Tired of the pressure to reinvent yourself every New Year? You’re not alone AND you’re not doing it wrong.
In this final episode of 2025, Heather Hester offers a powerful shift from the tradition of resolutions to something more meaningful for LGBTQ+ parents, caregivers, and allies: repair. Rather than fix or perfect, you’re invited to reflect, release, and re-enter the next year with clarity, care, and courage.
You’ll discover:
Why repair matters more than resolutions for long-term emotional and relational health
A simple framework for reflecting on what the year took, gave, and taught you
A grounding kindness ritual to close the year gently and truthfully
A myth-busting “unlearn” that challenges the belief that endings must be productive or performative
Whether you're exhausted, grieving, grateful or all three, this episode will give you space to exhale, return to your body, and choose softness as an act of strength.
Reflection Practice:
What did 2025 take from me?
What did it give me?
What act of self-compassion can I offer myself now?
Kindness Ritual:
Choose one gentle thing: light a candle, write to your future self, or speak one sentence of love to your child. Let this act be your offering to the new year.
Unlearn Prompt:
What if the end of the year wasn’t about doing more, but letting go?
Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!
Are you ready to take action? Let's connect and create a personalized plan!
Listen to *NEW* episodes every Tuesday and Friday!
At the heart of my work is a deep commitment to compassion, authenticity, and transformative allyship, especially for those navigating the complexities of parenting LGBTQ kids. Through this podcast, speaking, my writing, and the spaces I create, I help people unlearn bias, embrace their full humanity, and grow their capacity for courageous, compassionate connection.
For parents, allies, and those pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heart-warming stories, real tools, and grounding support to help you move from fear to fierce, informed action.
Whether you’re listening in, working with me directly, or quietly taking it all in, I see you. And I’m so glad you’re part of this journey.
More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast in a heartfelt and empowering space where a mom and advocate offers practical guidance and education to parents and allies, fostering empathy, kindness, love, and strong boundaries while supporting LGBTQ teens and the diverse LGBTQ community—including gay, lesiban, bisexual, trans, transgender, and queer individuals—through conversations about mental health, grief, gender identity, sexual orientation, human rights, social justice, parenting, parent support, and meaningful LGBTQ allyship and allyship in action.
Transcripts
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In today's episode, you'll learn why you shouldn't be writing resolutions this year.
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Welcome to More Human, More Kind, the podcast helping parents of LGBTQ kids move from fear to fierce allyship and feel less alone and more informed so you can protect what matters, raise brave kids, and spark collective change.
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I'm Heather Hester.
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Let's get started.
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As we close out another messy, beautiful, complicated year, let's take a moment and just pause together.
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Today's reflection is about repair.
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Repairing what was lost, what was bruised, what was stretched thin, and learning how to close the year with kindness.
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Not perfection, not pressure, just kindness for yourself, for your family, and for the world you're helping to shape.
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By the end of this reflection, you'll understand what repairing a year really means, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually, and why it matters more than resolutions.
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You'll learn a gentle year end practice that helps you acknowledge what this year took from you and what it gave you.
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And you'll discover a kindness ritual that grounds you, softens you, and helps you close the year with steadiness and wholeness.
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And stick around for the unlearn, where we will challenge the myth that closing the year means doing more.
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So let's get into it.
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Welcome to More Human, More kind.
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I'm Heather Hester.
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We are nearing the end of another year.
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A year that may have stretched you, softened you.
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Maybe it cracked you wide open, or maybe it carried you through more than anyone else even realizes.
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This moment in the calendar can bring a lot of pressure, whether it's to finish strong, to accomplish more, or to reinvent ourselves overnight.
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But today, here, we're doing something different.
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We're choosing repair.
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Kindness instead of critique, Reflection instead of resolution.
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You don't need a new version of yourself right now.
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What you need, I'm guessing, might be space, perhaps truth, maybe even some gentleness.
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So wherever you are, whether it's walking, driving, cooking, hiding in the bathroom for a moment of quiet, I want you to exhale.
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Okay, let's get into it.
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We're taught to think of the end of the year as a checkpoint.
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A moment to measure success or tally accomplishments or even make ambitious resolutions.
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But for so many of us, the year wasn't tidy.
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It wasn't linear, and it wasn't always kind.
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And if we're being really honest with ourselves, the last thing we need is another self improvement plan.
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What we need is repair.
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We need acknowledgement.
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We need a breath.
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Repair is not about fixing what's broken.
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Repair is about tending to what's tender.
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It's Asking, what cost me something this year?
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What in me cracked wide open?
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What healed in ways I didn't expect?
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What wisdom did this year light within me?
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And what patience, grace, or gentleness do I want to carry into the next year?
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Repair is how we close the year, with kindness instead of self critique.
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So this is why repair matters and why kindness is the only way.
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Through neuroscience tells us that our brains deeply need completion rituals, those small, intentional acts that signal safety and closure.
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Without them, our nervous systems stay in a loop of hypervigilance or exhaustion, expecting the next thing, unable to rest.
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According to psychologist Dr. Dan Siegel, naming and integrating our experiences shifts them from being carried in our bodies to being processed in our minds and let go.
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That's why gentle, honest reflection matters.
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And there's something especially important for parents, caregivers, and allies of LGBTQ youth.
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Your capacity for repair is your child's blueprint for resilience.
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When they see you acknowledge your fears, make space for rest, set boundaries, and close chapters with intention, they learn it's safe to do the same.
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This is how kindness becomes generational.
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and ask yourselves, what did:
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Let your body answer before your mind does.
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This is where repair begins.
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Here is a simple grounding reflection that you can use at the end of this year.
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1.
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Name what the year took.
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Write down without judgment, what exhausted you, what stretched you, what you grieved, what you outgrew.
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Naming is Release, and as Dr. Siegel says, name it to tame it.
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One of my very favorite sayings.
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Number two.
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Name what the year gave right.
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What strengthened you, what surprised you.
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Moments you discovered your own courage.
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People who held you, the parts of you that expanded, these become your evidence of resilience.
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Number three.
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Repair the relationship with yourself.
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Offer yourself one sentence of compassion, such as I did the best I could with what I knew.
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I'm allowed to rest now.
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I'm proud of who I'm becoming.
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This is not self indulgence.
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It's self respect.
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Number four.
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Repair with someone else if needed.
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Not by reliving old hurts, old worries, but by softening your narrative.
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Write down a truth you wish you had said or a boundary you now understand you needed, or maybe a release you're finally ready for.
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Repair doesn't require reconciliation.
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It requires honesty.
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Number five.
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Create your kindness ritual.
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Choose a simple act to close the year.
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It might be lighting a candle for what you're releasing, Writing a letter to your future self?
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Maybe it's going for a walk with no phone, or giving your child one sentence of love that they'll remember.
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Kindness rituals are how we anchor hope.
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Number six choose one word or phrase for next year.
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Not an aspiration.
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Not a resolution.
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A feeling.
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Some examples of this might be study.
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Breathe.
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Soft.
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Curious.
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Rooted.
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Open.
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Strong.
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This word becomes your compass.
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We'll get to the rest of the episode in a moment, but if you like the show, please make sure to subscribe.
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Leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube and share with your friends.
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So there was a year not long ago when I reached December, feeling absolutely just completely depleted.
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My soul just felt shredded and turned inside out.
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And I remember sitting alone with my journal trying to write resolutions and goals for the coming year until I finally closed the notebook in frustration.
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What I realized in that moment was that I didn't need resolutions.
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I needed rest.
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I needed a moment.
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I needed acknowledgment.
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I needed to say that was a lot.
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So instead I wrote one sentence both for and to myself.
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Thank you for surviving.
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It wasn't poetic, it wasn't profound, but it was true.
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And for the first time that year, I felt a moment of peace.
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I realized repair wasn't about rewriting my story.
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It was about releasing my grip on it.
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indness moment for the end of:
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Place your hand over your heart and say out loud, I deserve gentleness.
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I am worthy of gentleness.
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And then offer one act of gentleness to yourself today.
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Maybe it's a nap.
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Maybe it's hot tea or a big mug of hot chocolate.
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Maybe it's an early bedtime.
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Maybe it's saying no without an apology.
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Or maybe it's allowing yourself to to feel proud for surviving something difficult.
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Gentleness is how we begin again.
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Today's Unlearn is about releasing the myth that endings require productivity, performance, or reinvention.
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We're told finish strong, but I think we misunderstand the many possible meanings of strength.
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This is a moment to consider what it means to you.
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What if the end of the year wasn't about doing more, but about letting go?
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What if kindness was the only resolution you needed this week?
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Choose one thing to release.
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Maybe it's a belief, a pressure, a comparison, a resentment.
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Let it be your offering to the new Year.
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When we unlearn the myth of doing, we remember the truth of being and being human.
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Being kind is enough.
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Thank you for walking through this year with me for every listen, every message, every breath we've taken together.
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It has really been an honor to walk beside you throughout this entire year because it has not been an easy one.
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tep into these final hours of:
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It's about releasing your grip on it.
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It's about honoring what was hard, celebrating what was true, and letting gentleness be the bridge into whatever comes next.
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You are allowed to rest.
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You are allowed to soften.
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You are allowed to begin again in your own time.
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More Human, More Kind will return on January 6th with new conversations and deeper reflections on renewal.
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And if you're ready to release fear, shame or patterns that keep you from stepping into your fullest self, I'm accepting a few private clients right now.
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You can learn more@morehumanmorekind.com until then, be soft with yourself.
