Mid-December often nudges us toward generosity—holding doors, offering warm wishes, checking in on friends, sending holiday cards or simply showing up with a smile when someone needs it. These small acts of kindness, the ones that don’t cost anything, are often the ones people remember most. Yet while many of us are quick to extend compassion outward, we’re not always great at offering that same kindness to ourselves.
This season, we get to do both.
Imagine giving yourself a playful little “holiday permission slip.” One that says:
- You may say no to something that drains you.
- You may rest without earning it.
- You may choose the quieter option.
- You may take five minutes alone, even in a full house.
- You may enjoy something simply because it brings you joy.
Because kindness doesn’t always look like big gestures. Sometimes it’s choosing to listen fully when someone needs to talk, even if it’s only for a minute. Sometimes it’s leaving a note of appreciation on a coworker’s desk. Sometimes it’s offering someone the benefit of the doubt. And sometimes—especially for behavioral health professionals—it’s giving a moment of presence to a client who rarely feels heard outside the therapy room.
None of these acts require money or elaborate planning. They simply ask for attention, warmth, and the willingness to pause long enough to remember what matters. And kindness can and should be a daily practice — to others and to ourselves.
The beautiful part is that both kinds of kindness—the inward and outward—feed each other. When we give ourselves permission to rest, reset, or say no, we have more capacity to offer patience and understanding. When we extend compassion to others, it often softens something inside us as well.
This season, consider carrying two kinds of gifts: one you offer to others—your listening, your gentleness, your time. And one you offer to yourself—your permission to be human.
Warm, simple, meaningful. The kind of kindness that lasts well beyond the holidays.
