Recalibration: Returning to Yourself After Holiday Overwhelm
Picture this: waking up at 5 a.m., meditating, exercising, journaling, preparing the body and mind for a big holiday week. The meals are planned around allergies, the house is scrubbed in corners that usually get ignored, the nutrition is steady, the sugar and alcohol are limited, and the whole body feels intentional and grounded.
The hope is simple: feel steady going into Thanksgiving week, especially when hosting nearly 20 people for a 70th birthday and the holiday itself. It’s that desire so many of us carry — wanting to create magic, wanting everyone who traveled far to feel cared for, wanting to enjoy the day instead of being consumed by stress.
And yet… even with all the preparation, the overwhelm can still catch up.
For many parents of young kids, it arrives quietly at first. Everything goes “fine” on the surface — maybe even better than expected. Then, unexpectedly, it hits like a pressure valve snapping open. Not because anything went wrong, but because everything piled up.
The early-morning routines were steady. The grounding practices were steady. The intentions were steady. But life with little ones doesn’t care about your checklist. Sudden changes in routine, overstimulation, travel, hosting, and emotional load build fast. And no one warns you how common regressions are during holiday weeks — potty training, sleep, behavior, all of it. The kid is overstimulated, the parents are overstretched, and the tension sneaks in through the cracks.
This is when comparison thoughts often flare:
“Other people handle this better.”
“Why is this so hard?”
“Get it together.”
When overwhelmed, many parents fall into minimization, pushing through, dismissing their own needs. It’s only later, often mid-hosting or mid-cleanup, that the body says, no more. Tears happen. Tempers shorten. The mind feels sharper, more rigid, less spacious. Relationships feel strained, especially when the workload becomes unbalanced or when communication hasn’t been nurtured in a while.
This is human. This is common. And this is not a sign of failure — it’s a sign of load.
Even with grounding practices, overwhelm can change how we speak, how patient we feel, how we show up for kids and family. Exhaustion makes everything feel black and white. It reveals where support systems are misaligned. Sometimes it takes an emotionally heavy moment to realize how much has been carried alone.
And then comes the recalibration — slow, uncomfortable, and deeply necessary.
Recalibration often begins in the quiet after guests leave. It’s the moment where emotional dust settles and the body finally has space to feel everything it was holding. Instead of immediately “fixing,” letting yourself marinate in the discomfort can be healing. Therapy helps. Conversations with partners help — the real ones, not the logistical ones. These conversations clear space, restore connection, and help redistribute the mental and emotional load.
Within that discomfort, you may notice something important: the work you’ve been doing is working. Stress may still show up, but it feels different — less explosive, less physically overwhelming. Meditation helps the mind and body speak the same language again, so reactions turn into responses, and the stress moves through instead of taking over.
Recalibration doesn’t require starting over. It just asks for returning.
Returning to habits that keep you aligned:
Nourishing food: plant-forward, protein-rich meals that stabilize blood sugar and digestion.
Sleep: imperfect but protected, choosing rest as a form of devotion.
Movement: working with the postpartum body instead of against it, choosing progression over punishment.
Foundational strength: stepping back to rebuild systems that will support heavier training later.
Check out The Preset Kitchen, the Luna Revival App, and the Luna Revival Workouts.
And returning to grounding:
Meditation & visualization to soften the edges of the world and reconnect with the version of yourself you’re growing into.
Intentional exercise that honors what the body needs today, not what the mind wishes it could do.
Bodywork to regulate the nervous system when it can’t regulate itself.
Communication with partners, friends, and trusted people to share the load and be witnessed.
Introversion when the nervous system needs to pull inward instead of pushing outward.
These tools don’t remove chaos — they return you to yourself inside it.
Recalibration matters this time of year. It reminds us that we don’t begin again from zero; we begin again from experience. We choose alignment over autopilot. We choose small actions that rebuild steadiness. We choose to feel the way we want to feel for the rest of the season.
If you’re needing grounding too, start simple. Move your body. Breathe deeply. And if you want support, here’s a mobility session to help you reconnect and recalibrate.
