We map the real reasons holidays feel heavy—expectation, people-pleasing, money pressure, and old roles—and show how to choose connection without abandoning yourself. From elf anxiety to budget boundaries, we share scripts and steady practices that protect your peace.

• acknowledging holiday stress and why it spikes
• story poll insights on overwhelm and guilt
• kids’ anxiety around elves and Santa reframed
• choosing experiences over panic-buying gifts
• unspoken expectations and adult roles at home
• asking for support without mind reading
• estrangement as self-protection and grief
• boundaries that protect time, money, and energy
• simple scripts to say no and repeat limits
• holding duality of joy and grief with care

Just a reminder about our workshop coming up on January 4th. If you want to sign up, you can find the link on our Instagram or it’s also on eleveneleventherapyco.com. Also, if this episode resonated with you, send it to somebody that you know who could also benefit! Thanks for listening!

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We explore the Strength card as a practice of compassionate courage, moving from force to relationship with our inner lion. Through myth, psychology, and simple tools, we show how presence turns fear into a guide and courage into something renewable.

• key symbols in the Strength card and what they signal
• why strength grows slowly through cycles, not single acts
• inner lion as instinct, passion, and protection seeking contact
• IFS lens on exiles, managers, and integration
• presence practices that ground the body and quiet panic
• self-compassion skills from Kristen Neff and touch cues
• graded exposure to fear, including mirror work when safe
• the initiatory threshold and crossing from avoidance to contact
• hero’s journey vs heroine’s journey and Inanna’s descent
• reparenting without abandonment or attack of the self
• equation for renewable courage: compassion, courage, slow growth, self-trust

Thank you so much for listening to our podcast today. If you have any thoughts, questions, feedback, anything you want to share with us, there is a Google form linked in our Instagram bio. You can leave a message for us there, send us a message on Instagram, however you like to share that with us.

If this episode spoke to you, subscribe and leave a review so other listeners can find Heart on the Table. New episodes land every Wednesday.

Join the conversation on Instagram @heartonthetablepod

We lay out a gentler path for the new year by trading resolutions for intentions and using vision boards as a steady, visual reminder. We unpack the brain science, the relief of externalizing mental load, and why community makes creative rituals feel safe and fun.

• how a single word guides daily choices
• what a vision board is and is not
• imagery, emotion, and the brain’s RAS filter
• easing the mental load with external tools
• ritual ideas including tarot and placement
• community sharing for clarity and belonging
• support for social anxiety in group settings
• progress over perfection as a practice
• event details coming soon and rough headcount

Thank you so much for listening to our episode today. If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, feedback, things you'd love to share with us, we have a Google form linked in our Instagram bio. Or you can just send us a message. Later this week we will be posting info about the event on our instagram!

If this episode spoke to you, subscribe and leave a review so other listeners can find Heart on the Table. New episodes land every Wednesday.

Join the conversation on Instagram @heartonthetablepod