Drawing parallels to winter’s natural rhythm, this conversation invites listeners to stop forcing joy and honor stillness, rest, and authenticity. This episode holds space for those experiencing burnout, grief, or emotional disconnection and offers a grounded reminder that quiet seasons are not failures. They are part of being human. Stillness is sacred. Rest is allowed. Silence can be meaningful.
#holidayburnout #spiritualawakening #christmas
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Episode Transcript
I don't want to leave the house. I want to
sit on the couch and binge watch Emily and Paris.
We are not always inspired. The season pushes us to
turn in performance after performance after performance make everything the
most magical frickin' day on earth. But also we need
to be grateful, thankful, manifest with the different energies, and
(00:22):
the solstice does bring a very magical energy. However, it
is okay not to feel magical. For those of you
that today feels heavy or complicated kind of meh, there
is nothing wrong with you. Christmas can amplify everything. Hello,
(00:54):
thank you for tuning into Rooted Frequency. I'm your host,
Tiffany Haney. Merry Christmas, everybody. I am posting this on
Christmas Day because I didn't want to leave you eight Thursday,
despite it being a holiday, and I didn't want you
to have nothing to watch or listen to. Plus some
of you may not celebrate Christmas. So this episode just
(01:17):
goes out to all of you out there who are subscribers,
because I love you. Just because this episode is coming
out on Christmas does not mean it is festive in
any way. There's not going to be some big, gushy
Christmas loving message. No prophecy right now. There's actually going
to be some next week though, And I'm not going
(01:39):
to call on you to transcend or activate or use
the Winter Solstice in some sort of special way. This
episode instead is going to exist because I don't feel
particularly inspired, and instead of pretending that I do, I'm
choosing to be anyway and hold space for you and
(02:03):
see what comes out. There's something uncomfortable arriving and saying
that I have nothing inspirational necessarily to say, and that
is especially true in the spiritual space. There's a lot
(02:24):
of pressure in spiritual space and a lot of pressure
in the podcast space. You know, if you don't post
a video, then you're probably not going to grow. The
algorithm is going to dismiss you because it doesn't want inconsistency.
There's always a reason to push yourself to post something plagnant.
(02:48):
But we are not always inspired. That is the reality
of the situation, and as you know, I bring you
the truth. We often think in the podcast world the
spiritual world that if we go quiet, something must be wrong,
(03:08):
right that person is overworked or overstretched, maybe stressed out
in some way. But sometimes it's cold outside and I
don't want to leave the house. I want to sit
on the couch and I want to binge watch Emily
in Paris, which I did the other day, watched it
(03:32):
in one day when I thought about how often we
feel uninspired, that a lot of times we're told or
blocked in some way, we're blocked creatively, we're not grounded,
and if we're not producing insight, then we must be disconnected.
(03:55):
And right now, for me, none of that feels true.
What does feel true is more that I am feeling
like hibernating. I feel very inward. I've been feeling mindful,
just slowing down, trying to appreciate things, trying to be
(04:20):
more in the moment. The holidays always fly by so fast,
and often we miss the joy in it, we miss
the point, and we all know that, and that's our
modern world we live in. But sometimes the system is
asking for less output and more listening. Just because I
(04:45):
have a platform where I'm speaking doesn't mean that the
listening is less important. And I do feel like there
is a collective vibe worth tapping into and listening to
right now. Yes, a part of me feeds into this resistance,
(05:06):
this resistance to show up as I am this resistance
not to do something over the top inspiring for everyone.
But we just moved through the winter solstice on December
twenty first, the darkest point of the year, and yet
(05:31):
the season pushes us to turn in performance after performance
after performance, even just as moms to you know, make
everything the most magical frickin' day on earth, but also
that we need to use this time to be grateful,
to be thankful, to manifest with the different energies. Manifestation
(05:52):
is usually pushed pretty hard around the solstice, and the
solstice does bring a very magical energy. However, if you're
not feeling particularly magical, it is okay not to feel magical.
I have moments where I feel magical. I do feel
like I'm kicking ass on the mom front, trying to
(06:14):
be very present, and sometimes it's going to be more
important to show up for your family than it is
to perform for the world. And sometimes I feel just
really at peace sitting and staring out the window, especially
if it's knowing. And it got me thinking about nature
(06:35):
during this time, and how nature isn't trying to capitalize
on anything. Nature isn't trying to perform nothing's blooming, nothing
is expanding, nothing is showing up and announcing itself. Everything
(06:59):
is in conservative mode, conserving energy, pulling inward, lowering the
vibrational intensity so that it can survive the cold and dark.
We overlook this because we are very, very connected to nature,
(07:21):
and if nature is shutting down, we respond to that.
We also lower our vibration, lower our metabolism so that
we can feel still and also instinctually survive the cold
and dark as well. So when people message me or
reach out to me that they feel disconnected right now,
(07:46):
that they feel like they have no spark, that they
feel foggy or unmotivated, I challenge you to not see
this as a problem because what I hear is emotional intelligence.
I hear that you're checking in with yourself, that you
are a spiritual being, checking in with your body and
(08:10):
nervous system doing exactly what it knows how to do
in this season. I think one of the most exhausting
parts of modern spirituality is the expectation to always have
a takeaway that every single feeling has to be turned
(08:33):
into wisdom, that every pause or every single setback has
to become a lesson, that every quiet season has to
be thought of as preparation for the next bigger stage.
(08:54):
Sometimes we just need to pause and we don't need
the pressure to make meaning out of something because there's
already meaning there. It's already there, and the pressure to
create meaning that is deeper or doesn't resonate simply becomes
(09:19):
heavy pressure and it becomes loud when we need to
be quiet. I always want to share with you guys
as much as possible, and I try to be very transparent,
but I also did not want to come on here
and just translate my experience because I don't want to
(09:43):
package it. I don't want to turn it into something consumable. Instead,
I want to put it out and just let it
be and be what it is. It's almost like stillness
can feel aggressive in a way because stillness confronts people
(10:10):
with their loops. You can't go into reflex mode and
go to your safe places in the tales that we
we even tell ourselves if we're legitimately being mindful and
still in true stillness, in true silence, we can't be
(10:40):
judging ourselves or our percentage of engagement, our contribution are
worth because we're being still and there's a lot of
things that we hide behind momentum, behind being busy, But
(11:03):
when we're just churning out who are we when we
are producing these things? What kind of frequency is behind
forced production? And stillness is a question in and of itself,
(11:25):
and it's the harder question, right because who are you
when nothing is happening? Who are you when you have
days off work and you have no title next to
your name? Who are you if you're not busy mom
(11:45):
during the holiday season? Who are you when nothing is happening?
That question makes a lot of people uncomfortable. So we
try to fill this space, fill with things, fill it
with shopping for more presence, fill it with meaningless chatter,
(12:10):
staying busy, and then we'll keep searching the sky for
signs that something's going to come and save us from
the quiet. That this is the stillness before the revelation.
But cosmic events aren't here to rescue us from ourselves.
(12:35):
They mirror what's already happening inside of us. And so
many things are pointing back to the fact that everything
mirrors us. And what I have observed for the past
(12:55):
week or so collectively personally is there is an exhaustion
that comes from performance It's one thing to be busy,
but why are we exhausting ourselves with a pretend narrative.
(13:17):
It's going to lead to burnout, And sometimes we'll hide
the burnout behind awakening, expansion, ascension. But underneath that a
lot of people are tired of being on all the time,
(13:37):
tired of resilience one thing after another, tired of having
to make sense of chaos in real time. Sometimes the
most honest spiritual practice is letting go, allowing yourself to
(13:59):
be stick it'll be quiet, and not label it. Why
do we have to label everything? Christmas New Year's These
are right after winter solstice for a reason. We know
(14:20):
as humans that this time of year is very tender,
and for many people it carries grief and memory and
longing alongside the joy. So to fill that we wrapped
(14:42):
darkness in lights, sang songs, told stories about birth and
hope and renewal, not as a mirror of what was happening,
not because everyone was joyful, but because everyone was vulnerable,
and with how commercialized everything is this time of year,
(15:05):
we forget that we have turned lights into a requirement
instead of an offering. We have this long checklist of
things that we have to get done during the holidays,
and instead of doing each one because we want to
(15:26):
because we get joy out of it, it feels like
an obligation, and not only that, but an obligation that
you have to show up a particular way for people
do not like it if you are not jolly on Christmas.
But isn't that the part of the human experience and
(15:48):
isn't a part of spirituality and a part of being
with a like minded community that we're supposed to hold
space for that for each other. So I really just
wanted to put out this episode on Christmas Day. For
(16:11):
those of you that today feels heavy for you or complicated,
or you're just like kind of meh, like you know,
your enthusiasm is falling flat. I want you to understand
(16:33):
there is nothing wrong with you. Christmas can amplify everything.
We put so much pressure to be happy when many
people are having an amplification of grief. It definitely amplifies loneliness,
(17:00):
always amplifies the family dynamics, amplifies comparison. Even the pressure
to be grateful or tune into the spirituality of the
season can feel like too much. If you want to
(17:20):
be quiet today, that does not mean you are ungrateful.
Perhaps you need to tune into your human and for
me this particular holiday season, it feels like an internal winter.
I don't necessarily feel pulled to explain things, and I
(17:46):
do still feel like learning. Don't get me wrong, I
still am going down the rabbit holes. I still am
looking into what twenty twenty six brings and doing tarot
readings for collective. I just don't feel like I should
have to show up in a particular way and form
(18:09):
strong opinions and blow everyone's mind. I instead feel a
need for integration. I can share what I want to
share and let things settle without commentary, and I may
not be available for interpretation. And of course that's counterintuitive
(18:34):
to say out loud when my work involves sharing my
inner world. But I trust this more than I trust
forced clarity, a forced message. Disillusion is huge this season.
(18:56):
It's everywhere, and we can see various belief systems losing
their charge. Ideas that once felt very solid feel thin
and not responding to headlines and leaders in the same way.
(19:21):
And that doesn't mean faith is gone. Maybe the fantasy
is just dissolving. Disillusionment can hurt, but it also can
be a clarifier, stripping away what was borrowed and leaving
this raw realness behind. And while you're in that process,
(19:46):
it's not a time when you necessarily feel inspired. So
if as you listen to this you're wondering why you've
felt off or beyond behind, or disconnected from your usual
fire and energy, I want to offer you another way
(20:09):
to think about it, that maybe you're not meant to
create right now. Maybe you're meant to mirror nature and conserve,
maybe like plants that are resting under the surface. So
is our clarity. We don't have to come up with
(20:30):
constant insight to the world. We don't have to always
be polished. Some seasons are for being quieter, not louder,
and it's right in front of us, it's all around us.
We can look to nature to mirror the seasons that
(20:55):
happen internally within us. So this episode, I wanted it
to not resolve anything for you. Instead, I'm going to
hold space, and I'm going to hold within myself and
within the collective what's unfinished. We can hold what hasn't
(21:20):
found language yet. If today is loud and joyful for you,
that's wonderful. I'm so happy for those moments too, enjoying
the holidays, but simply in a quieter way. And I
also think it's important to acknowledge that it's okay if
some of you are heavy today. We don't need to
(21:41):
force and manufacture meaning today. You need to be you. You're
not ruining the day, You're being in it and being
honest and authentic and human in how you feel today.
Sometimes the most honest thing that we can do is
(22:01):
let it be what it is. Stillness is not spiritual failure.
If you're hibernating, you're not disappearing, You're gathering. And when
something real is ready to speak again, it won't need
to be forced. And until then we have to be
(22:24):
okay with these things resting in the dark. And something
else that comes up that we don't talk about is
this quiet fear that comes up when we stop producing,
(22:45):
producing content, producing memories, producing moments for everyone to cherish,
your children, your family, even just like producing the perfect
Christmas Eve dinner, it feels like it's more than dropping
(23:12):
the ball. It's this fear, and the fear feels like
unsafe territory. And I want you to ask yourself when
you're silent and you're not producing. Do you feel neutral
(23:32):
or do you feel unsafe that you have to get
out of that place, that you have to pull yourself
out of that pit. When things slow down, our doubt
and grief and unprocessed moments that we didn't have time
to feel when we were busy come to the surface.
(23:53):
Busyness protects us from having to look at those things,
and so does constant spiritual content, constant learning, constant decoding.
Sometimes we stay in the work not because we're curious,
(24:17):
but because we're avoiding what might show up if we stop.
Stillness removes distraction, and that can feel like standing in
a dark, empty room with nothing but yourself. And I
(24:41):
think that's why there is this additional anxiety around this
time of year. It feels so busy, but nature is still,
and inside we are being called to still. The noise
(25:07):
of life seems louder, but it's thinner, And underneath that noise,
there's a little reckoning happening, not a big, loud, dramatic one,
but a quiet one. Subconsciously, you're asking yourself, who am
(25:28):
I without my role? Who am I without my certainty?
Who am I without the stories that I tell? Myself.
None of those questions have fast answers, and winter is
(25:50):
not pushing you to rush them. The end of the
year is this very clear line of the end of
something or opportunity to start anew in the new year.
And I have been noticing how people this time of
year quietly shed parts of themselves or ideations that they
(26:17):
once built their lives around, and they don't announce it,
they don't make a big statement. It's like they're just
loosening their grip on these things that once made them
feel less anxious. But if you are a healer and
(26:44):
you don't want to heal right now, or you are
a guide a teacher who doesn't feel like teaching, there's
grief in that, because when you've been seen in a
certain way, stepping back feels like disappointing people, or even
(27:10):
disappointing a version of yourself that you've worked really hard
to become. But evolution and growth doesn't always look like expansion.
Aren't we growing and aren't we evolving if we also
(27:32):
shed things? So sometimes it's going to look like simplification.
Fewer to do's, fewer words, fewer explanations, And there's a
maturity in letting old roles fall away without needing to
(27:53):
replace them with something immediately. Winter allows that, it's not
demanding reinvention. It allows emptiness to exist without a label
of failure. And I feel like, because we have this
(28:18):
new beginning ahead the new year, that one of the
hardest things for people is wanting to be seen without
having to perform, to have people witness the process, the uncertainty,
the incompleteness. But our culture wants us instead to focus
(28:42):
and witness results. It doesn't celebrate the in between. In
between is always put as lost, right, we need to
know if we're at an end or a beginning. You
can't be in between. It's a lonely place. The holidays
(29:04):
intensify that feeling. We're putting all of these meanings to
the days, all the memories, all the expectations to create
new ones. You're supposed to feel something specific, and if
you don't, many people feel like they're missing the point.
(29:26):
But can't the point be to just be present with
whatever is actually here, to not correct it, to not
reframe it, to perhaps not even try to turn it
into gratitude or insight, but instead just presence. That's way
(29:49):
harder than it sounds. If we are to get to
a place where our world is a reflection of us,
where we are mirroring our frequencies and intentions, we're going
to have to trust the pause. Not trusting that everything's
(30:18):
going to work out, and not trusting that something big
is coming around in the new year, but trusting in
the pause itself. Trust that not knowing right now does
(30:39):
not mean you're lost, and trust that the instinct to
be quiet does not mean you are disconnecting. If anything,
aren't you grounding into what's happening outside and being more connected.
We need to trust that a rest is not wasted time.
(31:01):
I mean, how many times do you feel like you
do want to just lay on the couch and like binge,
watch something like Emily in Paris and you feel like
you wasted your whole day? Why there are things in
life that only take shape when we leave them alone
(31:25):
long enough. You can't speed up seeds that have been
planted and make them grow. Rushed seeds grow because they're
left in the dark long enough to break open. And
what if that's where you're at, breaking open quietly without witness,
(31:52):
without applause. So if this episode has felt slow or heavy,
or unstructured ramblings. I want you to know that that's intentional.
(32:14):
I didn't want to come on here and produce content
designed to uplift you. I wanted it to be space
that I could hold to meet you where you're at,
so that if you're listening alone today, you understand you
(32:35):
are not alone. You are not as alone as it feels.
And if you're surrounded by people and you still feel
lonely or you still feel separate or different, that makes
sense too. Some seasons are communal, and some seasons are
(32:56):
for you to go inward. And right now, I feel
like this feels like one of those interior seasons, and
there's nothing wrong with that, and there's nothing wrong with you.
Thank you for holding space with me. I'm not going
(33:19):
to do my usual advertising of things at the end
of the episode. You can check out my website if
you want to do so. Instead, I'm going to leave
us with this silence and a beautiful gratitude for that
silence and for you sharing it with me. Merry Christmas.
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