Managing the Stress of the Holiday Season

Are you already feeling the stress and added pressure of the holiday season? Recent stats share that 8/10 people feel increase in stress over the holidays, and 28% lose sleep around the holidays. With current world events on top of economical issues the stress is feeling heavier on many. With elevated stress it is important to bump up the coping and tools to manage, so you can navigate the ups and downs of the holiday time with more ease.  Here I share five tips to consider.

1. Check-in with Your Stress. This is a practice of awareness, and builds on your understanding and knowledge of how stress shows up in your mind and body. There are many ways for you to check-in with your stress including various ways of pausing and tuning in whether engaging your breath, noticing what is going on in your body, or written or art journaling.
2. Take Space. In times of heightened emotions, it is important to create space for yourself meaning, intentional self-care, moments of quiet, and moments of restoration. 
3. Engage in Grounding. When stress levels are high it can be key to find ways to stay grounded and present, for some grounding technique ideas check out this article. A form of grounding called earthing which involves the human body having direct skin contact with the earth has been shown to improve sleep, normalize the day-night cortisol rhythms, reduce pain, reduce stress, and shift the autonomic nervous system (Oschman, Chevalier & Brown, 2016).
4. Set Realistic Schedules. This is a good rule of thumb all year round but particularly important this time of year when schedules can get overpacked. If this is hard for you, consider blocking times in the calendar of no plans to allow that part of the day to unfold naturally.
5. Boundaries. So very key at this time of the year, these may include time boundaries, emotional boundaries, and physical boundaries. People typically have better success with starting with one boundary intention and taking it one step at a time.

If you need additional support reach out to me, I am Nicole Levy, and I am here as your helping hand, let’s get started, book your complimentary no pressure initial consult today.