Natural Ways to Combat Holiday Stress

For most of us, the holidays are an extremely stressful time. We are expected to continue with our work and everyday activities, but we are also faced with the burden of planning parties and get-togethers, visiting friends and family, purchasing gifts in crowded shopping malls, preparing 8 course meals for large gatherings, and preparing our homes for overnight guests. Our checkbook becomes strained, our credit card balances steadily grow, and our patience runs thin.

In addition to this, according to The Cleveland Clinic, between 4 and 6 percent of the U.S. population suffer from a form of seasonal disorder, or SAD (seasonal affective disorder), and approximately 10 to 20 percent of the U.S. population suffer from a form of the winter blues.

The temperature drops, the days become shorter and the nights become longer. Flowers die, leaves fall from the trees, snow covers the ground. Everything around us hibernates.

Our entire lives become a rat race. We find ourselves rushing to the supermarket, only to find that they are out of milk. We fight traffic on our way from store to store to find the latest and greatest toy. Our finances become strained with all the extra purchases. We are forced to plan meals around others taste. Your nephew is allergic to eggs, your friend's daughter will not eat carrots, there are lumps in dad's favorite gravy and your brother is a diabetic. Small, everyday things begin to wear on our nerves and try our patience. We slowly feel the stressors of everyday life weighing heavily upon our shoulders. We become stressed, anxious, and depressed.

As we allow stress to affect our lives, it begins to take its toll on the body. Our immune system becomes weak and we are more susceptible to illness. We begin to experience headaches, muscle aches, fatigue, insomnia, irritability and trouble concentrating.

If the proper steps are taken, we can change the way that we react to holiday stress, make our bodies healthier and our holidays much more enjoyable.

How to combat stress

We have all been witness to the endless parade of commercials, articles, advertisements and magazines claiming to possess the latest and greatest product for "all natural" stress relief. We have seen the overwhelmingly endless mountain of products filling our store shelves, all containing the best products for anxiety and depression.

The simple fact is that you do not have to deplete your bank account and spend countless hours to maintain proper mental health. For most of us, integrating a few simple steps into our daily lives can help us to be more alert, focused, upbeat, and cheerful, thus combating anxiety and depression.

The most commonly used and effective ways to beat holiday stress are very quite simple. Vitamins, exercise, proper diet, yoga, color and light therapy, aromatherapy, meditation, and positive thinking are just a few all-natural, small ways that we can improve our mental health in the privacy of our own homes.

For starters, it is very important to take a daily multi-vitamin containing a vitamin B complex. Multi-vitamins provide our bodies with the nutrients needed to keep our immune system strong and our bodies healthy. Vitamin B complex increases our metabolism, helps us to maintain healthy skin and muscle tone, enhances our immune and nervous system function, and promotes cell growth. Together, this has been proven to combat forms of depression, anxiety and tension.

Exercise is another great way to combat stress. Exercise allows our bodies to physically release built up tension, raises our production of endorphins ("feel good" chemicals), helps us to sleep better, relaxes our muscles, combats fatigue, and makes us feel good about ourselves. Exercise is an excellent way to keep our mind and body strong. Walking, jogging and aerobics are among the top forms of exercise used to combat stress.

Proper diet is essential for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. We've all heard the expression "you are what you eat". Eating high fat, high sodium, high sugar foods work against our body, not with it. They clog our arteries, raise our blood pressure, and increase our heart rate. They leave us feeling sluggish, fatigued, bloated, irritable and restless. Unhealthy foods affect our brain chemistry causing us to feel sad or depressed. The more that we eat, the worse that we feel, hence, the worse we feel, the more that we eat.

Many of us get caught up within this mood-food cycle, which controls our mind and body, leaving us with a feeling of helplessness. By simply changing your eating pattern, you cannot only experience better health, but also enjoy a better attitude. Eating foods that are high in vitamins and minerals and low in fats, sodium and sugar can provide us with more energy, vitality, focus, concentration, and leave us with a feeling of being uplifted.

Yoga, which focuses on body poses, and the breath, is an excellent way to combat stress, tension and fatigue. Yoga trains us to build up a natural response to stress, while becoming more relaxed in our everyday life. Yoga increases body awareness, relaxes the muscles in the body, improves flexibility, improves joint mobility, sharpens concentration, and strengthens the muscles. There are many forms of yoga with varying degrees of difficulty. Yoga can be practiced in a center, or in the privacy of your own home.

Light and color therapy are increasingly becoming more popular to combat stress and anxiety. Light and color therapy can cleanse and strengthen the aura and restore our bodies back to health. An excellent example of this is when a parent places their baby in the sunlight to treat jaundice. It is important to get at least one full hour of sun or light (non-florescent) exposure every day in order to maintain proper health.

We have all experience the powerful, mood enhancing effects of color and sunlight exposure. Being outdoors in the sun gives us a feeling of being calm, relaxed, peaceful and free. In addition to light, the colors that surround us play powerful roles in our overall well being.

According to the Dinshah Health Society, chromotherapy (color therapy) can treat over 325 health problems. Using color in our everyday lives can boost our mood, help us to maintain a positive attitude, and maintain a state of calmness.

In relation to our mood, the color red has been proven to increase vitality and creativity. Too much red can cause irritability, agitation, and aggression. The color orange has a cheerful, warming effect and helps us to become more at ease during stressful situations. It is an excellent color to use when uplifting the spirits and combating depression. The color yellow stimulates the mind and has a cheering effect. Green is commonly used for creating a sense of balance and harmony. It can calm the nerves and create a serene atmosphere. Blue is another serene color. It has a calming and relaxing effect. However, too much blue can actually add to feelings of depression and induce sadness. Indigo instills calmness, courage and authority. Finally, the color violet is extremely useful for people who are emotionally agitated.

By surrounding ourselves with the appropriate color through our dress and decor, and getting enough sunlight, we can successfully increase our mood and combat feelings of stress, anxiety and depression.

Using aromatherapy, or scent is another highly effective way of combating holiday stress. Certain scents can actually increase our production of serotonin, causing us to feel happy, uplifted and calm. Aromatherapy is the use of nature's essential oils from plants to promote a health lifestyle. Each plant's natural essence has its own unique aroma and beneficial characteristic used for treating both mental and physical ailments. The most common aromatic scents used in combating depression and anxiety is chamomile, jasmine, lavender, neroli, vetiver, and clary sage.

Such scents can be used in candles, warm baths (for relaxation), diffusers (for inhalation), lotions, and massage oils (for skin absorption) to refresh and lighten any mood.

Meditation is a practice involving the breath that can dramatically reduce your overall level of stress. You do not have to be religious or possess special powers in order to benefit from meditation. We should all take 10 minutes from our day everyday to meditate.

Meditation involves sitting comfortably in a quiet space while focusing on the breath. Concentrate on the feeling of each and every breath entering and leaving your body. Focus so intently on your breath that you completely abandon all other thoughts, feelings and worries of the day.

The more that you practice meditation, the easier it will be to push any negative thoughts or worries from your mind. You will begin to learn how to mentally remove yourself from stressful situations, problems or thoughts that may distract you or inhibit your ability to relax. Meditation increases focus, concentration, relaxation and mood. Meditation leaves us feeling rested, relaxed and alert. Meditation is something that we should all practice for ourselves and for our overall health and well-being.

Positive thinking, although it may sound kind-of silly, can raise our spirits, increase our mood, and help us to feel more cheerful. By repeating certain affirmations, or positive thoughts, one can remain positive and upbeat. For example, repeating a personal affirmation or strand of thoughts to yourself can not only help you to believe the thought, but actually make it come true.

It is psychological fact that negative thoughts can produce negative emotions, resulting in short tempers, anger, depression, anxiety, worrying, and feelings of restlessness. By pushing these thoughts from our head we can handle situations more easily, feel more at ease, and deal with stress in a positive manner.

In conclusion, holiday stress is something that most all of us experience. Work, families, household duties, shopping, finances, crowds, planning, parties and guests can leave us feeling irritable, tired, restless and anxious. While we cannot avoid such stressful situations, we can take simple steps to maintain proper health through vitamins, exercise, proper diet, yoga, color and light therapy, aromatherapy, meditation, and positive thinking. By changing the way that we deal with stress, we can greet the holiday season feeling calm, relaxed, uplifted and able to deal with anything unexpected or stressful that may come our way.

Resources:
The Cleveland Clinic. "What is Seasonal Depression?" [Online] 2, November 2007. .

Worwood, Valerie Ann. The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy. CA: New World Library, 1991.

Dinshah, Darius. Let There Be Light. NJ: Dinshah Health Society, 2005