Los Angeles Anxiety Therapist Talks Holiday Rituals to Calm an Anxious Mind
Making The Holidays More Grounding
Explore a holiday ritual guide from an anxiety therapist in Los Angeles. Grounding practices and intentional gift ideas to support anxious, overwhelmed adults.
The last time we talked about anxiety, we touched on how it shows up in relationships. How overwhelm builds in the body and how awareness can help you return to emotional safety. You were guided through practices by an anxiety therapist in Los Angeles, CA that supported emotional closeness with a partner/friend/family member. You also reflected on how to create emotional safety, honor your limits, and navigate family dynamics this holiday season.
Now, we are taking the next step into intentionality, learning how to step away from emotional overwhelm this season, ground your body, and offer yourself (and others) presence.
This new blog series is here to support your nervous system — and your loved ones’ — during a season that often heightens stress, expectations, and the pressure to “hold it all together.”
For many first-generation, BIPOC, and Queer adults, the holidays bring up old patterns, family dynamics, and cultural expectations that make it hard to slow down or voice what you need. Even choosing or receiving gifts can feel activating when your capacity is already low.
That’s why I created this Holiday Ritual Guide: a series featuring healers, therapists, and community practitioners who offer grounding rituals and intemtional gift ideas that soothe the body, reconnect you to your breath, and bring you back home to yourself. These aren’t productivity hacks or mood boosters—they’re practices that honor your lived experience and support your nervous system in real, accessible ways that you may have not considered before.
The gift this season is practicing ways to ground an anxious mind.
Each spotlight will share a different ritual, gift idea, or grounding practice that you can use for yourself or pass along to someone you love. Whether you’re navigating anxiety, emotional overload, or the weight of expectations, you deserve tools that help you feel steadier during a complicated season.
Why Rituals Matter for an Anxious Mind
I like to think of anxiety as an entity that thrives on predictability, structure, and familiarity. It knows what it likes and dislikes. And once it feels safe, it can be open to new opportunities. Rituals soothe anxiety because they mimic routine—they signal that it’s safe to rest, explore, and breathe without bracing for something bad to happen.
When practiced consistently, rituals begin to replace automatic survival responses with nourishing coping strategies. They become easier to reach for in moments of overwhelm.
In my therapy work with adults who have always had to “hold it together”, rituals help them take back control from anxiety.
They are able to be with their feelings instead of running away from it.
We choose rituals that align with their schedule, capacity, and nervous system —intentional rest, movement, breath-work, creative expression, or small moments of acknowledgment when anxiety shows up. Rituals don’t need to be elaborate to be grounding. As you’ll see in the upcoming spotlights, the smallest moments can create the deepest shifts.
What This Ritual Spotlight Series Is (and Why I Created It)
After eight years of supporting first-generation, BIPOC, and Queer adults through anxiety, self-doubt, people-pleasing, and relationship struggles—especially during the holidays—I’ve seen how pervasive overwhelm becomes this time of year. The pressure to show up for everyone, meet expectations, or keep the peace can pull you away from your own needs.
I’ve felt this myself, too.
This series is a reminder that you do not need to ‘push through’ or ‘hold it together’ to enjoy the holiday season.
You can be present with others without losing yourself.
I have partnered with healers, therapists, and community voices to share ways to bring more ease, connection, and intention — for kids, moms, parents, and first-gen community.
It is an offering of grounding rituals and thoughtful gift ideas that soothe the body, help you reconnect to your breath, and help you choose something intentional for yourself or someone who’s quietly struggling to “keep it together.”
What Readers Can Expect From Each Spotlight
Each Ritual Spotlight Includes:
A featured healer/therapist and the culturally rooted grounding ritual they recommend to for anxiety or regulating their nervous system.
A sense of who they work with and what led them to their specialization.
The ‘why’ behind the ritual.
A simple, intentional gift idea for a child, parent, or professional
A takeaway with you that encourages new pathways of self-compassion.
Although each spotlight focuses on a different group, all offer shared wisdom about slowing down, listening to your body, and grounding during overwhelm.
If you are struggling with what to gift a child, parent, or colleague this season — these spotlight make it easy for you to find something that is supportive, grounding, and thoughtful.
Overview of the Series
Ritual Spotlight #1:
Calming Rituals for Children + Parents — Therapist Feature
Ritual Spotlight #2:
Rituals for Folks Navigating Birth Journeys — Birth Doula Feature
Ritual Spotlight #3: Rituals for The Overwhelmed Leaders — Leadership Coach Feature
How to Choose the Right Ritual or Gift for Your Needs
Some rituals may speak directly to you; others may offer wisdom you didn’t expect. I invite you to notice what resonates. Even if your story differs from the intended group, grounding practices often translate deeply.
I share with many of my clients as a Los Angeles Anxiety Therapist — especially those who second guess their choices or are learning to choose themselves in relationships — that sometimes things that can be fulfilling are often right in front of us. But if you grew up tuning into others first, your own needs can get lost. It is possible to do things differently.
Slowing down helps you find them again.
What has your body needed in moments of stress and overwhelm?
Has it been rest?
What would the rest look like withot the voice saying, ‘that is too much,’ ‘I don’t deserve this' and ‘something bad will happen if I rest?’
Has it been connection or support?
What would reaching out look like without burdening someone?
Often, it is a combination all three; rest, connection, and support. That is okay. It means you have several pathways towards ease in moments of distress. It helps you identify a bit more of how to care for yourself this season, tell someone what gift type you’d appreciate, or possibly gifting a loved a gift who struggles with ‘holding it together’ and ‘pushing through emotions’.
You Deserve a Holiday Season That Feels Calmer and Kinder
Many First Gen, BIPOC, and Queer adults weren’t taught how to care for themselves in busy or emotionally charged seasons. You may have grew up learned to anticipate others’ needs, manage tension in the home, or stay small to avoid conflict. These behaviors were once there for us when we were younger as a way to cope within our childhood to find some sense of internal peace. But it does not have to be the way you function for the rest of your adulthood.
You get to rewrite how you move through busy seasons.
As I shared in “Navigating Emotional Overwhelm During the Holidays,” small, intentional practices can be the start of real change. Whether you use these rituals now or or use them into the new year. You have the choice of what those practices are and what supports you.
If your anxiety has felt louder or your overthinking has been hard to shake, you do not need to navigate it alone. As an anxiety therapist in Los Angeles, CA, I support first-generation, BIPOC, and Queer adults who are ready to stop carrying everything alone and want a more compassionate relationship with themselves and their relationships.
Work With an Anxiety Therapist in Los Angeles, CA
If you’re curious about what healing could look like, I invite you to explore the possibility of working together. You deserve support that honors who you are, where you come from, and who you’re becoming.
Whenever you’re ready, I’m here.
Schedule a Free Consultation at (323) 493-6644 or Book Here.
Ligia Orellana, LMFT (#122659)
I’m an anxiety therapist in Los Angeles, California, certified in LGBTQ+ Affirmative Therapy and Somatic Attachment Therapy. I help first-generation BIPOC and Queer adults who feel the pressure to hold it all together move through self-doubt, anxiety, and relationship struggles. My work creates space for deeper connection and self-trust through emotional safety and cultural understanding.
Learn more about my work with relationship stress, people-pleasing and self-doubt, and online therapy, or visit my About page to learn more.
