In the final week before Christmas, when the lists are finished and the adrenaline drops, many women don’t feel relief…they feel flat, teary, irritable or quietly undone. This episode is an emotional temperature check for overstretched mothers asking, “I should be happy… so why do I feel empty?” Julie and Bridget name the invisible load women are carrying and explore why Christmas becomes the moment everything catches up. This isn’t about fixing yourself, it’s about naming what’s real instead of performing festive happiness, and understanding what your body and heart have been holding all year.

In this episode we discuss:

- Why women often get sick, emotional or unravel right as the “finish line” approaches

- What happens in the nervous system when the doing stops and there’s finally space to feel

- The invisible labour of holding logistics, emotions, magic and family harmony

- The silent bargains women make with themselves to keep going…and the cost of those bargains

- The thoughts women don’t say out loud because they feel ungrateful, dramatic or selfish

- Why Christmas stirs grief for younger selves, lost parents and past seasons of motherhood

- How desire and libido don’t disappear — they go into protective shutdown

- The emotional contradictions of this season: love and resentment, gratitude and grief, desire and numbness

- Why being told to “just rest” can feel infuriating when you’re already depleted

- The difference between coping and actually being okay

- How to tend yourself gently without adding another thing to your to-do list

Want support on this journey? Come join us inside Honey Club - where we melt these blocks together, one breath, one practice, one deep remembering at a time. Find out more at julietenner.love or visit: https://julie-tenner.newzenler.com/courses/honeyclub


Reach out to Bridget for 1:1 coaching - bridgetwood.life