23/12/2025
GRIEF AND CRISTMAS TIME: As the holidays approach, you may notice emotions rising that feel heavy, unexpected, or confusing. This time of year often carries strong messages about joy, togetherness, and celebration, but your inner experience may feel very different. If you are grieving, struggling, or simply feeling less than “festive,” please know this: nothing is wrong with you.
Grief does not disappear because the calendar changes. Love does not vanish because others are celebrating. The body and mind remember what mattered and during quieter moments, those memories can surface more strongly.
You may feel sadness where you expected warmth.
You may feel emptiness where there used to be connection.
You may feel tired of explaining why this season feels hard.
All of this is understandable.
Grief is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of attachment, meaning, and love. And it does not ask you to perform happiness. It asks you for honesty, gentleness, and space.
This season, you are allowed to:
Go slowly
Change traditions or pause them
Say no without guilt
Leave early
Feel joy in moments and sadness in others
There is no rule that says you must choose only one emotion.
If today feels heavy, try offering yourself the same compassion you would offer someone you deeply care about. Place a hand on your chest. Breathe. Remind yourself: “What I am feeling makes sense.”
Healing is not about erasing pain, it is about learning how to carry it with less self judgment and more support.
You do not need to be strong all the time.
You do not need to “move on.”
You do not need to be okay for others.
You are allowed to be exactly where you are.
And if this season feels lonely, remember: you do not have to carry it alone. Support is not a failure, it is a form of care.
Be gentle with yourself.
This, too, is part of your healing.
Adelina Pjetra
Clinical Psychologist & BWRT Psychotherapist
dt. 23.12.2025