Key Points

• Most people say their stress increases during the holidays, but few have a plan in place to handle added stress.
• The trick to managing holiday stress is being intentional about your self-care and prioritizing healthy habits, like good sleep hygiene. 
• Chiropractic care can be an integral part of stress management over the holidays, along with boosting the immune system and supporting the body pre– and post-travel.  

Love the holiday season but wish it wasn’t quite so stressful? You’re certainly not alone. In an article from the American Psychological Association published last year, 89% of survey respondents said that something causes them stress during the holiday season, such as financial concerns, finding the right gifts, or missing family and loved ones. 

So it’s worth asking: how can we reframe holiday stress to be able to handle it better this year? Perhaps knowing your stress will increase during the holiday season is an opportunity to practice self-care and put safeguards in place to keep your nervous system in check. Let’s take a closer look at holiday stress and how we can support our physical and mental health through the rest of 2024. (Chiropractic care included, of course!)

Why Does Stress Increase During the Holidays?

Many people are aware that their stress increases during the holiday season, but they often haven’t thought about why or how to take steps to reduce their stress. Here are a few key but often overlooked reasons: 

• Added responsibilities: Whether it’s parents who want to make the holidays special for their children, hosting family and other events, or taking on cooking responsibilities for a crowd, many people find themselves with a lot more on their plate than usual during the holidays. 
• Financial stress: The average family spends anywhere between $500 and $1,000 on Christmas presents, food, decorations, and travel. If you haven’t saved ahead of time, this can certainly add mental and emotional stress to the holiday season. 
• Heightened emotions: For many, the holiday season brings up past grief and other complicated emotions around family and personal trauma. Taking time and space to process these emotions is important to lower stress. 
• Social stress: As much as we enjoy spending time with family and friends during the holidays, social gatherings can add stress to our lives too.

Prepare for Higher Stress Levels Ahead of Time

Despite knowing the holidays are a stressful time, it doesn’t always come naturally to us to prepare our bodies and minds for the increased load. But this is absolutely possible, and preparing physically and mentally for the season ahead can help us come out on the other side feeling more centered, happy, and healthy. 

Start thinking now about how you can make the season easier on yourself. Are there any responsibilities you can delegate to family members? Can you plan and batch prepare meals ahead of time and freeze portions for busy weeknights? Can you intentionally schedule time for yourself to relax and practice self-care? It doesn’t have to be complicated, but the point is to disconnect and take time away from your busy schedule. 

Still not sure what stress relief practices work for you? Let’s move on to some concrete tips for relieving stress during the holidays.

5 Tips for Holiday Stress Relief

When going through a stressful season, it helps to have a bank of stress relief practices and ideas to turn to. Here’s a short list to get you started. 

1. Keep up with chiropractic care
2. Exercise for stress management
3. Nature and grounding
4. Prioritize sleep
5. Focus on quality connection time
   

1. Keep Up with Chiropractic Care

We might be a little biased, but regular chiropractic care is an excellent way to support your nervous system and immune system through the holiday season and beyond. Chiropractic adjustment realigns the body to relieve stress, supports a healthy immune system, and recalibrates the nervous system to help you navigate a busy season. 

At minimum, we recommend sticking to your doctor prescribed chiropractic treatment schedule to keep up with the benefits during this time, but you may want to add an extra appointment pre– or post-travel to make sure you stay in tip top condition. 

2. Exercise for Stress Management

Regular movement is one of the best stress relief tools we have, supporting both our physical and mental health. Exercise has been shown to release feel-good chemicals like endorphins in the brain and gut, as well as lower adrenaline and cortisol, hormones which make us feel more stressed. 

If you don’t already have a regular exercise routine, consider incorporating regular workouts into your schedule. Think of it as both physical and mental hygiene to help you stay healthy this holiday season. And remember, it doesn’t have to be as intense as HIIT workouts or Crossfit. It can be as simple as going for walks, or doing a dance workout in your living room, or lifting light dumbbells. A good frequency to aim for is 30 minutes, 3 times a week to achieve stress-relieving benefits. 

3. Nature and Grounding

Another way to relieve stress is to make sure to get outside in nature as much as possible, including grounding to the earth. Grounding is the practice of walking or standing with your bare feet on the ground to receive negative ions from the Earth. These ions help regulate your entire body, including lowering inflammation, reducing cortisol levels, and supporting your body on a cellular level. 

You can also bring the Earth to you by adding more plants throughout your home, which help to purify the air and provide a sense of natural calm. Salt lamps are also great for air purification and setting a relaxing mood in the evenings.

4. Prioritize Sleep

One thing that often gets pushed to the wayside during the holidays is good sleep habits, but it is so important to prioritize your sleep to stay healthy during times of stress. Do your best to stick to a relaxing nighttime routine that sets you up for good quality sleep, like turning screens off at least an hour before bed, doing something relaxing such as reading or taking a bath, and maybe even jotting down your top 3 priorities for the next day so that you can give your mind a break and rest easy. 

Another great way to make sure you’re getting good sleep is exposing your eyes to natural sunlight during the day for at least 15-20 minutes. Doing this helps set your circadian rhythm and helps your body wind down at night when it’s time to go to sleep.

5. Focus on Quality Connection Time

When you are spending time with family and friends over the holidays, do your best to remain present and lean into connection with loved ones. We don’t often think about it, but genuine human connection is extremely important for our mental and physical health. Social connection to others lowers cortisol levels in the body and boosts happy hormones like serotonin and oxytocin. Giving and receiving hugs, especially hugs longer than six seconds, can have measurable positive effects on our mood and immune system. So go for those hugs as much as you can! 

You Have the Tools to Manage Holiday Stress

The holidays bring an undeniable increase in stress for almost all of us, especially those of us who are responsible for others’ wellbeing — including parents, caregivers, and hosts — so we have to be intentional about relieving stress during the holiday season. By taking care of ourselves and setting aside time and resources for our wellbeing, we can make sure the holiday season is one of joy and connection rather than busyness and stress. 

Want to make sure you get your chiropractic care scheduled through the rest of the year?

Call us anytime and speak to a real human! We’re happy to help. 

References

American Psychological Association. Even a joyous holiday season can cause stress for most Americans. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2023/11/holiday-season-stress

American Heart Association. New Survey: 79% of survey respondents overlook their health needs during the holidays; find the holidays more stressful than tax season. Accessed. November 6, 2024. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/new-survey-79-of-survey-respondents-overlook-their-health-needs-during-the-holidays-find-the-holidays-more-stressful-than-tax-season

Psychology Today. 4 Significant Physical Benefits of Hugging. Accessed November 11, 2024. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/close-communication/202205/4-significant-physical-benefits-of-huggingwww.acatoday.org/about/history-of-chiropractic/