December: A Month of Emotional Diversity & Why Inclusiveness Begins Within
December has a certain magic to it, doesn’t it? The lights go up, the world softens a little, and there’s this collective sense of winding down and wrapping up. But alongside that magic, there’s also a quiet truth that many people feel but rarely speak out loud:
December isn’t just joyful. It’s emotional. All of it.
It’s a month that holds many realities at once. Excitement and exhaustion. Gratitude and grief. Togetherness and loneliness. Hope for the year ahead and sadness for the one we’re leaving behind. December is not one emotion, it’s a whole spectrum.
This month I want to talk about inclusiveness, especially from an energetic or healing perspective.
I believe that inclusiveness starts with the willingness to let all of those emotions exist.
Without shame.
Without pressure to “fix.”
Without trying to force ourselves into one neat emotional box because the season expects us to.
This is what I mean when I say inclusiveness begins within.
The season of mixed feelings & why that’s normal
For many people, December carries an unspoken expectation to feel a certain way: cheerful, festive, sociable, “on.” And yet, life doesn’t always follow the calendar.
You can be looking forward to the holidays and feeling drained.
You can love your family and crave time alone.
You can feel grateful for everything you have and still sense something is missing.
You can be excited about the future and grieving what didn’t happen this year.
These mixed emotions don’t mean you’re inconsistent.
They mean you’re human.
The pressure to choose just one emotional state — especially a positive one — is what leaves so many people feeling disconnected. The truth is that emotional diversity is part of our natural rhythm. December simply shines a light on it because everything is heightened: energy, memory, comparison, reflection, relationships, endings.
Every emotion has a seat at your inner table
One of the things I see most often in my work is how quickly people start excluding parts of themselves. Not intentionally, but out of habit. We push away the sadness because it feels inconvenient. We bury the frustration because it feels unacceptable. We keep joy small because we don’t want to appear too much. We hide longing because it feels vulnerable.
Inclusiveness begins within when we start inviting those silenced emotions back to the table.
Not to take over.
Not to derail us.
Just to be acknowledged.
Because every emotion carries information.
Every emotion belongs to you.
Every emotion is part of your inner landscape.
Imagine if this December, instead of forcing your emotional state to match the season, you allowed the season to meet youwhere you are. Imagine how much lighter that might feel.
Emotional inclusiveness builds real resilience
One of the most powerful aspects of resilience ,(a theme we explored throughout November) is simply the ability to stay connected to yourself even when life feels heavy. And that’s exactly what emotional inclusiveness creates.
When you allow your feelings to exist:
you become less brittle
your energy doesn’t get tied up in suppression
your intuition becomes clearer
your nervous system feels safer
you can respond, rather than react
Resilience isn’t the absence of emotion.
It’s the capacity to stay present with your emotions without abandoning yourself.
And that’s why inclusiveness is such a powerful internal practice. When you welcome in the parts of you that feel overwhelmed, tired, hopeful, grieving, excited or uncertain, you give yourself permission to be whole.
How to honour your emotional diversity this December
If you want to bring a little more inner inclusiveness into your December, here’s a gentle practice to try:
Pause for a moment and place a hand on your heart or your belly.
Ask yourself:
“What emotion is most present in me today?”
“What does this emotion need from me?”
“Which feeling have I been trying to ignore?”
Let whatever arises be enough.
If a strong emotion appears, imagine surrounding it with a soft light — a Reiki-like glow of compassion and warmth. Not to change it, but to hold it gently.
You can also end the reflection with a simple sentence:
“All of me is welcome here.”
Because that’s the essence of inclusiveness within: allowing yourself to show up as you are, not as the season says you should be.
A gentle reminder as we begin December
As you move into this final month of the year, I invite you to honour the emotional landscape inside you. Let the joyful parts speak. Let the heavy parts rest. Let the hopeful parts imagine. Let the tired parts breathe.
You don’t need to be one thing in December.
You’re allowed to be many things.
And every part of you deserves to be included.
