in being around family and the bustle of holidays that is warming to the heart. There’s also solace in being able to spend some time alone to recoup from that. I always make sure there’s at least one day at the end of my holiday or vacation that I can spend alone to recover. Usually spent just being as lazy as I possibly can be with no actual recovery methods you’ll see. I’m not aligning any chakras or meditating (yes, you fell for clickbait). I do some stress cleaning that relieves the clutter of madness surrounding me so I can breathe. There’s a bit of junk food and SO MUCH COFFEE. I recieved some bath bombs in my stocking so there’s definitely a bath in my future today. There’s some advice for you, I used to take baths almost daily with a simple rule…as soon as my toes touch the water I am no longer allowed to think of the stressors that pushed me throughout the day.

All in all, for someone who soaks up all of the stress surrounding them and then has to spend the same amount of time recovering from it, this time is important. Take that one extra day to sleep in - in your own bed, take a bubble bath, eat some junk food, and just veg out on the couch. This is the true way to holiday recovery.

much love,

B