Clearing the (Mental) Clutter

How to experience less noise and more inspiration this season.

A sunrise walk in Summerland, CA earlier this month

A few nights ago, I headed upstairs for the kids’ bedtime routine. If I’m being honest, sometimes it feels like a long to-do list at the most exhausting part of the day. Lately, I’ve done an abbreviated version of bedtime more times than I’d care to admit.

But on this particular night, I didn’t feel like rushing through it. Instead, I crawled into Phoebe’s bed and had “talk time.” She filled me in on the latest about her teachers, who was “dating” who, thoughts on her first finals week, and various other 12-year-old dramas. As she talked, I realized how much I’d been missing these quiet, soul-nourishing moments amid the last month’s frantic pace.

Sometimes, it feels like there’s an inner battle happening between two sides of me. There’s the driven, Type A, entrepreneurial “me” who sets big goals and goes after them. She’s the Enneagram 3, always dreaming up new projects and secretly thriving in the hustle.

And then… there’s the other “me”—the one who wants to experience life slowly and softly. Who tends her vegetable garden, bakes bread, and savors conversations with friends over coffee. She takes time to savor the moments and knows there’s so much more to life than achievement.

I think many of us feel this dichotomy. You might call it our masculine and feminine energies, two forces we tap into depending on what life asks of us. Lately, my own life has required more of the hard-driving side. It’s been a year of massive change in the digital media industry, plus juggling an e-comm startup, launching our magazine, and wanting to show up each day as the mother I want to be—I’ve had to be on my A-game to keep the plates spinning.

And it explains why I’ve been feeling an internal pull towards rest in the weeks ahead. Not as an escape, but as a way to nurture the soil where new ideas and creativity can grow. It’s less about “taking a break” than about creating space for what matters. Sometimes when we do less, we actually achieve more. It’s about tending the earth, planting the seeds, and trusting that something beautiful will grow in the new year.

To help with this shift, I asked our managing editor, Isabelle Eyman, to share her wisdom on clearing mental clutter when life feels like too much. I hope her insights inspire you to cultivate the mental clarity needed to close out the year—and prepare for a new one—with intention.

Before we dive in, a couple things I wanted to share:

🍽️ The most crowd-pleasing dessert on the planet: Our holiday party was a big success (ICYMI the menu was almost completely make-ahead) and I was reminded how perfect these One-Bowl Brownies are for literally every occasion. I made two double batches and served them warm with vanilla bean ice cream. You can even stir some crushed peppermints into the batter to make them really festive this week. No matter how many you make, they’ll all be devoured.

📚What I’m reading over the holidays: Thanks to all your recos after I shared the best books I read this year, I have a great lineup to tackle next. First up: Solito, a memoir of a 9-year-old boy’s migration from El Salvador to the US. I also just ordered The Pathless Path, and it feels like a really great book for the lead-up to the new year.

The Make-Ahead Holiday Menu That Never Lets Me Down

The Best Books I Read This Year