The holidays can be a wonderful time of the year. And they can also be an incredibly stressful, grief-stricken time of the year. As we are go into this December break, we are sharing some coping mechanisms to help keep you regulated and make the most of the time off.

Thanksgiving can be a welcome time of togetherness, belonging, gratitude, and love. Yet, for many of us, it can be a stressful period of navigating broken relationships, that hard-headed family member, and those topics that have been swept under the rug only to pop up when the entire gang is around the table.

One way to improve repair in relationships when you’ve done something that hurts someone else is to use correction-overcorrection. This can also be helpful if you are struggling with feelings of shame, guilt, and regret for having done something that negatively impacted someone else.

Shame is a deep-rooted belief hidden in the parts of your subconscious and it can become a roadblock in building more profound and meaningful relationships with your partners.

Validation is about acknowledging the kernel of truth in another person’s experiences. It doesn’t mean that we have to agree or like what the person is doing but instead, we can try and understand some of the reasons that people have for thinking, feeling, and behaving a certain way, given their past experiences. Validation also involves us showing the other person that they are inherently deserving of dignity and respect.