Love Life with Matthew Hussey - Are You Having A Complicated Christmas

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

December can be a strangely emotional time—even when everything looks festive on the outside. In this podcast, Matthew revisits “Complicated Christmas,” a message created for anyone whose holiday doesn’t match the picture-perfect version we so often see online.If you’ve ever felt the weight of loneliness, grief, anxiety, or that uneasy mix of emotions that tends to surface as the year winds down, this podcast is a reminder that you’re far from alone—and that what you’re feeling is more common than you think.---►► If this season feels especially heavy and you don’t have someone you can talk to right now, Matthew AI is here for you. It’s a private, judgment-free space to sort through what you’re feeling, get grounded, and feel a little less alone—anytime you need it. You can try it now for free at AskMH.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey guys, I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season. I hope you're having a wonderful December. I hope that your year is wrapping up in the ways that you had hoped. I know that going into a new year, I always feel like going into a new year can feel a bit like a Sunday where you can get the Sunday scaries about what is coming next week. And you love Sunday. Sunday is the best. But it can sometimes be contaminated with everything that's coming up the new year and how you're not ready for it and you just want to enjoy Sunday you want Sunday to last three times as long as you know it's going to I often feel like that in the last week of December I don't know if you relate but in any case I know that so many people

struggle in one way or another in the month of December it's a very emotional month for for many people for many different reasons and I wanted to release an episode this week that anyone could listen to and feel less alone. And a year ago, I recorded an episode of the Love Life podcast called Complicated Christmas, which can be applied no matter what holiday you celebrate, for anyone who is not having the hallmark holiday season for whatever reason. So I hope this makes you feel a little less alone. I'm sending you love, enjoy this episode, and I will be back at the end with a brief message. Christmas and the holidays in general, are a great magnifier.

They're a magnifier for joy, if you're feeling a lot of joy in your life right now, if you're in an amazing relationship and you're excited about sharing the holidays with that person, or if you have incredible family around you that you've been looking forward to seeing and you're already excited about that, the holidays become a wonderful magnifier

for all of those wonderful experiences. But they can also be a magnifier for pain. If there's someone in particular you're missing, this Christmas, if there are people that have left your life, either through death or through breakups, then it can be an incredibly painful time and one that reminds us of what we don't have right now. And that extends to family and friendships. If you feel particularly lonely right now in your life, the holidays are a time where you feel even more lonely, especially when you go online and it looks like everyone else is having this hallmark Christmas or you're watching.

the actual Hallmark holiday movies, and you're seeing all of these quintessential, beautiful, happy-ending versions of the holidays. It can be this really stark contrast with what we find ourselves experiencing today. I wanted to reach out and say, if you are having a complicated Christmas, that you are not alone, that despite what people are putting on social media about what an incredible time they're having over the holidays. The reality is that so many people are having a very complicated version of the holidays. Some people, it just feels dark and sad and scary and lonely. Other people, it feels like it's this weird mixture of things.

You know, they're having a lot of joy in their lives right now with some people, but maybe there's someone really important missing. Maybe there's something going on internally. that you feel even though everyone is having a wonderful time around you and even though you may not be voicing it to the people around you, there's something for you internally that feels broken. And if that's the case, I want to reassure you that you are in good company,

that there is a wonderful club of people who are all themselves experiencing their version of a complicated Christmas and they may not be posting it online, and it may even be the people, the very same people who are posting the most positive things online about the day they're having. By assure you, you're a wonderful company. This is an invitation to not feel alone, but instead feel in that company, to feel like, wow, there are so many people in life who must be experiencing their version of this right now. And if that's true, then I get to decide what kind of energy I want to represent in that club of people that are all having their version of a complicated Christmas.

This isn't a message of gratitude of saying, you know, even though you've got it hard right now, look how much you have. And it's not even a message of hope of saying, even though this is where you are right now, think how much better it will be in the future. Some things will be better and some things will never be the same. You know, there will be some aspects of our life that may never change back to the way that we want them or there might be someone you lost in your life that you can't get back. There may be a message of hope in that you'll feel better one day. But life to an extent is always going to be complicated. And rather than live in a place of hope for the future,

one of the things we can do is lean into a radical acceptance of the way things are right now. And that life is the way it is. There is something that in my ideal world would be different. But what I get to do today is I get to decide whether I am going to be the author of magic or a seeker of magic. and seekers of magic wait for things to change. They wait for the conditions of their life to be right before they decide to bring a certain energy.

Authors of magic decide to create magic wherever they are. Without that family member present, without that relationship in their life anymore, or with whatever problems they're facing in their life right now, authors of magic decide to create magic where they are. And there are so many ways to create magic. If we're completely on our own, this Christmas, maybe we use it as a time to create something that brings a little joy into our own lives or to treat ourselves a different way than we were going to treat ourselves today. Instead of beating ourselves up, we are as compassionate as possible

to ourselves today. Or maybe we create magic by giving that compassion to somebody else. Maybe the pain you're in could be an invitation to connect with somebody else who's experiencing a similar pain, but doesn't have the strength you do in being able to reach out. So even though you're experiencing the same pain, you're the person who's got the courage or the strength to actually reach out and connect to make someone's day a little better today. I want you to know that whatever kind of Christmas you're having, whatever kind of holidays you're having, you're not alone. There are people out there who are having the same experience. There are people out there who need your light and need your energy and need your magic

because they're not strong enough to be able to give it to themselves or to find it in life right now. And I hope that instead of wishing for it to be a different way today, you just make a decision to say with whatever situation I'm in right now, what's my own modest little work of art that I could create today? What's my own modest way of injecting magic into my day? I wish you a very Merry Christmas, a beautiful time over the holidays and a happy new year, but this is me just reaching out and making sure that you know,

I see you, and that we'll be all right. And we're going to start the year beautifully next year together. Thank you so much for listening, as always, to the Love Life podcast. I wanted to encourage anyone who needs someone to talk to right now, if you don't have that person in your life, to go and try Matthew AI. It has been an emotional support for so many people this year. And I know that sounds crazy for something that is AI, but it really has been effective for so many people, including friends and family of mine.

So if you haven't tried it yet, go to ask. mh.com and give it a try. And I just wish you a really happy holiday season. Thank you so much for listening to the Love Life podcast this year. It's been a ton of work, but you have made it so worth it in the comments, the emails you have sent the ways that you have supported us, the love that you have shown, not just me, but my team here, you know, David and Harrison and Audrey and Stephen, you know, it's been a beautiful year with you. you all and we're just grateful for anyone who takes the time, your precious, precious time and spends a little bit of it with us. We will see you next year in 2026. I wanted to let you know

that next week we are taking a break from the podcast to get so much needed downtime, but we will be back the week after that for the new year to get going with you. Have an amazing end of your December, everyone. We'll see you soon. Thank you.