Coping with the Quiet After the Holidays
The decorations are coming down. Visiting family has packed their bags and headed back home. The routines are starting back up again.
After weeks of buildup—events, travel, gifts, family dynamics, expectations—January can arrive with a kind of stillness that can feel unsettling. Sometimes that quiet is a welcome relief, but other times it can feel like a strange emotional crash.
If you’re noticing a shift in your mood, energy, or general sense of wellbeing now that the holidays have passed, let’s talk about it. The post-holiday season can stir up a lot more than we often expect.
What Comes Up After the Rush
There’s often so much happening in December that we don’t fully register how much we’re holding: stress, grief, overstimulation, or just the emotional effort of trying to feel a certain way because we’re “supposed to.”
When all of that ends, even if the holidays went okay, your system might still be coming down from everything. The sudden shift from full calendars and emotional intensity to colder, quieter days can feel jarring. The things that felt distracting or urgent a few weeks ago may suddenly leave you with space to feel whatever was underneath.
Sometimes, this season brings with it:
A sense of letdown or emptiness
Increased loneliness
Low motivation
Grief that wasn’t felt during the chaos
Anxiety about what’s next
This doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you. It might just mean your nervous system is recalibrating after a lot of internal and external activity.
Adjusting to the Quiet
There’s something about this particular stretch of winter that can feel heavy. It lacks the sparkle of December, but the darkness and cold temperatures are still with us and the demands of life are starting to pick up again. It makes sense to need a little more room to transition back to “normal life.”
If this time of year feels hard for you, here are a few things that might help:
Let the slowness be okay: If everything in you is telling you to rest, to be quiet, to do less, maybe there’s wisdom in that. You don’t have to be full of energy or start a new self-improvement plan just because it’s January.
Make space for what’s coming up: The quiet can give us room to feel things we didn’t have time for during the holidays. That can be uncomfortable, but it can also be a chance to slow down and notice what’s really going on inside.
Reconnect to routines that support you: Simple routines like eating regular meals, getting outside, sleeping enough, working on hobbies, and connecting with one or two supportive people can gently ground you again without pushing too hard.
Name the shift: Sometimes, just saying to yourself or a trusted person, “I think I’m feeling the post-holiday crash,” can help relieve the pressure to keep pushing through. Naming what’s happening is one of the simplest and most powerful ways to validate your own experience.
How Therapy Can Help
This can be a really helpful time to explore what’s coming up. Maybe it’s about grief, or family patterns, or the way you always crash after being “on” for too long. Maybe you’re noticing that the life you’ve returned to after the holidays doesn’t feel quite right. Therapy gives you space to unpack that at your own pace—with curiosity, not judgment.
You don’t need to be in crisis to benefit from support. Sometimes just talking things through in a space that’s just for you is enough to help the heaviness lift a little.
A Final Thought
The shift into January can feel strange. You might feel more raw, more tired, or just unsure of what’s next. Let that be okay. Your body and your heart are doing the best they can with what they’ve been through. This season may not be joyful, but maybe it can be gentle.
And maybe you can find some peace and enjoyment in the quiet, too.
