Holidays and Brain Health: Tips for Handling Stress

For many of us Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season.  It’s a wonderful time of year.  Family and friends gather to share a meal and laughter.  People connect with loved ones they haven’t seen in a while.

But along with all the best parts of the holidays, there is another side–one that may be affecting your brain health. Stress is ever-present for many people throughout the holiday season. We have come to accept holiday stress as normal, to the detriment of our wellness.
The good news is that there are many things we can do to deactivate the body’s stress response.

First, let’s look at where holiday stress most often comes from:

1. Mental stress: This time of year has a lot of planning and preparation and that can drain our mental capacity quickly.  Long before the holiday season we begin thinking about travel, schedules, planning meals, planning parties and shopping in crowds.  We spend many weeks making and executing plans, sometimes exhausting our mental resources long before we’re done.
2. Emotional stress: Sometimes during the holidays we spend a lot of time with family members and friends we may not have the healthiest relationships with. Losses experienced during the year can feel heavier during the holidays. We want to feel gratitude for the good in our lives but sometimes become powerfully aware of what’s missing.
3. Physical stress: The busy nature of the season often results in a decrease in self care. We’re less likely to rest well and to get adequate exercise and good nutrition. Running on comfort foods, sugar, alcohol, and reduced sleep, our bodies become tired and depleted easily.

Culturally, we look at these times of intense stress as just part of life. We smile and bear it, planning to make up for it when life slows down. But science paints a different picture—prolonged stress changes our brains, in ways that range from impairing our short-term memory to an increased likelihood of mental health disturbances. Chronic stress does damage to the brain that can’t always be undone. It is important that we learn to manage our stress. Prevention is always the best medicine!

Here are six ways you can counteract stress and support your brain health this holiday season:

1. Breathe: The holidays are a great time to intentionally make space for a meditation practice. Even if it’s only five minutes a day, retreat to a quiet place and breathe. If your brain won’t slow down, give it something else to focus on by using this simple box breathing technique:

   Visualize a square, and imagine your breath moving like a dot along its edges. Starting at the top right  corner, breathe in for four counts as the dot travels across the top of the square. Hold for four counts as the dot travels down the right side. Breathe out as it moves along the bottom edge of the square and hold for four counts as the dot travels back up the left side.

2. Journal: It can be helpful to verbally process your feelings during the holiday season.  Pay attention to your emotions and make note of them. This practice can involve writing full pages. It can also be as simple as creating a bullet-point list of things that have happened and a brief description of how you felt about them.
3. Move: You don’t have to carve out time to go to the gym every day in order to receive the benefits of movement. Bundle up and go for a brisk walk. Dance in your living room or kitchen while cooking. Jump rope in the garage. There are endless ways to be physically active.  Get creative and make time to get your blood moving.
4. Hydrate: For every alcoholic or caffeinated beverage you consume, drink a glass of water or a mug of herbal tea. Our bodies need to be properly hydrated in order to function properly.  In a season full of dehydrating foods and beverages, a little intentional hydration goes a long way.
5. Sleep: Making sleep a priority is key. Our bodies and brains repair themselves during our sleep cycles. When the quality or quantity of our sleep is poor, we miss out on the restoration process. We are less focused, less resilient, and we have fewer internal resources for managing stress and anxiety.
6. BrainTap:  BrainTap is a highly effective stress management tool you can easily utilize this holiday season.  In a short 20 minutes a day you can reduce the stress load on your brain and body and mentally prepare yourself for the rigors of the holiday season. We recommend checking out our Healthy Eating During the Holidays session in the Weight Wellness Bundle or  Developing Spontaneous Relaxation session in the Stress-Free Me Bundle.

Our hope is always to provide you with more resources for managing holiday stress and supporting your brain health in the coming year; to take a look at the ways BrainTap can help, click here!