Every year, as the festive season approaches, the world begins to speed up. For some, that season is December. For others, it’s Easter. For others still, it’s Eid, Diwali, Lunar New Year, or the long summer break. No matter where you live or what you believe, there is always a time in your calendar when the world demands more from you. More participation. More preparation. More perfection. More pressure.
This lesson is not about one religion or one celebration. It is about the universal rhythm that emerges before every widely celebrated moment of the year:
the pressure to hustle, and the longing to rest.
Almost every culture has its version of the “big season.”
And almost every human being feels the weight of it.
The Season of Pressure — No Matter What You Celebrate
In December specifically, the pressure becomes louder because the world moves together in a visible way. There are parties, gatherings, school functions, work events, community ceremonies, decorations, performances, travel, cooking, planning, hosting, organizing — the list is endless.
But this pressure exists elsewhere too:
- Easter → perfect meals, perfect family moments, perfect long-weekend plans.
- Valentine’s Day → perfect romance, perfect date, perfect expression of love.
- Halloween → perfect costumes, perfect atmosphere, perfect creativity.
- New Year’s Eve → perfect celebration, perfect resolutions, perfect midnight moment.
- Diwali → perfect lights, perfect outfits, perfect home preparation.
- Eid → perfect gatherings, perfect clothing, perfect hosting.
- Lunar New Year → perfect traditions, perfect cleaning, perfect reunion dinner.
Different cultures.
Different rituals.
Same human pressure.
We are all taught, in subtle ways, that we must perform joy — not just feel it.
And if we’re not careful, the hustle starts to swallow the heart of what these seasons were meant to be.
Why We Hustle: The Psychology Behind Seasonal Overdrive
A season of celebration triggers something deep in human psychology:
✦ 1. Performance Mode
People unconsciously shift into a state of presentation:
How does this look? What will people think? Am I doing enough?
✦ 2. Comparison Reflex
We compare our celebration to others — their homes, their food, their gatherings, their experiences, their joy.
✦ 3. Memory Pressure
We try to create the “perfect moment,” because holidays remind us of childhood, nostalgia, old expectations, or past versions of ourselves.
✦ 4. Identity Pressure
Many believe that a “successful” celebration says something about them:
their stability, their happiness, their family life, their achievements.
✦ 5. Hustle Conditioning
Most of us were raised in systems where productivity was praised and rest was guilt-inducing.
So when a celebration approaches, our nervous system defaults to hustle:
Prepare. Perform. Perfect. Prove.
But hustle is not the spirit of any holiday — in any culture.
Perfection Pressure: A Universal Experience
Across the world, “festive seasons” invite the same expectations:
- Perfect food
- Perfect home atmosphere
- Perfect outfit
- Perfect event or gathering
- Perfect behaviour from children or family
- Perfect celebration of traditions
- Perfect happiness
But perfection has nothing to do with meaning.
And pressure has nothing to do with joy.
The problem is simple:
We keep trying to create moments, instead of experiencing them.
The Quiet Toll of Hustle Season
The busier the season becomes, the more people feel:
- tired
- overwhelmed
- irritable
- emotionally stretched
- financially stressed
- disconnected from themselves
- secretly relieved when it’s all over
But most won’t admit it, because we’re taught to smile through exhaustion.
Every culture has this in common:
a moment that is supposed to bring joy ends up draining the people who are trying to make it perfect.
This is the tragedy of hustle culture.
Choosing Rest: The Counterculture Act
Rest is not laziness.
Rest is not avoidance.
Rest is not a lack of participation.
Rest is a reclamation of your humanity.
To choose rest during a season of pressure is a quiet rebellion — a refusal to let busyness swallow the meaning of your life.
Rest allows you to:
- show up as your real self
- enjoy the moments that matter
- connect instead of perform
- breathe instead of rush
- experience instead of curate
- love instead of impress
In every culture, rest is built into the original intention of celebration:
- Festivals were meant to pause work.
- Gatherings were meant to reconnect community.
- Rituals were meant to restore spirit.
- Food was meant to nourish, not overwhelm.
- Traditions were meant to ground us, not exhaust us.
Somehow, modern life reversed the equation — and rest became the exception instead of the foundation.
The Power of Doing Less — Even When the World Does More
If you choose rest this season, you are not “missing out.”
You are not failing your family.
You are not disappointing your culture.
You are not falling behind.
You are choosing peace instead of performance.
Presence instead of pressure.
Meaning instead of mechanics.
Doing less creates:
- clarity
- softness
- real connection
- space for joy
- space for healing
- space for breath
The moments you remember later are rarely the ones you perfected.
They are the ones where you were present enough to feel something.
How to Choose Peace Over Pressure
Here are gentle ways to ground yourself:
✦ 1. Lower the bar intentionally
Let things be good enough.
Let traditions be flexible.
Let people be human.
✦ 2. Don’t schedule every moment
Leave room for rest, spontaneity, silence, and real conversation.
✦ 3. Release the imaginary audience
Most pressure comes from fears of judgment that don’t truly exist.
✦ 4. Come back to your body
If your chest feels tight or your breath shortens, slow everything down.
✦ 5. Create one small moment of true peace
A walk, a nap, a cup of tea, a quiet breakfast, a long shower — something yours.
✦ 6. Remember: nothing needs to be perfect to be meaningful
Meaning comes from presence, not performance.
Hustle Your Way Through Joy
You Were Never Meant to Hustle Your Way Through Joy.
Every culture in the world has a season of celebration.
Every human being knows the pressure that comes with it.
But you are allowed — deeply allowed — to choose peace instead.
You are allowed to choose simple over impressive.
Quiet over chaotic.
Presence over perfection.
Rest over hustle.
The world will keep spinning even if you slow down.
The celebration will still happen even if you stop performing.
Joy will find you more easily when you stop forcing it.
This season — whatever it looks like for you — is not asking for your perfection.
It is asking for your presence.
And presence begins with rest.
Body of Brilliance 