Navigating a Difficult Holiday Season: A Gentle Guide for Those in Transition

The holiday season can bring bright lights, festive music, and warm traditions – but for many, it also brings loneliness, grief, and heavy emotions. If you’re navigating Christmas as a divorcee, mourning a loss, or simply feeling overwhelmed by this time of year, this post is for you.

I recently appeared on a radio show where we spoke about exactly this – about loss, transition and inner resilience. What follows are reflections and practical suggestions to help you find calm, strength and gentle renewal through the festive weeks.

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🌱 Acknowledge What’s Real — Give Yourself Permission to Feel

• It’s okay to feel sad, wistful or conflicted. Grief, loneliness or missing what was – they don’t follow a calendar. Holidays can intensify those feelings.
• You don’t need to force “cheer up” or “fake it until you make it.” Trying to paint over your pain often just piles on pressure. Instead: accept. Sit with what you feel. That’s real honouring, not pretending.
• Allow new forms of ritual. If old traditions feel like ghosts, create lighter, simpler rituals that feel safe – a mindful walk, a warm drink at sunset, a text or call to someone who understands.

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🔎 Create New Rituals That Nourish You

For many of us in life-transition (divorce, bereavement, any kind of change), the holidays offer a chance to practice self-care in a new way. Try this:

Your Gentle Holiday Plan

• Light (candle, fairy lights, cosy lamp) → symbol of warmth and safety
• Choose one meaningful, low-pressure ritual (walk on the beach, journalling, cosy movie or quiet tea)
• Check in with yourself – how are you feeling before and after
• Allow emotions to rise, then breathe them out, without having to change anything

These small rituals honor what you’ve lost or changed – without pretending nothing has happened.

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🤝 Seek or Build Connection (Without Forcing It)

Isolation can amplify sadness at Christmas. But connection heals – not always in big gestures, but in small, authentic moments.

• Reach out to someone who truly listens – maybe a friend, family member, fellow expat or someone who listens or is also transition
• Suggest a low-key get-together: coffee, walk, movie, simple meal – nothing heavy, just presence
• Consider online groups, forums or meet-ups – sometimes people on the same path understand better than well-meaning loved ones

You don’t need grand gestures. Often, a kind message or small check-in does more than a big party ever could.

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🧠 Give Yourself Kindness – Not Pressure

It’s tempting to demand from yourself — “I should be celebrating,” “I should be upbeat,” “I should enjoy it.” That pressure can be crushing. Instead:

• Accept that grief and hope can coexist – you can mourn what’s gone, and still open to what might come.
• Allow rest. Emotional work is tiring. Treat yourself like you’d treat a dear friend – not with harsh expectations.
• Limit social comparisons. Instagram, Facebook, the “perfect holiday” photos – they lie. Real lives are messy, messy is human. Try and be intentional around social media to use to connect to others not mindlessly scrolling.

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🌟 Lean Into Meaning & Intention – Redefine What This Season Means for You

Maybe Christmas won’t look the way it used to. That’s okay. This can be a turning point to re-define what this time means and what is most supportive and nourishing for you:

• Gratitude – what small things still feel true or good?
• Presence – give yourself permission to slow down and sense the here-and-now.
• Compassion – for yourself and for others who might be lonely or struggling.
• Hope – not forced optimism but gentle openness to what healing might look like, quietly.

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💬 If You’re Struggling — You’re Not Alone

If this holiday season feels heavy – whether from divorce, loss, change or overwhelm – you don’t have to face it alone.

As a coach and someone who’s walked life’s winding paths, I know how important it is to feel seen, heard, held. If you’d like support, someone to talk to, or simply a space to process – I’m here.

✨ A Final Thought

Holidays are often painted in bright, bedazzled colours – but for many, they reveal shadows too. Allow yourself to enter those shadows with kindness, patience and going gently.

This time doesn’t have to be perfect or like any previous year. It just needs to be genuine, by giving yourself permission to do what works best for you.

Please do comment below I always love to hear from you…….

Here is the podcast link again from Talk Radio Europe.