Hi everyone! My name is Diana Garcia and I’m a licensed mental health counselor in Florida and founder of a private practice called Nurturing Minds Counseling.

I’ve been doing 12 tips for the holiday season, whether you celebrate or don’t, these 12 tips are helpful! Today we’re on tip number 10. I’d encourage you to check out tips 1-9, and they’re in blog or video format. 

Table of Contents

Watch Video: “12 Days of Tips for the Holidays: Day 10: Acceptance”

Read Blog: 12 Days of Tips for the Holidays: Day 10″

Today’s tip may feel similar to another tip, but a little bit different! We’re going to be talking about acceptance and willingness, but what does that mean? I want to note that when I say the word acceptance to clients, they think it means something along the lines of giving up. That’s not what I’m talking about. Acceptance is when there are things that are outside of our control and there is literally nothing we can do to change it. Instead of accepting the circumstances for what they are, we are resisting and fighting it for it not to be true. 

Acceptance is being willing to allow yourself to identify that something is what it is. I think acceptance is going to be key this holiday season, especially because a lot of people are going through grief. Whether the grief is due to a lost loved one this year or grief because this holiday season and this year has not looked like they’ve expected. There’s a lot of ambivalent grief, so I think this piece of acceptance is allowing yourself to accept that this is the experience that you’re in and it’s outside of your control. 

There are feelings that understandably come up with that, so there could be a lot of pain depending on the situation that you’re in. Instead of trying to constantly push that pain away, accept that this time might be difficult. It may bring a range of different experiences and a lot of times when we try to resist something we end up just making it worse, amplifying it, having issues later, or it shows up somehow because that’s just how our experiences and our emotions work. 

I encourage you to think about what are some things that are outside of your control this holiday season, and how you can start to accept that. I say accept that but knowing that that can be really difficult. You’re allowed to have that experience of difficulty, grief, loss, pain, or all the above. Instead of trying to fight it or not let it be true, it’s knowing that this is what’s going on right now and you should accept it. That’s okay! Seeking support around can be helpful, but I think the first piece that I want to highlight is being accepting of that experience. 

I hope that was helpful everyone, and we’ll continue with the last two tips in the next couple of days. Thank you!