By Regina Steele | Integrative Health Coach + Founder of The Mom Reset

When the World Goes Full Holiday Crazy… and So Does Your Nervous System

Ah yes, the holiday season! That magical time of year when your calendar is full, your patience is thin, and your cortisol is doing burpees in the background.

Everyone else seems to be thriving:
cute matching pajamas, perfect cookies, kids smiling in photos…
Meanwhile you’re Googling “Can overstimulation make you legally insane?” while hiding in your car just to breathe.

If you feel like you’re running on 50% battery with 300% responsibility! That’s not a personality flaw.
That’s your nervous system stuck in GO MODE.
And the holidays turn that “go mode” into “GO NOW OR THE WORLD WILL END.”

Let’s fix that.

Step One: Understand Your Nervous System (in Mom Terms)

Your nervous system has two modes:

1.  Fight-or-Flight

Aka:

• The Target parking lot between Thanksgiving and Christmas

• When a child screams “MOM?!” for the 47th time

• Your in-laws asking if the turkey is dry

This mode is built for emergencies…
Except moms live here 24/7.

2.  Rest-and-Digest

Aka:

• Remember peace?

• Remember silence?

• Remember breathing from your diaphragm instead of your collarbone?

This is where your body heals, your digestion works, your hormones chill out, your creativity comes back, and you stop feeling like a feral raccoon in yoga pants.

If you’ve been stuck in fight-or-flight for years (hi, welcome), the holidays push you even deeper into that burnt-out basement.

Why Moms Stay Stuck in “Hustle Mode”

Moms don’t hustle because we love chaos.
Moms hustle because:

• Someone has to buy the gifts

• Someone has to make the magic

• Someone has to plan the outfits

• Someone has to remember which kid needs which thing at which time

• Someone has to hide the damn Elf

And 10 times out of 10…
that someone is Mom.

Add overstimulation, sugar spikes, holiday expectations, school events, and “Are you guys doing Santa photos this year?”  and your nervous system is DONE.

 The Truth: You Don’t Need More Hustle

Hustling harder when you’re dysregulated is like trying to fold laundry in a tornado.
Nothing sticks. Everything gets worse.

Your nervous system controls:

• Your mood

• Your stress tolerance

• Your immune system

• Your digestion

• Your patience

• Your decision-making

So when THAT system is fried?
Everything else follows.

You don’t need a new planner.
You don’t need more motivation.
You need regulation, not another holiday to-do list.

You can’t out-hustle an overwhelmed nervous system.

🧘‍♀️ What Regulation Actually Looks Like

Forget the Instagram version. Regulation is not:

• Taking a 3-hour bath

• Meditating in silence (LMAO)

• Running off to a cabin in the woods

Regulation is built in micro-mom moments:

✔️ 1. Exhale Longer Than You Inhale

Slows your stress response instantly.
Do it while hiding in the pantry.

✔️ 2. Put Your Bare Feet on the Ground

Nature > Nervous system chaos.

✔️ 3. Drink Something Warm

Your vagus nerve LOVES warmth-preferably minimal caffeine.

✔️ 4. Lower Your Shoulders

Your body thinks you’re in danger when they’re up by your ears.

✔️ 5. Make Your Environment 20% Less Loud

Turn off the TV, lower the lights, reduce one source of chaos.

✔️ 6. Eat something with protein

Stabilizes blood sugar → stabilizes your mood → stabilizes your sanity.

🍾 Why the Holidays Feel Extra Hard on Moms

Because your nervous system is doing:

• Planning

• Hosting

• Remembering

• Coordinating

• Emotional labor for EVERYONE

Plus the sugar spikes, late nights, germs, noise, expectations, pressure…
Your system is basically glitching like an old laptop with too many tabs open.

This is why you feel frazzled even when nothing “major” is wrong.
Your nervous system is absorbing ALL of it.

But the good news?
We can reset it.

🕓 Your 5-Minute Nervous System Reset

If you do NOTHING else from this blog, do this:

1. Sit down (yes, actually sit).

2. Put one hand on your belly, one on your chest.

3. Take 5 slow breaths, exhaling twice as long as you inhale.

4. Tell your body: “We’re safe. We’re not in danger. It’s just December.”

5. Drink something warm (which brings us to your bonus recipe…).

Your nervous system will love you for this.

⭐BONUS RECIPE: Holiday Calm Cocoa

A nervous-system-soothing drink for moms who need peace more than peppermint.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup warm almond or coconut milk

• 1 tbsp raw cacao powder

• ½ tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp maple syrup or honey (optional)

• ¼ tsp magnesium powder (glycinate or calm mix)

• Tiny pinch of sea salt

• Optional: drop of vanilla or dash of nutmeg

Directions:

1. Heat milk until warm but not boiling.

2. Whisk in cacao, cinnamon, sweetener, magnesium, and sea salt.

3. Sip slowly like the regulated goddess you are.

📌 Follow Me on Pinterest for More Nervous System Hacks

If you want more nervous-system resets, anti-overwhelm rituals, and mom-friendly holiday sanity hacks, follow me on Pinterest:

👉 Pinterest: @Steele_TruthBlog
Where I’m sharing weekly calming routines, recipes, and holiday survival tricks all season long.