Feeling Anxious or Depressed This Holiday Season? Author Jenny Mannion Shares These Tips for Healing

Adding simple mindfulness practices to your daily routine could help fight those feelings of anxiety, author and intuitive healer Jenny Mannion says.

The holidays are here again and that’s something to celebrate.

In the midst of another pandemic year, however, many of us are understandably feeling overwhelmed, anxious and maybe a bit depressed. Among the mountain of to-do lists, money and health worries, family gatherings are a big part of that stress.

Author and intuitive healer Jenny Mannion says adding simple mindfulness practices to your daily routine could help fight those feelings of anxiety.

Mannion has written about how she turned around a debilitating illness with the help of alternative healing and mindfulness in her book, “A Short Path to Change: 30 Ways to Transform Your Life”.


Related: Explore WDET’s Science of Grief podcast here.


Reducing stress, anger and even fear at this time of year is about self-love, says Mannion. “We get really caught up in how others are thinking and feeling, but then we forget about how we’re thinking and feeling,” she says. According to Mannion, the key to recentering ourselves can be as easy as making a cup of tea and sitting quietly for a few minutes.

“When we feel calm, we’re much better suited to be mindful when situations trigger us …. we can respond from that loving space instead of a fear-based reaction,” Mannion says.

After losing her mother last year, Mannion says navigating the grieving process during the holidays can be extra difficult. “Showing yourself compassion after losing someone you love is important,” she says. “Grieving a loved one is traumatic, it is sad, but the love is still there.”

Mannion suggests coping with grief during the holidays by imagining a lost loved one is near you while holding your hand over your heart. “Feel the love that you had for them and they had for you flowing in and out of your heart,” she says.


Listen: Author and healer Jenny Mannion shares simple strategies for healing.


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Author

  • Amanda LeClaire
    Amanda LeClaire is an award-winning host and producer of CultureShift on 101.9 WDET-FM Detroit’s NPR station. She’s a founding producer of WDET’s flagship news talk show Detroit Today, and a former host/reporter for Arizona Public Media. Amanda is also an artist, certified intuitive and energy healer, and professional tarot reader.