What if you created space for a spiritual awakening during the holidays by giving yourself permission to fall apart, instead of holding it together? In this raw and restorative episode, I give you permission to fall apart, rest, and release what no longer serves you. Through my stories of loss, reflection, and divine renewal, you’ll discover how unraveling can spark rebirth and lasting peace.
This episode is for every woman, especially those over 50, who feels the weight of being “the strong one,” through the holidays. You’ll discover how burnout can become a breakthrough, and why your tears, pauses, and quiet moments might be the holiest thing you offer yourself this season.
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Show Notes | TranscriptWhat you’ll learn:
- How to turn holiday burnout into sacred awareness.
- Why rest is not weakness, but wisdom.
- How grief, stillness, and surrender lead to midlife reinvention.
- Steps toward living intentionally after 50 and reclaiming joy on your own terms.
- The spiritual link between burnout recovery and authentic fulfillment.
Reflection Questions
- 1. What expectations am I ready to release this holiday season?
- 2. Where is my soul asking for rest or simplicity?
- 3. How might redefining success help me experience deeper peace?
Resources:
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TRANSCRIPT
Permission to Fall Apart: Spiritual Awakening Through the Holidays
Opening: The December Business Burnout Cycle
Namaste.
Am I the only one who wants to throw it all away every December? Now, I don’t mean cleaning out the junk so the house is clean for the holidays. I’m actually talking about scrapping the business and walking away. You see, this week’s episode is supposed to be about managing seasonal triggers like they’re items on a to do list. You know, check your boundaries, practice self care, set realistic expectations.
But here’s what I really want to say. What if the trigger is the business itself? What if every December you remember who you were before you became this entrepreneur version of yourself and you’re not quite sure you’d like the trade you made? That’s what we’re really talking about.
So not we’re not going to be sharing tips or strategies, but the raw nerve underneath all of it. But as always, first, I do want to welcome you to Live Love Engage. Especially if this is your first time joining us. I really want to welcome you and introduce myself. I am Gloria Grace.
I’m a confidence catalyst and self love advocate. And I empower the mission driven women over 50 through my signature love method, L-O-V-E method and energy healing to boldly live life on their terms.
Now, I just realized I forgot my water today, but I’m just going to keep on rolling because that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to. I’m going to do this episode without water. So. So there you go.
The Reality of Running a Business as a Woman Over 50
And see, that’s what I think. This is what it is. I mean, this is what December feels like when you’re a woman over 50 running a business. While, I don’t know, it seems like the whole world is ending around you. Or maybe it’s just your world or somebody else’s world just ended.
Or maybe you’re watching everything you’ve built feel suddenly pointless.
The Rage: When Everyone Else Checks Out But You’re Still Showing Up
You know, there you might be feeling a lot of rage, you know, that everyone else gets to check out for the holidays, but you’re still showing up, still performing, still holding space for other people’s transformations while yours is on hold. Maybe you’re feeling some rage as your family still doesn’t understand what you do, that you spent 30 years becoming someone else’s definition of successful. Now you’re finally doing your thing and it’s frankly exhausting and lonely and nobody’s throwing you a parade, for crying out loud.
The Shame: The Hidden Feelings Entrepreneurs Don’t Talk About
Maybe there’s some shame, you know, for not wanting to decorate, for resenting the clients who ghost you in December or for looking at your revenue and feeling that old familiar pit in the pit of your stomach, you know, am I worth anything if I’m not producing? Maybe it’s for being spiritual but wanting to really just, I don’t know, hit the next person who tells you to just surrender and trust, even if that’s your higher self. Because I tell you, that’s the message I’ve been getting for the last, I don’t know, two years now. Ah, I know, I know, I know. I need to do that, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The Futility: When Your Business Feels Pointless
Maybe it’s that futility of sending another email or creating another offer or showing up on another zoom call when your, I don’t know, mother, sister, best friend, marriage, body is falling apart. And then there’s this voice that’s whispering to you, what is the point? Who cares? Why am I doing this?
The Truth We Can’t Say Out Loud in Our Businesses
And underneath all of it, the thing we absolutely cannot say in our businesses where we’re supposed to be healed and empowered, is this.
What if I don’t want to keep going now? Not in a scary way, but just what if the version of success I’ve been chasing feels like a cage I built myself? What if I’m tired? What if I need to stop? But stopping feels like failure and I’ve already failed and at so many things.
And this was supposed to be the thing.
Getting emotional here.
Oh, gosh.
My Sister’s Story: Running a Business While Grieving
Yeah, I’m getting emotional because I’m thinking about, let’s see, nine years ago.
Okay, so I’m recording this in November. Well, actually, it’s still the end of October. Wait a minute. It’s still the end of October. This is going to be airing the beginning of November.
The Phone Call That Changed Everything
But nine years ago at this time, I was in Tucson, Arizona. I was at a hospital where my sister was dealing with complications from the cancer that she’d been battling for the last year and a half almost.
And I had rushed out there in October, at the end of October, because I’d gotten this call from the nurse saying that your sister’s. We’re not sure she’s going to make it. You need to come out here right now. So I hopped out of a plane. Thank God for Southwest Airlines at the time.
They were really great and got me on a plane right away. And I even got TSA pre check, so I didn’t even have to stand through the line, which was wonderful. And luckily she rallied. My sister did rally, but she also, you know, we just knew. It was like, you know, this is it.
You know, the end is coming. And she’d already stopped Chemo going through any more radiation therapy just wasn’t going to do anything anymore for her, for the tumor that she had. And so we opted to go get her into hospice care. And so she was in, in a, in a hospice facility for a little while. And then on November 11, I remember that it was Veterans Day, she went home.
Balancing Business and Being Present During Grief
They, the hospice people brought a bed to her home, which we set up in the living room. And that’s where she stayed until the end of December. A couple days after Christmas was when she transitioned. And all the while that this was going on, you know, I’m running a business, I’m trying to run a business. Anyway, I mean, thankfully the fact that I’m a solopreneur and that I was doing digital marketing really at the time, as long as I had computer connection, I was able to do that.
And I was also in the middle of, and I remember like recording videos while she was sleeping. You know, I would go out in the backyard and record a video because I was promoting a three day workshop that I had already postponed once due to a hurricane. And now it was going to happen in January.
And like at the end of January was when the hotel was able to, to be open again. And so I was promoting this workshop, trying to keep the, keep things together, you know, keeping the word out all the while. My sister is starting to fade and man, oh man, let me tell you, the tension, you know, between grief and then, especially then the grief of losing her and then having to put this workshop on a month later.
How Grief Changed My Business Forever
Wow. It was, you know, it was not easy. You know, I, ah, I, you know, and I’m like, I’m looking at my notes right now and I’m not even sure what I want to say. But it just, you know, it was just realizing that trying to do all of this, it’s just, it’s just, it sucks. And, and I gotta tell you is that, you know, every year when, you know, the holidays come around, you know, I’m reminded of, of that time, you know, and, and just, yeah, just trying to do this.
So, so I guess maybe this is the real holiday trigger that I’m trying to, trying to talk about today. It’s not the past trauma, but it’s, it’s that present day realization that you’ve become someone who can function and you’re not really sure that’s a superpower or prison.
What Do We Do With This? Permission to Fall Apart
So what do we do with this? Because I can’t just leave you in the pit with me. Even though part of me thinks there’s something honest about staying here together for a minute. But first, and I mean this, stop trying to holiday proof your business like it’s a house you’re weatherizing. Your business is you.
And if you’re falling apart, it gets to fall apart, too.
Because I tell you, after my sister passed, I. I wasn’t blogging regularly anymore. I, I, you know, I, I used to blog every week. I didn’t do that. I think I was lucky to maybe do a blog article once a month in that first year. I stopped sending out regular emails because I had to deal with the grief.
When Your Business Model Reveals the Truth
So maybe December is actually showing you the truth about your business model. Maybe that it’s too fragile, too dependent on your constant output, too shaped around other people’s needs. So what if the trigger is a message, not a malfunction?
Questions to Ask Yourself This Holiday Season
So here’s some questions I’m sitting with. Maybe. Maybe you are, too.
What would my business look like if I built it for the woman I’m becoming, not the woman I was when I started?
Let’s just pause on that a little bit. In fact, I might even just re. Re. Ask that. Yeah, what if?
What if.
What would my business look like? Actually, yeah, what would my business look like if I built it for the woman I’m becoming, not the woman I was when I started?
Which parts of my business am I keeping because they work? And which parts am I keeping because I’m scared to admit they don’t?
What if success isn’t scaling?
What if it’s right sizing?
What if enough is actually enough?
The Healer Who Needs Healing
Here’s another question. Am I trying to heal people? Because that’s my gift. Now, I know not all of you may be necessarily healers per se, but maybe depending on what type of business you’re in, maybe because there’s other ways of healing.
But anyway, maybe it’s because being the healer means I don’t have to be the one who breaks.
I hope this is making sense. I hope it is. That’s what I want to say. Seasonal triggers aren’t just about family dysfunction. Although there is that.
Holiday Triggers Beyond Family Drama
And I might even do a little side talk about this in a second, too, you know? You know, maybe it’s, you know, maybe it’s not about, you know, your parent, your mom, maybe who still introduces you by your corporate job from 15 years ago, or your brother or sister who asks when you’re getting a real job. Or maybe it’s even a spouse who asks that as well.
Maybe it’s your partner also, who doesn’t get why you’re stressed about A business that should be passive by now.
The Deeper Trigger: Proximity to Who You Used to Be
But maybe the deeper trigger is this.
The holidays force you to exist in close proximity to the life you used to have, the person you used to be, and everyone’s opinion about whether you made the right choice.
And part of you still isn’t sure, you know, wondering, you know, should you have stayed in the marriage, kept the job, made everyone else comfortable?
Special Events Can Trigger Us Too: My Son’s Wedding Story
And, you know, and I’m. I’m gonna. Again, I had a bunch of notes, and I’m. I’m just gonna digress here for a second, too, because foreign. It’s not just even the holidays that bring this stuff up.
Sometimes it’s even special events, wonderful special events that you might experience.
You know, you may have noticed, if you have been a regular subscriber of the podcast, that over the last four weeks, I didn’t do anything episodes, they were all interviews. I. It was four straight weeks of interviews, and that’s because I was getting ready for my son’s wedding. My son got married this past weekend, and it was a wonderful, wonderful occasion and a bit of a stressful one as well, because I was in prox. Proximity, yes, very close proximity, with my husband, who I’ve been separated from for the last three years.
Navigating Old Patterns and New Boundaries
And we wound up driving together. Thankfully, my daughter was with us, so I had a little bit of a buffer there.
But it was amazing in that it really brought up a lot of stuff for me, a lot of emotion and even backsliding into some patterns that I thought I had dealt with. So, yeah, it’s. It was a wonderful experience, and it was also an emotional one and really, you know, kind of brought up some triggers in me.
So, like I said, it’s not. It’s not always just the holidays itself, but maybe it was the holidays and. And this. But anyway, okay, here’s what I want to tell you as we’re nearing the end of the year. As you know, we’re getting.
This is, you know, November now, and this is airing, and December is right around the corner.
Give Yourself Permission to Not Have It All Together
Stop thinking that you have to have it all together just for December. Now, maybe, you know, you could still be active in November. You know, we got Black Friday coming up. Maybe you got it. You’re gonna run a special for Black Friday, you know, or Small Business Saturday and all.
All that fun stuff, you know, but once that’s.
Be good to yourself. Be honest with yourself.
Let the Right People Know You’re Struggling
Let people know that you’re struggling, you know, supportive people. Okay. Make sure it is supportive people. Let your business be quiet. Give yourself.
If I can speak. Give Yourself permission not to, to launch, not to post as much. Let yourself take a holiday break.
You don’t have to do everything.
Sitting with the Fear That Comes When You Stop Performing
Let yourself feel some fear that comes up when you’re not performing because it probably will, you’ll probably be like, ah, I should be, I need to be doing stuff, you know, know, but maybe don’t, you know, if that voice comes up, you know, and we have these lovely voices that say, oh, you know, if you stop, you’re going to lose everything. If you’re not producing, you’re not valuable. If you don’t show up consistently, they’re going to forget about you.
Your Real People Will Notice When You’re Gone
Maybe, maybe some will. But you know what?
They weren’t your ideal client. Because if they are your ideal client and they notice. In fact, I even saw somebody today, someone that I follow. He’s even been a guest on the show before. His name is Mark Mawhinney.
He’s, he is a believer in sending daily emails. I mean, this man is consistent. But he had one time where he had one day where his email software didn’t work and his daily email did not show up in people’s inboxboxes at the same time. It was delayed. And he got emails from people saying, what happened?
Are you okay? Did you have a car accident? What’s going on?
Your Ideal Clients Will Check In On You
And he heard from those people because they were the people who really, really followed him and really were his ideal clients, were his ideal followers. They were invested in him. So even if you don’t show up consistently in December, the people who really are your people, they will be curious and they, they may just react, reach out to you and say, hey, is everything okay? And then you can say, yeah, I’m just taking a little break for the holidays. How about you?
Why don’t you take a break too? Let’s take a break together and let’s enjoy ourselves for a change. And then we’ll come back rare to go in January.
Ego Voice vs. Higher Self: Knowing the Difference
So that ego voice that was saying all these things to you, you know, that’s the seasonal trigger. It’s not your intuition, it’s not your higher self that loves you. It’s those messages that we absorb from, you know, from our culture, from our well meaning parents, from our well meaning friends, from, you know, religion, whatever, you know, that you’re not good enough or whatever.
When you be still and know you’re going to hear the difference because your higher self loves you and cares for you and is going to tell you, yeah, it’s okay to take a break. It’s okay or not, you know, if, if maybe you want to just keep powering on in December? I mean, I’m actually thinking of doing some stuff. I’m going to be December and I’m going to start talking about this more as I get through into. We start getting into December, but the podcast is going to be going through a rebranding in January and I’ll be talking more about this, but I’m just planting the seed now.
My Plans for Taking a Break While Still Moving Forward
Not a major change, but the name is going to change, the podcast name is going to change. The, the. I’ve already been sort of letting you know who I’m talking to and hopefully you’re responding. But I, but I really want everything to be more consistent and when we, when it happens in January. So anyway, so I’m going to be still fairly active, but I did enjoy the break last week, which was nice.
I didn’t even post anything. Well, I had my, I scheduled a post for LinkedIn, but it was like pretty much I was dark on social media last week. So that was sort of my holiday break for the wedding because I wanted to be able to be there for my, for my kids and enjoy spending time with them. And I have this wonderful new daughter in law. I’ve got a, you know, wonderful son and daughter.
And so now I’ve got a three kids in my family now instead of two, which is wonderful.
Powerful Questions for Your End-of-Year Reflection
So, so here’s the deal.
What I want you to ponder right now is think about. I’m going to, I’m going to pose some more questions for you. So, and these are things that you might want to go back and listen to this again and maybe journal about, you know, because I’m a big fan of journaling. I love doing that. So start thinking about what if you don’t want what you originally said you wanted?
You know, think about that. What if maybe the dream you’re chasing is someone else’s?
Are You Building to Prove Something?
What if you’re building this business to prove something to people who don’t even care? Or worse than maybe they’re not even around anymore or they’re not watching.
And what if you’re simply done with this version of your business, this iteration of yourself, this relentless pushing.
Permission to Want Less, Smaller, Quieter
What if you want less, smaller, quieter?
What if you want to matter less to more people and matter more to fewer people?
These are the questions that the holidays surface because they make us stop, really force us to stop. And when we stop, we can feel everything that we’ve been running from. And maybe the most radical thing you can do this December isn’t to holiday proof anything. Maybe it’s the holiday break. You open so you can see what’s actually underneath.
Sitting in the Rubble Without Fixing It
And then what if you didn’t fix it? What if you didn’t pivot, Realign, rebrand. Okay, don’t listen to me. You know, I know I’m rebranding, but, you know, it’s just the podcast a little bit. But what if you just sat in the rubble for your.
For a minute and let yourself be okay?
And again, I’m not saying to blow up your business. I’m not. What I am saying is to stop pretending that it’s separate from your healing.
Your Business Is Part of Your Journey, Not the Solution
Stop treating it like a thing you fix so you can be whole. Your business isn’t the solution. It’s part of the journey. And right now, that journey might be asking you to slow down or stop entirely. You’re allowed.
You’re allowed to be tired. You know, it’s. You know, and it might not even be your business. It might just be this energy that we’ve been living in for the past year, because especially here in the United States, let me tell you, it’s been. There’s been a lot of.
A lot of stuff. I. I don’t want to even say negative, but I would just say there’s just been a lot of energy that’s might be weighing on you and that you need. You need a break from. And I know I’ve talked about this in the past in one of our episodes about, you know, kind of tuning out from social media so, you know, it’s okay to be tired, to want less, to even quit. The thing you said you’d never quit, to change your mind, to disappoint people.
“I Don’t Know, and That’s All Right”
Yeah. You know what? Or to not know. There’s a song I’ve been listening to. It’s on an album by Bob Sima, and it says I don’t know.
And that’s all right. I don’t know, and that’s all right. So you. It’s all right for you not to know what to do right now? It’s okay.
Don’t worry about it.
The Power of Getting Quiet and Journaling
Spend some time getting quiet. Because when you give yourself time to be quiet, ideas will come, answers will come, and, you know, or. Or journal, and the answers will come that way.
So, yeah, I think I. I know I talked a mile a minute at the beginning, and I guess I was just revved up for some reason. So now I want to slow down. I’m going to slow down right now, and I want to offer you something to listen to.
Light Language Healing Session: Let Go and Receive
I’m going to share some light language with you and if you’re new to the podcast, if you’re new to Light Language, I’ll just, I’ll just tell you a little bit about it. But basically, number one, I’m going to encourage you to, if you’re driving, to save this for later because you’re going to want to listen to this where you can be totally focused on what you’re going to hear. Because I’d also encourage you to close your eyes as well and maybe put a hand on your heart, one on your belly or one or the other and just allow what I’m going to be sharing with you to speak to your heart because, because it’s going to sound like a foreign language and that’s okay because it is a, it’s a language of love that I channel from other realms and it will help you to release whatever you’re holding on to that you don’t want to, you don’t want to hold on to anymore. And so I’m, it’s going to give you permission to just let go whatever, whatever isn’t serving you anymore. And, and also to allow this season to crack you open instead of keeping it together a little bit so you don’t have to understand it, just receive it, let it move through you however it needs to.
Setting Your Intention for Healing
And so, yeah, so I’m going to trust right now that you pause this and that you’re ready to listen to it and just set an intention that the message that you receive will be for your soul’s highest good and the highest good of all concern, because that’s what I am intending as well.
Sa shakana la madonna krivana.
One-on-One Light Language Sessions: Personal Healing Support
I hope you received that with the love that I intended for you to receive. And if you would ever like to receive Light Language directly from me one on one via Zoom, unless you happen to live in Florida and, and you know, know want to look me up in person. But, but I do one on one sessions online via Zoom and it’s really powerful because we can address specifically whatever issues you are going through right now. So whether it is, you know, dealing with this holiday angst or, or what have you, you know, you can get in touch with me, you can go to and schedule a half an hour session with me and you will get a recording of it so that you can listen to it over and over again. And yeah, I’d love to, I’d love to support you with that.
You can go to, go to my website, go to gloriarand.com you’ll see under work with me I think is the tab under there or just go to. I’ll have the link in the show notes but go to bitly forward slash capital L, capital L, capital E and then lowercase podcast and the number three zero because it’s a 30 minute session. So LLE podcast 30. And yeah, I’d love to be able to support you with that. So one final thought I want to leave with you.
You Are Light, You Are Love, and That’s Enough
Is that you, you are here. You are you, you are light, you are love. And that’s enough. That’s enough for today. So I not sure what we’re talking about next week because normally at this time I would plug an interview.
But no, I will be back next week with another episode and probably some more end of year stuff as we’re rocking and rolling here rapidly.
What’s Coming in 2026: Podcast Rebranding Announcement
I know once, once we hit October, it just seems like, I mean 2025 has flown by. I don’t know if that for you, but I know it has flown by for me. And now I know that these next eight weeks are, they’re going to be like over in a blink of an eye, I tell you. So before that happens, I want to encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. If you aren’t already subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, subscribe on YouTube as well.
And this way you’ll be notified when our episodes drop. So yeah, that’s going to do it. That’s going to do it for this time. So until we meet again next week, I encourage you to go out and live fully, love deeply and engage authentically.
