Hey, everybody, happy holidays. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Festivus. I can't remember if you say Merry Festivist, happy festivist. But it is that time of year. And what time of year? Well, I feel like people coming into my office are either experiencing a lot that is going on. That can feel very overwhelming. Or possibly the opposite of that. Not enough enough going on which can feel a bit

underwhelming but either way that familiar pang of the holidays can bring around the old

familiar you may have guessed it what's wrong with me what's wrong with me that I

simply can't feel grateful or appreciate what I have or why doesn't anybody reach out to me or if I didn't put

myself out there to my fill in the blank family friends neighbors nobody would even notice me

or what's wrong with me that another year is past and I don't feel like my marriage is improved

or my parenting is any better or my financial situation is any different or I'm in the same place

financially or worse than last year. And so I think a lot of us right now feel like we're moving

past this almost great, the great pause of the pandemic is over. So either we should already be

in a much better place or again, fill in the blank, our relationships, our jobs, our finances, our health,

our faith, any of those things should be better. But the truth is, most likely we will be

finding ways to continually beat ourselves up and we are constantly playing out though what's

wrong with me dialogue and to make matters worse, well, let's not say worse. Let's reframe it and

say, what makes things more challenging is that as I've shared before,

our brain is a don't get killed device.

And its default programming is to keep us in a constant state of fear and anxiety.

Because it really does think that it's clever, the brain, that is, that it thinks that's what's best for us.

And it doesn't give much of a rip about whether or not you have a happy holidays. Because to your brain, it's check,

another year down. Just keep kicking that can of change down the road because, as your brain is

thinking, I can't trust this guy, all talking about change. What if that change comes with somebody

abandoning him? Or what if

that change comes at the cost of his physical health? I mean, if I let my own brain, literally my brain,

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