As joyful and festive as the holidays are supposed to be, they can sometimes bring a lot of additional stress. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s or anything in between, there can be added emotional, physical, mental, financial pressure that can take a toll on your holiday spirit. Let’s talk about our 5 ways for how to destress the holidays so you can enjoy and relax!

1. Don’t Neglect Self Care

We know. With the holidays comes additional events, gatherings, and obligations than your traditional schedule. Work can also become busier with end-of-the-year projects. Or trying to wrap everything up before holiday and vacations.

It can seem like a simple solution to cancel or reschedule time allotted to self-care routines to make time for the extra events. However, it’s SO important to continue to make time for the things that you know make you feel best. This can be anything from making time to work out, getting your hair or nails done, daily meditation, attending your chiropractic appointment or taking a nice long bubble bath!

If it helps, print out a simple schedule for the week or month and write down everything you have to do. That way you can visually see where you can fit in time for your self-care routines that will help you stay stress-free this holiday season.

2. Get Movement In

On top of busier schedules, we know it can be harder to go for walks and runs when the weather gets cold. So let’s get creative! We love bundling up and go for a walk in the fresh air. Sometimes no matter how cold it is, you just need a bit of air and sunshine. You can also watch your favorite holiday movie or listen to a podcast on the treadmill. It’s easy to find a simple yoga video on YouTube that you can do inside. Or, try a new fun workout class you’ve been eyeing if you have time off. Your body will feel so much better if you get in a few minutes of simple movement in each day.

3. Eat a Balanced Diet

One of the best parts of the holidays is all the yummy food and special treats! We 100% support indulging in all the fun treats, especially the ones that are nostalgic and special to you. One of our favorite ways to destress during the holidays is to bake fun treats that fill our tummies and souls with the holiday spirit.

So yes, enjoy the treats! But one way to reduce stress during the holidays is try to balance all the fun foods with healthy, nutritious foods. We love choosing meals that are packed with vitamins, minerals and fiber that properly fuel our bodies for the busy season! There’s nothing worse than having a busy weekend of holidays gatherings ahead, and feeling yucky and lethargic from just a few too many holiday cookies! When it comes to nutrition for the holidays, we’re all about balance to feel out best for the season.

4. Set Personal Boundaries that Protect Your Mental Health

With the holidays comes LOTS of traditions. Many of those traditions you have been participating in since you were a child and didn’t have choice. Well guess what? You get to decide now how and who you spend your holidays with!

Personal boundaries are important. They help to protect your mental health. They can reduce the stress and anxiety you might feel going into an uncomfortable situation. We recommend sitting down a couple days or weeks before the holidays and deciding what is healthy for you to do and who is beneficial for you to see.

If you feel like certain activities or people are dangerous to your mental health, set a boundary. If you’re nervous about what to say, we’ve found something like works, “I’ve made some decisions this year to protect my mental health so I won’t be able to attend. Thank you for respecting my boundaries! I hope you have a wonderful holiday.”

5. Choose Things and Events that Serve You

As we’ve mentioned, the holidays can be full of festive times, traditions and fun activities. We encourage you to find that ones that bring you joy. Try to implement them throughout the season to help destress. Some of our team’s favorite ways to destress during the holidays include:

• Drinking hot cocoa by the fire

• Meditating to instrumental holiday music

• Watching your favorite holiday movies that you know bring you joy

• Working on a holiday puzzle

• Burning holiday scented candles like gingerbread or pine trees

• Listening to your favorite holiday audiobooks

• Baking traditional and new treats

• Getting cozy on the couch with the tree lights lit’

• Meeting up with friends or family to look at holiday lights and decorations

Even though it’s a busy season, it’s a fun time to add in things that can make this time of year extra special! Some will be old traditions you’ve participated in for years. Others can be new things that excite you to try!

The best way to reduce stress during the holidays is prioritize things that bring YOU joy. Find activities and events that serve you in a positive way! This can look different for every one or even look different for you year-to-year. A de-stressed holiday can be a busy schedule full of food, friends and festivities or it can be a low-key season with lots of time spent relaxing at home.

Get Treated at Kaizo Health  

Our goal at Kaizo Health is to always get you back to feeling 100%. Our doctors provide treatment to help you be pain-free. We also have a dedicated team that will work with you and your insurance. We want to make sure you get the most from your benefits. You should experience relief for as little cost to you as possible. If you are ready to experience relief from the pain, make an appointment to see us now.       

Kaizo Health offers locations in Rockville, MD; Landover, MD; Fort Washington, MD; and Fairfax, VA. Our doctors an evidence-based approach by combining chiropractic care and individualized rehabilitative exercises. We provide the treatment and resources you need to recover your health. We are here to help! If you’d like more information, check out our blog. You can also take our free virtual self-assessment on app here.