The holidays are upon us! Can you feel it? Nostalgia, merriment, unity and joy — and the slow creep of exhaustion tempting the inevitable breakdown.

For many people, this season can be a stormy time. High emotions start brewing off the coast of Thanksgiving and make landfall right around Christmas. By New Years, instead of feeling refreshed and energized, we feel depleted and depressed. The holidays bring about a lightness — but also a heaviness.

So how do we weather the holiday season and maintain our balance? I have some tips, but first let’s understand what’s going on.

Starting in early winter, the earth and all its creatures go into accumulation mode. The squirrels squirrel away their winter supplies, the bears hibernate, and us humans hunker down for the next few months of darkness and cold.

According to the ancient science of Ayurveda, this is “vata” season: the time of year where we bulk up and slow down to counter the raw, erratic nature of late fall and early winter. Without counter measures like deep sleep and nourishing comfort foods, we too can become ungrounded and erratic. However, if we aren’t careful too much accumulation can bog down our system and lead to impaired immunity, depressed mood, and stagnant digestion — all symptoms of the heavier “kapha” season that follows in late winter / early spring.