“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“The mind is embodied, not just embrained.”
Antonio Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens
The Weight of the Holiday Season
This time of year is often described as a season of joy, fellowship, and hope. For many people it does not unfold that way. Some stressors are built into the holidays themselves. Celebrations become overextended. Traditions that once felt meaningful can turn into obligations. Encounters with certain people or places stir old patterns and difficult memories. The pace of events increases and the sense of pressure rises. What could nourish us ends up feeling heavy. The body and mind both carry the weight, often more than we recognize.
Yoga and the somatic practices that support it do not avoid these realities. They provide a way to meet them. Movement, breath, and awareness soften the patterns that accumulate during demanding times and help restore the steadiness that often gets lost. This is not about perfecting the season or forcing a particular feeling. It is about creating enough internal space to access the parts of this time that can actually support us.
What Stress Does Beneath the Surface
Stress often begins with a single event, but it rarely ends there. Something happens and instead of settling, it lingers. Thoughts repeat. Muscles tighten. Breathing narrows. Over time the system starts to operate inside a smaller range. This becomes a loop that continues on its own and gradually shapes both movement and mood.
It is easy to think of this as a mental problem, but the experience spreads through the entire body. When the mind becomes stuck, movement reflects it. When movement stiffens or narrows, the mind often reinforces the very patterns that created the tension. Each side influences the other.
A Look at the Science
Stress research helps explain why these patterns take hold. Robert Sapolsky’s work in Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcersdescribes the difference between brief stress and the prolonged activation many people live with each day. Zebras respond intensely when a threat is present, then return to grazing once the moment passes. Their physiology resets. Humans tend to hold the imprint long after the situation has ended.
Some of you may remember me using the zebra story in class. I return to it because it illustrates something many of us feel but cannot always name. Stress is not the problem. Getting stuck in it is.
Stress research offers other striking examples of how much long-term activation shapes living systems. In one well-known study on Pacific salmon, scientists found that removing the adrenal tissue responsible for producing stress hormones slowed the decline that normally follows spawning. Nothing else in the animals’ lives changed. Only the prolonged stress chemistry was interrupted. The point here is not that we should try to artificially alter or suppress the stress response in any way. The lesson is that when a living system is not pushed into extended stress activation, it recovers more naturally and maintains greater stability.
We have another way to meet this and every season of our lives.
As we get older, a lot of what we think of as aging is influenced by long periods of physical and mental stress that were never fully resolved. Elevated stress chemistry narrows movement, interferes with recovery, and pulls the nervous system into patterns that can be difficult to unwind. It is not the whole story, but it is a meaningful part of it. The encouraging part is that these patterns can shift.
How These Patterns Show Up
People feel the effects long before they describe them. Mood becomes heavier. Movement loses its natural ease. Breathing becomes less available. The system stays active even when life does not require it. Many people recognize these signals but get pulled back into daily demands and lose sight of them. If the pattern goes unaddressed, steady background stress can overshadow experiences that might otherwise support us during this season.
The challenge for many people is that stepping out of the rush can feel self indulgent or impractical. It can seem as if taking time to pause will put them further behind. Yet the opposite is usually true. Many people discover that the time they give to caring for their system is often returned in the form of clearer choices, steadier energy, and more skillful living.
This is not luxury. It is maintenance. It is how the system resets so you can meet life from a place that is balanced rather than overwhelmed.
How Aware Movement Breaks the Cycle
There is a different way to meet this. Change does not require intense discipline or specialized techniques. Slow, aware movement interrupts the loop directly. Muscles ease out of unnecessary bracing. Breathing becomes more open and natural. The nervous system receives a clear signal that conditions have changed. Options open again, both physically and mentally.
This shift can be felt as it happens. The body settles into a more natural state and attention expands. The system steps out of the narrow corridor created by stress. With practice it becomes easier to reach this state even when life is moving quickly.
Practicing Through the Season
During the holiday season this steadiness can get covered by noise, pressure, and the pace of events. Practicing regularly helps keep a more comfortable baseline available. It offers the system a familiar route back to balance. You are not forcing anything or chasing an ideal. You are helping your body and mind remember something they have known all along.
Holiday stress often builds when the system is pushed harder than it is designed to run. Aware, gentle movement interrupts that momentum and gives the nervous system a clear signal that it does not need to stay on high alert. The body responds to this quickly. With steady practice, this becomes a reliable place of refuge in the middle of a demanding season, allowing the system to settle more often and more easily.
As always, our holiday series can be your steady source of support this season. You are also welcome to drop in whenever you are able.