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It's Black Friday, and if you just spent all of Thanksgiving making everyone else's holiday perfect while eating cold food standing at the sink—this episode is for you.

Dr. Juls breaks down why holiday over-functioning is literally making you sick, gives you permission to stop the madness, and assigns you homework that will shift your entire Christmas season.

You'll learn:

• The research on how holiday stress impacts your cortisol and immune system
• Why helpers default to over-functioning during the holidays
• 3 permission slips to change your holiday experience
• A powerful homework assignment: The Christmas NON-Negotiable Lists
• How to actually enjoy the holidays instead of just surviving them

This episode is for you if:

• You're a helper, healer, caregiver, nurse, therapist, teacher, or social worker
• You just orchestrated an entire Thanksgiving and you're already dreading Christmas
• You're exhausted from trying to create "perfect" holidays for everyone else
• You're ready to stop over-functioning and start living

Key Topics Covered:

• Holiday burnout for helpers and caregivers
• Over-functioning and perfectionism during the holidays
• Holiday stress and cortisol levels
• Compassion fatigue and seasonal burnout
• Setting boundaries during the holidays
• Self-care for helpers during Christmas
• How to stop people-pleasing during the holidays
• Holiday overwhelm and exhaustion
• Caregiver holiday stress management

Research & Resources Mentioned:

• Psychoneuroendocrinology (2018) - Holiday stress and elevated cortisol
• American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (2020) - Healthcare workers and holiday health symptoms
• Journal of Family Psychology (2019) - Children's holiday memories and parental presence
• Journal of Consumer Psychology (2021) - Holiday boundaries and stress reduction
• Emotion journal (2020) - Personal pleasure activities and burnout prevention

Free Resources:

🎁 Compassion Fatigue Cure Starter Guide Get the complete guide to understanding and healing compassion fatigue. [LINK]

🎁 Burnout to Radiance Reset A 5-day practice to move from depletion to restoration. [LINK]

Keywords:

holiday burnout, caregiver holiday stress, Christmas burnout, over-functioning, holiday overwhelm, compassion fatigue during holidays, helper burnout, nurse holiday stress, therapist burnout, caregiver exhaustion, holiday boundaries, self-care for helpers, holiday perfectionism, Christmas stress for caregivers, burnout recovery, seasonal burnout, how to stop over-functioning

Subscribe & Review:

If this episode helped you laugh and gave you permission to stop the madness, please subscribe and leave a review!

Ready to feel like you again?
Get the free Burnout to Radiance Reset and/or Compassion Fatigue Cure Starter Guide to begin your soul-deep reinvention.

Reach out to Dr. Juls info@juliemerrimanphd.com

Episodes drop every Tuesday at 5am and every Friday at noon.

With a special guest episode once a month dropping at Thursday at 7am.