Published December 25, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

The holidays have a way of softening the edges of time. Even when everything feels busy, there’s an undercurrent of reflection that shows up quietly—usually when the noise dies down and we’re finally left alone with our thoughts. It’s the one part of the year that almost asks us to pause. To look back. To take inventory of what this year asked of us, and what it gave in return.

For me, this season has carried a deeper kind of gratitude. Not the loud kind. Not the performative kind. The quieter kind that settles in when you realize something meaningful has taken shape—something you couldn’t have fully predicted when it began.

Collectors MD started as a question more than an answer. A recognition that something in the hobby had shifted, and that many people were navigating that shift in isolation. What followed over the past year wasn’t growth for growth’s sake. It was connection. Conversations that were overdue. Stories people had been holding onto for years. Moments of honesty that reminded me how many collectors were searching for language, support, or simply reassurance that they weren’t alone.

That’s what I find myself most grateful for this holiday season. Not milestones. Not metrics. But the people who showed up with openness. The ones who trusted this space before it had a name. The ones who spoke up when it would have been easier to stay silent.

This season has become a quiet reminder of what matters most: gratitude for the community that formed, growth in the way we’ve learned to engage more intentionally, and reflection that asks us not just to consume—but to consider.

What’s emerged over the last year is bigger than any single post, meeting, or moment. It’s a growing awareness that collecting can be joyful and meaningful without becoming overwhelming or harmful. That we can love our hobbies deeply while still questioning the systems around them. That reflection isn’t weakness—it’s responsibility.

The holidays naturally invite us to look back, but they also ask something quieter of us: to recognize what we’ve learned. To acknowledge the ways we’ve changed. To appreciate the communities that held us when things felt heavy. And to carry that awareness forward with intention.

Collectors MD is becoming something shaped by all of that. A space rooted in honesty. In care. In the belief that progress doesn’t come from perfection, but from people willing to pause, reflect, and choose differently when it matters most.

As this year comes to a close, I’m deeply grateful—for the trust, the conversations, the courage, and the reminder that this work matters because people matter. And that together, we’re building something that extends far beyond ourselves.

#CollectorsMD
Gratitude is what allows reflection to become growth—and growth to become something lasting.

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Published December 17, 2025 | By Dayae Kim, LMFT, Collectors MD Referral Network

I say this every year, but I can’t believe another year is coming to an end. Every year holds so much, and yet time feels both fast and blurry. Time can feel strange—the last few months of the year feel clear, but the beginning of the year often feels like a haze. I’ve noticed this same sentiment come up again and again with many of the people I work with.

Recently, I had a session with someone who had been going through a particularly difficult season. When I asked him to reflect on his year, he could only remember the difficulties—the setbacks, the stress, the moments that felt out of his control. His mind, like all of ours when we’re overwhelmed, focused almost exclusively on the pain.

What many people don’t realize is that our brains are wired with a negativity bias. When we’re stressed, anxious, or depressed, our memory becomes selective. It clings to what felt threatening or painful and quietly discards anything that felt neutral or even positive at the time.

Instead of asking him to reflect on the year, we slowed things down. We went month by month. We looked through photos, calendar events, notes, texts, emails, and old conversations—small anchors that reminded him life was still happening, even in the middle of hardship. And through that process, something shifted.

He began to remember not just what went wrong, but what went right. Not just the hard moments, but the meaningful ones. Not just the stress, but the strength it took to keep going.

It was a reminder—for both of us—that negativity bias doesn’t just shape how we feel in the present. It shapes how we remember the past. And when we don’t slow down and look carefully, we risk forgetting our own progress, resilience, and growth.

This is often the moment when pause becomes possible—when we stop rushing forward long enough to actually notice what we’ve carried and what we’ve survived.

As the year comes to a close, I want to invite you to try a different kind of reflection—one that isn’t about judging your productivity or measuring your worth.

Instead, try reflecting through the lens of compassion.

What surprised you?
What softened you?
What challenged you in a way that helped you grow?
What did you learn about your needs, your capacity, and your relationships?
What did you let go of?
What have you been carrying that you may finally be ready to set down?

If it helps, go month by month. Let photos, messages, and memories remind you of moments that didn’t feel important at the time—but mattered more than you realized.

This applies to collecting, too. Many collectors look back on a year and only remember the losses, the money spent, the cards they wish they hadn’t chased, or the moments they felt out of control. Negativity bias can make an entire year feel like a failure when it wasn’t. When we slow down, we often see something different: moments of restraint, lessons learned, connections made, boundaries tested, and growth that didn’t feel dramatic—but was real.

Let this reflection be a gentle reminder that your story is bigger than any one purchase, any one mistake, any one month, or any one season. Growth doesn’t always announce itself loudly. Sometimes it shows up quietly, in the pauses you didn’t used to take and the choices you didn’t used to see.
If you’re ready to enter the new year with more grounding, insight, and emotional balance, you're always welcome to schedule a consultation with me.
#CollectorsMD
Compassion changes the way we remember—and remembering differently changes the way we move forward.

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