While for some, Pesach and religious holidays are the highlight of the year, for others, these times can be quite challenging.
Whatever your experience, whether anticipating eagerly or dreading anxiously, both, or somewhere in between, know that you are not alone.
I want to invite you to allow all of your feelings, thoughts, and sensations to simply be. Doing your best to allow without judgement. Because you deserve that self-compassion and grace.
When the voices or feelings or sensations come forward, because they likely will, allow that too.
Remind yourself that while there are a lot of expectations during holiday seasons, your possible feelings of distress, guilt, anxiety, anger, joy, ambivalence, uncertainty etc. are normal. Make sure not to go through it alone either, find someone you can trust, a friend, a teacher, a mentor, family, therapy and so on, and reach out for some support.
Now as usual, I will go on a bit of a tangent...
There are times when individuals enter therapy because of a spouse, a friend, a mandate. Often, as is to be expected, these individuals might say, “I don’t want to be here, so we might as well do nothing.” To that, I might ask something like, “so your _____ thinks you need to be here, what are YOU here for?”
This is true of any adverse or stressful experience as well. You may well not want to be there, but you are at this time. I invite you to ask yourself, “What can I do to make this experience 1% better?” “What can I do to make this moment worth my time?” And “How can I self-validate that this is challenging and not easy?”
