The hol­i­days can be won­der­ful and ter­ri­ble all at the same time. There is so much fun and good in the sea­son, but we know how stress­ful sit­u­a­tions can really bring out the Grinch at times.

For­tu­nately, there are many tech­niques that help restore peace and good­will to all.

Here are a few strate­gies to try:

• This 10-minute spa shower tech­nique for stress reduc­tion was pub­lished in the The Sev­enth Healthy & Fit Fam­ily Car­ni­val. It was writ­ten for a busy mom, but you can apply it to a busy per­son in gen­eral. If you’re feel­ing over­whelmed, find a way to take 10 min­utes just to let go, regroup, and revive. You’ll have more energy and focus to tackle the prob­lem when you come back.

• Drink more water. It is such a good thing to do for many rea­sons and is essen­tial to keep your body work­ing well, but it’s so easy to for­get! Fill up before each hol­i­day party by drink­ing plenty of water and bal­ance each cock­tail with a glass of water (or two). You’ll save your­self extra pounds and headaches.

• Another easy to learn stress reduc­tion tech­nique is deep diaphrag­mic breath­ing. In a nut­shell, when you’re anx­ious, your breath­ing becomes short and shal­low which, through a chain reac­tion, increases your anx­i­ety. Not good! For­tu­nately, “when we are able to fully expand our lungs when we breathe, we are able to insti­gate a chain reac­tion of events within us that lead to calmer and more relaxed states of being. We can con­trol our reac­tion to stress and in effect keep our­selves healthier.”

• When things get to be too much, grab a friend and go for a walk. Recon­nect­ing with a friend or fam­ily mem­ber can be very calm­ing. Addi­tion­ally, the exer­cise is great for your brain, your body, and your stress. If you need some alone time, try to walk to your errands or grab a dog (yours, the neighbor’s, your friend’s) and just enjoy being out­side and mov­ing your body.

• Com­mit to enjoy­ing the hol­i­days and not let­ting lit­tle things get to you. Per Abra­ham Lin­coln, “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Laugh more. If some­thing is start­ing to annoy you, try to find a way to be amused by it instead.

If you are look­ing for health tips for that impor­tant part of your body, your brain…, you may enjoy our Brain Fit­ness Novem­ber Monthly Digest, a col­lec­tion of arti­cles and links includ­ing news, resources, brain teasers, and more.

Also, for a lim­ited time, you can receive a com­pli­men­tary copy of our Brain Fit­ness 101 e-Guide: Answers to your Top 25 Ques­tions, writ­ten by Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg and Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, by sub­scrib­ing to our monthly newslet­ter. You can sub­scribe Here.

Enjoy the holidays,

Car­o­line

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