What does it mean to live more with less? I'm Katie Wells and welcome to the Maximized Minimalist

podcast. If you found yourself caught up in the hamster wheel of modern day motherhood and want to

rewrite the script, congratulations you're in the right place. I'm here to be your guide and help you take

back your motherhood

and achieve a simpler, more joy-filled life. Cheers to being a maximized minimalist. Enjoy the show.

Hey friend, welcome back. I cannot believe it's November. Anyone else? Like, holy cow, where did the

time go this year? I am so stoked as usual to be having

this conversation with you today about how to have a minimalist holiday season because I hear

from so many of you and I myself have experienced a lot of things that I'm going to be sharing

very real moments and truths that tend to not get discussed, you know,

in motherhood circles or parenting circles or just anyone. You don't have to have be a parent to

experience some of the things I'm going to be, you know, sharing with you today that I used to

feel around the holiday season. So after I became a mom, I envisioned my holidays would be

filled with spending quality time with my kids, right? Being able to just really have that special

time to connect. Relaxation and downtime. I was like, oh, yeah, it's just going to be quiet,

slow mornings with my kids and my husband. And like, I'm just going to be

able to put down my phone completely just, you know, unwind and just not be distracted. And I'm

going to be able to just have fun and watch cheesy Hallmark movies and just have a good time.

And I realized very quickly that the reality was so much different.

And instead of enjoying the holidays, I had this constant dread and anxiety. Like come

November 1st, like right about this time of year, I just was constantly had this low level,

like underlying stress and anxiety. And it lasted through like February or

...