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As we enter one of the most joyful and most stressful times of the year, enjoy some education and laughter to learn 12 healthy tips for the holidays. These tips are free to low cost and proven to have biological and psychological benefits to lowering stress and improving quality of life. Play the carol of the 12 Days of Christmas and countdown in melody as you read on!
Twelve Christmas Carols: Listening to music, particularly classical music has been shown to decrease heart rate, anxiety and blood pressure during a stressful event.
Eleven Minutes of Laughter: The simple act of laughing demonstrates both a short-term and long-term benefit. Laughter releases endorphins and increases your circulation, which often improves acute and chronic aspects of pain.
Ten Silent Moments: True moments of meditation must be actively seized. With quieting the mind and thought, the body’s normal stress response will decrease and slow the pulse, lower blood pressure and relax muscles.
Nine Acts of Kindness: Pay it forward. The law of tenfold return: whatever you give comes back with a tenfold return. Changing of your perspective to another will often arise to a new perspective on an individual’s situation.
Eight Hours of Sleep: The most commonly ignored habit during stressful times as two-thirds of people report losing sleep. Number of hours of sleep varies from individual, but range from six to nine hours nightly.
Seven Calls to Friends: Miscommunication is one of the most common reasons for stressful situations. Reaching out and communicating your perspective is a main key to minimizing the stress especially during the holiday season.
Six Glasses of Water: Stress and dehydration are a vicious cycle. For every half liter our body is dehydrated, our stress hormone cortisol is released causing increased physical body stress. Six, eight ounce glasses of water are the daily recommendation for staying hydrated and healthy.
Five Cleansing Breaths: The simple act of deep breathing that takes only seconds but has a tremendous effect on the physiology of your body. Slow inspiration and expiration will acutely lower your respiration, your heart rate and your blood pressure.
Four Days of Exercise: The best exercise is the one that you are going to do. Just as individuals vary, a diversity of exercise options, from meditation to group aerobic classes have been shown to lower the body’s stress response by releasing endorphins.
Three Balanced Meals: Studies have shown that skipping meals will affect your blood sugar and metabolism through affecting the cortisol secretion. Fluctuations in blood sugar lower energy create fatigue and increases stress. A healthy balance of protein and carbohydrates in your diet can assist in maintaining a healthy blood sugar level.
Two Simple Lists: Making lists and delegation of tasks have been shown to help one be in greater control of their stress. The actual art of scheduling down time keeps you and the long list of “To-Dos” in perspective.
A Glass of Cabernet: Red wine has been shown to have many positive physiological effects, which can help maintain the immune system, reduce coronary artery disease and may lower some cancer risks. However, alcohol in excess will not relieve stress but rather add additional stress.
Take time for yourself, practice just a few of these destressing tips and you may give yourself the greatest gift: lower stress and improved happiness.
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