Stop Feeling Overwhelmed This Holiday — Your Brain Is Wired for Stress, Not Christmas Chaos

The holidays are supposed to be magical, right?

Spoiler alert: They're not.

Between Aunt Karen's passive-aggressive comments, your credit card bill that's giving YOU anxiety, the 47 things on your to-do list, and the societal expectation that you should be "merry and bright" while juggling all of it...

The holidays are EXHAUSTING.

And if you feel like you're running a marathon while everyone else is sipping hot cocoa and singing carols?

You're not broken. Your nervous system is just responding to stress.

Here's what's actually happening:

• Your amygdala (the alarm system in your brain) is screaming "DANGER!" every time your mother-in-law texts

• Your cortisol levels are through the roof from financial stress

• Your prefrontal cortex (the logical part of your brain) has LEFT THE BUILDING because it can't handle one more decision about what to buy your cousin's kid

• Your nervous system thinks you're being chased by a tiger, but it's actually just the chaos of the holiday season

If you've ever wondered why:

• Your heart races just thinking about Thanksgiving dinner

• You want to hide under the covers until January

• You feel stressed even when you're doing "nothing"

• You snap at people you love (and then feel guilty about it)

• You can't sleep because your brain won't shut up about everything you need to do

Your nervous system is doing exactly what it's designed to do.

The problem? Most holiday advice is USELESS.

"Just relax!", "Practice gratitude!", "Light a candle and take a bubble bath!"

Cool. But what do you do when your aunt makes a comment about your life choices at dinner?

What do you do when you're drowning in debt and everyone expects gifts?

What do you do when you're grieving and everyone else is celebrating?

That's where this guide comes in.

✅ You feel anxious or overwhelmed during the holidays (and you're tired of people telling you to "just relax")

✅ You have difficult family members who make you want to fake your own death

✅ You're navigating grief during a season that's supposed to be "joyful" (and you're sick of people telling you to "be grateful")

✅ You're stressed about money, gifts, and the pressure to spend money you don't have

✅ You want to actually ENJOY the holidays instead of just surviving until January

✅ You're done with useless "wellness" advice that doesn't actually work

This guide is NOT for you if:

❌ You're looking for a magic solution that requires zero effort

❌ You want someone to tell you that all your problems will disappear if you just "think positive"

❌ You're not willing to actually TRY the strategies (reading alone won't fix it—you gotta DO the work)

Sound like you?

Get the guide. Read it. Use it. Feel better.

• No jargon.

• You're not getting a boring textbook full of words you need a dictionary to understand.

• No "research" for the sake of sounding smart.

You're getting the science you NEED to know—explained in a way that actually makes sense.

Yes, you should understand WHY your body responds the way it does.

Because once you understand the "why," the "how to fix it" makes a whole lot more sense.

But no, you shouldn't need a PhD in neuroscience to understand what's happening in your own body.

This guide breaks it down in plain English. With sass. And a little bit of humor. Because if we can't laugh about the chaos of the holidays, we're all doomed.

What You'll Get:

✅ The science of stress (explained like you're a human, not a scientist)

✅ Why difficult people trigger you (and what to do about it)

✅ Emergency stress relief techniques (for when you're about to lose it)

✅ How to handle grief during the holidays (because not everyone is celebrating)

✅ Financial stress strategies (because money anxiety is REAL)

✅ Shopping survival tactics (because holiday shopping is its own special hell)

✅ How to actually create JOY (not just survive until January)

✨ If you're ready to not just survive the holidays, but actually slay them, then this guide is for you!

This guide has over 100 pages and 10 chapters of real strategies to help make this the best holiday yet.

I'm Shelley.

I'm not a therapist. I'm not a doctor. I'm not some wellness guru trying to sell you crystals and positive vibes.

I'm a science nerd who got tired of complicated, boring explanations of how stress works.

So I created the Not-Too-Sciencey Science Series—science-backed information, explained in a way that actually makes sense.

No jargon. No fluff. Just the science you need to know, explained like you're a human.

This guide is part of that series.

And it works.

Because when you understand WHY your body responds the way it does, you can actually DO something about it.

Ready?