Caring for Your Mental Health Over the Holidays: Simple Skills That Actually Help

By Morgan Weatherup, MSW, RSW — Healing Recovery Centre

The holidays are often painted as a season of joy, connection, and magic.
But for so many people, especially teens and young adults, this time of year can feel heavy, overwhelming, or quietly stressful in ways that are hard to explain.

If that’s you, you’re not alone.

In Canada, nearly 60% of people report heightened stress during the holiday season, and rates of anxiety and loneliness significantly increase for adolescents and emerging adults (CAMH, 2022). Social pressure, disrupted routines, family dynamics, and the weight of expectations can make December feel like “too much”, even when things look fine from the outside.

So let’s take a breath together.

**Inhale** & **Exhale**

Below are simple, accessible tools grounded in DBT, somatic psychology, and emotion-focused care. These are skills you can use anywhere, anytime, when the season feels heavier than you expected.

These aren’t meant to “fix” you.
They’re here to help you feel just a little more grounded, connected, and resourced as you move through the month.

1. A Quick Distress Tolerance Skill: The 60-Second “Temperature Reset” (DBT TIP Skill)

When your emotions spike fast, whether it’s because of frustration in a family conversation, anxiety walking into a gathering, or overwhelm in a crowded room, you don’t need a 20-step coping plan. You need something now.

Try this:

The Cold Splash Reset

• Splash cold water on your face from your cheekbones downward OR
  
• Place a cold pack (or chilled water bottle) on your eyes/cheeks for 10–20 seconds while holding your breath and bent over at a 90 degree

Why it works:
This activates your diving reflex, a biological response that slows your heart rate and signals your nervous system to drop out of panic mode. It’s fast, discreet, and extremely effective. It helps to undo the physical symptoms of anxiety and panic to give you a reset to start again.

2. A Simple Grounding Breath (Somatic + DBT Mindfulness)

If you can only remember one thing, remember this:

Exhale longer than you inhale.

Try:
Inhale for 4 seconds
Exhale for 6 seconds
Repeat for 1 minute

Long exhales activate the parasympathetic nervous system, the part that brings your body back into safety. This is the quickest way to interrupt anxiety before it spirals.

3. A Somatic Practice for When You Feel Disconnected From Yourself

Holidays can make you feel “checked out,” dissociated, or like you’re watching your life from the outside. Here’s a gentle way back:

The 5-Point Body Drop
Press these five points into the nearest surface:

• Both feet
  
• Both hands
  
• One place on your back (against a chair, wall, or couch)
  

Then tell yourself:
“Right now, I’m here. My body knows how to return to safety.”

This helps the brain shift from survival mode into presence. It may sound silly but it’s easy to do and works like a charm in the moment.

4. Emotion Coaching for Yourself (Yes, This Works for Adults Too)

Most of us invalidate our own feelings without realizing it:

“I shouldn’t feel this way.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“Other people have it worse.”

Instead, try this 3-step self-validation:

1. Name the emotion:
   “Okay… this is sadness.”
   “Ah, this is anger.”
   “Wow, this is anxiety.”

2. Normalize it:
   “It makes sense I feel this way because…”
   (Holiday pressures, old memories, family dynamics, loneliness — whatever fits.)

3. Support yourself:
   “What would help me feel 5% calmer right now?”
   

Self-validation softens emotional intensity and reduces shame. It’s like giving yourself emotional first aid.

5. Boundary-Setting Made Simple: One Sentence That Works (DBT Interpersonal Effectiveness)

You don’t need a speech. You don’t need to defend yourself. You don’t need to justify your needs.

Here’s a formula that works beautifully when you need to shut down a conversation or set a boundary with someone this holiday season – Welcome to Dialetics:

This is the skill of balancing multiple different truths at the same time. For example:

“I care about you, and I’m not able to talk about that topic right now. Let’s come back to it later.”

Other options:

• “I can see how important this topic is to you, and this is not a conversation I want to be a part of right now.”
  
• “I want to be fully present, and I need a bit of space first.”
  
• “I appreciate your concern, and I’m choosing not to discuss my body, food, or relationship status today.”

Clear. Kind. Boundaried.

Your peace matters too.

A Final Note — From Me to You

If you’re feeling off this season, it doesn’t mean you’re failing.
It means you’re human. It’s normal to want to slow down, have more stillness and quiet at this time of the year.

You’re navigating memories, expectations, relationships, sensory overload, internal pressure, and external pressure, often all at once. And for many of us, the holidays bring up more emotion than anyone ever taught us how to hold.

You don’t have to do this alone.

At Healing Recovery Centre, we’re accepting new clients and offering therapy, groups, and wellness services designed to support you in the tender seasons of life — including right now.

If this blog speaks to you, reach out.
A free discovery call is just one step, and we’d be honoured to walk with you.

With Love,
Morgan Weatherup
Healing Recovery Centre