If you’re troubled by your situation, it’s OK to honor your feelings and keep the celebrations low-key or sit this holiday season out, experts say. This could be the holiday season in which you feel empowered to create new meaningful experiences with friends or the VIP in your life who is always there for you — yourself. Here’s how to figure out what’s best for you this holiday season. Silver encourages single people to “stop viewing your holiday season as a consolation prize.”Your holiday season isn’t insignificant, said Silver, who has been single for 17 years. Regardless of what you do, Silver said she hopes you have as happy a holiday as anyone else — and urges you to choose the holiday season plans that you have the emotional bandwidth to handle.

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Persons: “, ”, Shani Silver, podcaster, Norman Rockwell, Ayanna Abrams, you’re “, Abrams, Adam Brown, Silver, Brown, you’ve, gifting, intangibles, can’t, ” Abrams Organizations: CNN, The New School for Social Research Locations: New Orleans, Atlanta, New York