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This post reflects aspects of long-term marriage, neurodivergence, PTSD, caregiving ,trauma, faith and recovery after infidelity. Find a gentle guide on engaging with this type of post in greater detail in my content notice.
Please engage gently — for yourself and others.
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Rest Is a Complete Practice
December arrives without asking permission.
Light is brief.
Darkness stretches long.
The body slows whether the calendar allows it or NOT.
The Cold Moon—often called the Long Night Moon—marks the deepest quiet of the year. In nature, nothing is expected to grow. Survival depends on stillness, warmth, and conservation.
December is NOT asking you to finish strong.
It is asking you to stop asking more of yourself.
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What DECEMBER Is Actually About
December is often framed as:
🌕Celebration
🌕Generosity
🌕Reflection and closure
🌕Spiritual intensity
🌕Relational performance
But for people living from capacity—caregivers, trauma-aware families, neurodivergent households, recovering bodies—December is a low-demand season that gets overcrowded.
You may notice:
🌕Exhaustion masquerading as irritability
🌕Grief surfacing in quiet moments
🌕Pressure to feel grateful or joyful
🌕Spiritual expectations colliding with fatigue
🌕A deep desire to disappear for a while
If December feels heavy instead of holy, it’s NOT because you’re disconnected.
It’s because your system knows this is a time to rest.
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The COLD / LONG NIGHT Moon Truth
Nothing Is Required to Be Produced Here
In the long night, animals do NOT search.
Seeds do NOT sprout.
Fields do NOT prepare.
The LONG NIGHT Moon reminds us:
STILLNESS IS NOT ABSENCE. IT IS PRESERVATION.
December does NOT ask for:
🌕Insight
🌕Resolution
🌕Healing breakthroughs
🌕Goal setting
🌕Emotional clarity
It asks for warmth, safety, and enough.
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Released Belief (Set This Down)
“If I rest now, I’m falling behind.”
This belief keeps people:
🌕Pushing through depletion
🌕Overriding grief
🌕Performing faith or joy
🌕Pollapsing later when support is gone
Winter rest is NOT delay.
It is alignment.
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Restored Truth (Carry This Instead)
REST IS A COMPLETE PRACTICE
You do NOT need to:
🌕Understand what you’re resting from
🌕Explain why you’re tired
🌕Justify doing less
🌕Make rest productive
Rest that does nothing is doing exactly what it should.
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What Rest Looks Like in Real Life This Month
Rest may mean:
🌕Fewer words
🌕Lower expectations
🌕Earlier nights
🌕Simpler meals
🌕Canceled traditions
🌕Quiet faith instead of expressive faith
🌕Presence without cheer
If your December feels smaller than it used to, that does NOT mean something is missing.
It means you are honoring the season honestly.
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When Guilt or Spiritual Pressure Shows Up
December guilt often sounds like:
🌕“I should be more grateful.”
🌕“I should be enjoying this.”
🌕“I should be doing something meaningful.”
Here’s the reframe:
THE LONG NIGHT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE CONQUERED—ONLY SURVIVED WITH CARE.
If pressure rises, check for:
🌕Old performance narratives
🌕Fear of disappointing others
🌕Unresolved grief
🌕Spiritual over-discipline
🌕Comparison to past seasons
Nothing needs to be proven this month.
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A Gentle DECEMBER Practice (Optional)
This is the lowest-demand month of the year..
If you do anything intentionally, let it be this:
🌕Sit somewhere warm.
🌕Reduce light or sound.
🌕Take one slow breath.
Say quietly:
“I am allowed to rest without earning it.”
That’s it.
NO overhaul.
NO emergency response.
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If Reflection Feels Unsafe or Exhausting
December does NOT require looking inward.
You do NOT need to:
🌕Review the year
🌕Extract lessons
🌕Set intentions
🌕Prepare spiritually
Simply staying is enough.
Skipping this post entirely is allowed.
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Partner & Family Translation (Share If Helpful)
“December is a rest month for me.
I’m not withdrawing—I’m conserving.
What helps most is warmth, simplicity, and low expectations.”
Rest protects connection when energy is thin.
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Faith-Forward Reframe (If That’s Your Language)
Scripture holds deep respect for darkness.
Christ entered the world quietly—
NOT in productivity,
NOT in clarity,
but in vulnerability and stillness.
God does NOT fear the long night.
He enters it.
Rest is NOT spiritual retreat.
It is trust embodied.
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Closing Thought
The Cold Moon does NOT ask you to close the year well.
It asks you to remain intact.
If December feels quiet, slow, or incomplete, nothing is wrong.
You are NOT wasting the season.
You are honoring it.
This month, rest—
unproductive, unseen, and unearned—
is enough.
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WELLNESS THAT WITHSTANDS
Rooted. Resilient. Restored.
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Nicole Burch is a CertifiedTrim Healthy Lifestyle Coach, author, and holistic family life mentor who helps women and families rebuild from the inside out. Through her work, she guides others toward resilience, restoration, and peace—teaching that true healing begins at home. As the owner of Life in the Treehouse, Nicole helps women and families overcome burnout, find food freedom, and create sustainable wellness that lasts. Her work weaves together the practical and the profound—showing that peace is possible even in the busiest, most complicated seasons of life.
Whether she’s helping clients balance blood sugar, restore energy, or reconnect with joy, Nicole’s mission remains the same:
to help women and families live Rooted in Rhythm—anchored in peace, balanced in body, and guided by grace.
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If you’re seeking nourishment for body and soul—gluten-free living, Trim Healthy knowledge and support, or peace amid the chaos—welcome home.
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I am celebrating five years of being a Certified Trim Healthy Lifestyle Coach. I have lived an abundance of seasons within just these five years. I was a nursing mom, pregnant multiple times, survived a traumatic pregnancy loss in 2022, lived in survival mode from 2022-2025 while being an ambassador for survivors of sexual assault and facilitating the legal aspects of a criminal trail against the perpetrator for those assaults, almost died due to pulmonary embolism after my eighth child was born in 2023, and somewhere in there lost and gained 80 pounds after identifying binge-eating disorder as a new challenge. I KNOW too well that life slows down for nobody and no situation, and every meal is a new opportunity to be a begin-againer!
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Nicole Burch is a Certified Trim Healthy Mama Lifestyle Coach, independently offering services based on the THM plan. This coach is not an employee or agent of Trim Healthy Mama, LLC. Coaching services are independently managed, and THM is not responsible for results, business practices, or claims made by this coach.
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