A Season for Softness & Love

My Life Is Full of Love

This time of year can feel tender in ways we don’t always speak about out loud. While the world fills with lights, music and expectation, many people are quietly carrying grief, loneliness, exhaustion or memories that ache a little more loudly in December. It’s a season that can amplify whatever is already sitting in the heart. That’s why, more than anything, this is a time that asks us to soften, to lead with compassion, for others and for ourselves.

Christmas has not always been easy for me. There were years when I spent it alone, watching the day pass slowly, feeling both invisible and heavy with thoughts I didn’t know how to place anywhere else. I’ve known Christmases where heartbreak arrived just days before, when the world I thought I was standing on collapsed beneath my feet. Loss has a way of ignoring calendars, and some of my deepest pain has unfolded right when joy was “supposed” to be happening. My heart has broken more than once at this time of year, and each time it felt like starting again from the ground up.

And yet, somewhere along the way, strength grew quietly inside me. Not the loud, performative kind, but the kind that teaches you how to sit with discomfort, how to breathe through moments that feel unbearable, how to trust that life can still hold you even when it hurts. Yin Yoga became a companion in those seasons. Long, slow holds. Staying. Listening. Learning that stillness isn’t emptiness, and that softness can coexist with resilience. Yin taught me that surrender isn’t giving up, it’s allowing things to move through you instead of hardening against them.

Now, life looks different. Bailey is in my world, and his presence has changed the shape of my days. He doesn’t know what Christmas means, but he knows love, routine, warmth and connection. He has a way of grounding me back into the moment, reminding me that joy can be simple and steady, that companionship doesn’t need words. The hard memories don’t disappear, but they soften around the edges when shared with a living being who meets you exactly where you are.

I’ve also been incredibly fortunate to learn from many cultures over the years. Through travel, through friendships, through studying Hinduism and Buddhism, through my Yin Yoga trainings in Bali and India, I’ve seen how differently people mark time, honour life, grieve, celebrate and pray. Some of my closest friends don’t celebrate Christmas at all and yet I have witnessed so much love, generosity and compassion in their traditions. Diwali, Vesak, simple daily rituals, shared meals, silent prayers, each culture carries its own beauty, its own way of reminding us that we belong to something larger than ourselves.

I was raised Catholic and Christmas was always sacred in my home, the ritual, the symbolism, the focus on love, forgiveness and hope. As I’ve grown, my heart has expanded to hold many traditions, not instead of my own, but alongside them. What I’ve learned is that no matter the language, the deity, the ritual or the calendar date, everything meaningful seems to circle back to the same truth: love is at the centre. Love expressed through compassion, through presence, through care for one another, through the willingness to see someone else’s humanity even when it looks different from our own.

In Yin Yoga, we don’t force. We create space and let things unfold in their own time. I think this season asks the same of us. To pause before judging. To soften before reacting. To remember that the person next to us might be carrying a story we can’t see. To understand that joy and grief often sit side by side, and neither cancels the other out.

So if this time of year feels heavy for you, you’re not broken. If it feels joyful, hold that gently too. And if you find yourself somewhere in between, know that there is room for all of it. No matter what culture you come from, what you celebrate or don’t celebrate, there is beauty in your way of being. And when we strip it all back, the lights, the labels, the traditions, what remains is the simplest and most powerful thing we have to offer each other: LOVE!

So much love and festive cheer to you all - love Serina & Bailey xxxx