Festivities and Emotional Wellbeing

In the heart of winter — the “bleak midwinter” — the season of festivities can bring light and warmth to the darkest days. For some, this time of year is genuinely nourishing: filled with laughter, playfulness, celebration, comfort, a sense of togetherness or a time of deep rest. These times can be deeply sustaining of emotional wellbeing.

For many, though, the experience is more complex. Alongside enjoyment there may be obligations that feel heavy, a quiet exhaustion, work that doesn't stop, or a sense of performing celebration rather than truly inhabiting it. And for others, the season can stir something far more tender — a reminder of what has been lost, of how life has changed, how stark things can feel now or how different we are to those around us. Bereavement, relationship endings, divorce, illness, past trauma, difficult family dynamics, other life shifts and cultural differences often make themselves known more clearly at this time of year.

If you find yourself feeling out of rhythm with the joy that seems to surround you, know that you are not alone. Many people arrive in December and January carrying unspoken grief, longing, or uncertainty, even as the world encourages cheerfulness, gratitude, and being “in the spirit.” Holding your own experience in the face of these expectations can be quietly difficult. Life’s challenges do not pause for the season — and sometimes they feel sharper because of it.

The darkness of winter, alongside what nature is doing, also invites us to slow down, to draw inward, to rest and hibernate where we can. It can be a time of reflection — when appreciation sits alongside regret, and losses come gently, or painfully, into view. It is often in this darkness that something begins to clarify. In the stillness, small insights can emerge, and the faint outline of what might come next can begin to take shape.

If life feels heavy or overwhelming, it can be hard to know how to move through this time with the tangle of thoughts, emotions, and experiences we carry. At these times, the presence of a counsellor can offer a steady, compassionate space — somewhere to be met as you are, to make sense of what hurts, and to begin, at your own pace, to reconnect with yourself, increase self-understanding and with the possibility of feeling more fully alive again.