"While we process the events of 2025, including the high points, the grief, and the compulsion to check those last few boxes on the to-do list, I want to propose something a little different. I offer you the following challenge: What will you NOT be doing over the next few weeks? In the hopes that you will think about the boundaries you can set in your own life to make this time of year more rest and relaxation and less burnout and overstimulation,"
"It's also a lot of marketing and unpaid labor that falls exclusively on women (if there are men who are putting the Elf on the Shelf, I want to hear from you - I'll wait). Women continue to do much of society's unpaid labor as well as reap the mental health consequences that can follow shouldering the burden of care work (Ervin, et al., 2022)."
End-of-December demands increase stress for therapists and families. A challenge is proposed to choose what not to do during the holidays to create rest and boundaries. Caregiving responsibilities and many holiday tasks disproportionately fall to women, producing unpaid labor and mental-health consequences. Rejecting performative tasks like Elf on the Shelf can reduce unpaid labor; an alternative response is to declare that certain traditions are not part of a family. Attention to bodily cues—hunger, fatigue, overwhelm—and intentions for emotional and physical rest can protect against burnout and overstimulation. Setting explicit boundaries and planning rest-focused intentions for the new year supports long-term wellbeing.
Read at Psychology Today
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