The end of the year is a time of reflection, community, family, isolation and loneliness for many, and indulgence and resolutions for health and well-being in the next year’s resolutions. Each year, motivation spikes, the January sprint ensues, and for many, it then fades away into all-too-familiar regret and a sense of failure. So, how can we sustain well-being long after the excitement of the calendar flipping over has faded into remembering to write the date correctly?

I spoke with well-being expert and physician Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah, an old friend and colleague with a wealth of experience and wisdom, about this very subject. Hope you find this as useful as I do.

Grant H. Brenner: What are the biggest challenges over the holidays?

Siddharth Ashvin Shah: For many of us, the holidays can feel like we are a Tree in the Storm—the wind is gusting on all sides, and we’re expected not just to bend, but to stay rooted, upright, festive. Our well-being is challenged by affordability concerns, busy scheduling, rich food, calories, and the internal pressure of expectation: to be joyful, generous, connected, and whole—all at once.

Three challenges are frequently stacked on each other:

1. Relational load — Family, friends, colleagues: they are springboards for past patterns. While joyful patterns get amplified, unfortunately, tense patterns get magnified.
2. Resource scarcity — Abundance is elusive when it comes to time, energy, and money. Non-negotiable limitations in our resources are a source of sadness or anger. Sometimes, being only human, we mismanage our resources, and that still hurts.
3. “Perfect holiday” idealism — Expectations, both imposed from culture and from within ourselves, can cause us to feel like we are falling short. Polished social media posts from others don’t help.

So the real challenge? Not the weather—it’s fragmentation in the face of so much happening at once. It’s finding ways to be whole and connected. Accruing joy and staying intact.

GHB: Given so many expectations, do people have any opportunity for well-being during the holidays?

**SAS: **The holidays give us a practice field for well-being. They’re not just calendar events—they’re opportunities to recalibrate rhythms, rebuild bridges, and renew the seat of care within ourselves.

The world demands that we rush around. Treat the holidays as concentrated nuggets of non-routine life. In those nuggets of life, intentionally slow your pace and attend to life—and yourself—more deeply. Notice in slow motion what is happening in your relationships and conversations. Reconnect with your body’s cues and regulate the thermostat of sleep cycles, hunger, warmth, and laughter. Definitely seek and stoke laughter. Being cheery and experiencing joy are not the same thing. I’ve learned that laughing for no reason, or laughing even when we are not “happy,” can promote well-being.

This season gives us permission to reset our foundations, not as chores, but as embodied practices.

GHB: What is the one most counterintuitive “tip” for well-being you’ve learned over your years in the field?

**SAS: **Oh, I like this question so much! Something that blows my mind is the massive trove of studies published by Dr. James W. Pennebaker and many collaborators on a writing protocol for promoting health. It is not a regular journaling or diary-writing practice, but instead four days straight of writing for 15 to 20 minutes. With quite distinct and diverse populations, Pennebaker demonstrates that when people write openly about stressful or traumatic experiences, they can experience:

• Reduced stress and anxiety
• Improved immune function
• Better mood and emotional clarity
• Fewer doctor visits over time

The summary of how I teach the protocol is: You are not writing to document or share with anyone. Do this protocol for only four days. Once a day. Preferably four consecutive days. Try to write continuously. If you run out of things to say, just repeat what you have already written. In your writing, don’t worry about grammar, spelling, or sentence structure. Just write. After the protocol, you don’t need to review it. Dispose of the writing and let it go.

GHB: How do you tie all these well-being practices together?

SAS: I like to emphasize that resilience, while essential, is not the full measure of living. We have to adapt to stress because that is what life is going to throw at us. But life would be hollow just figuring out how to survive challenges. In order to heal the fragmentation in our lives and experience integration, let’s tie in everything I just mentioned. Maybe try processing emotions with Pennebaker’s simple writing protocol. Maybe find deeper, surprising moments of meaning when you notice life in slow motion. Stumble into joy. Stoke laughter as an antidote to life’s challenges. Take pleasure in the connection you have with your own body’s rhythms, as well as the connection you feel with kind or goofy people in your life.

I truly wish your readers good holiday moments.

Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah is a physician and public health scientist whose work is to operationalize well-being. He is the founder of Greenleaf Integrative, an organizational consulting practice to support helpers, healers, and protectors working in demanding environments. He writes and teaches to make complex ideas practical and humane.

References

Pennebaker, J. W., & Beall, S. K. (1986). Confronting a traumatic event: Toward an understanding of inhibition and disease. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95(3), 274–281. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.95.3.274

Pennebaker, J. W., Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., & Glaser, R. (1988). Disclosure of traumas and immune function: Health implications for psychotherapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56(2), 239–245. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.56.2.239

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