The holiday season used to be known as a quiet time for celebrating with your family and for peace, but our pressures of living in the 21st century have now transformed the holiday season into a hectic and stressful event that puts that “peace” on the back burner of history. December is now considered to be the most stressful time of the year and with good reason!
In a recent survey, it was reported by Natural Solutions Magazine that 45% of Americans would rather skip the winter than go through the emotional and financial pressures of the holiday season.[1] In addition, it was found that emergency rooms report the greatest influx of patients during this period with stress being found as the root cause.
The pressures of the season.
Even without the pandemic, December is a stressful month. There are all kinds of pressures to perform, whether that means buying gifts, or thinking about the impending bills piling up in January, there could be more end of the year dead lines at work, and there are also the changes in diet accounting for all the holiday treats and parties with alcohol and sweets. These are significant changes during the month and the pressure to stay positive makes December a truly hard month on our bodies both physically and mentally.
Fight or Flight
These stresses of the season are actually meant to be a survival tactic for the body. When you feel stressed, it’s your body reacting to external factors, hormonal interactions effecting your physiological systems and helps protect you from danger. But instead of perhaps the fight or flight stresses that the animal kingdom experiences, we have multiple, little stressors that stimulate our nervous system. In December, there are so many stressors that our system gets stuck in the constant stress zone.
The brain and what’s going on
The brain at this point looses the ability to coordinate all of the information that affects motivation, emotional behaviors, and our environments. This becomes a loss of control that creates more exaggerated emotion and physical responses like anxiety, stress, and a sense of feeling overwhelmed.
What’s happening is our neurochemical and hormonal reactions to stress, which come from a set of interactions, called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal, to not function correctly and thus move hormone levels up and down causing stress to the system.
What to do about stress
It’s good to know about stress so it doesn’t have control over you. Stress is important because it helps you to know when you need to take a pause, when to breathe, and helps you stay safe. But it is frustrating, and an inevitable part of the holiday season. This year is more stressful than most, but even if the stress keeps happening, learn to take a break.
You need to learn to say “no.” You don’t have to go on every zoom event, you don’t have to buy every present, you don’t have to eat every cookie, although I will if they’re near me. Try to get selfish with your time and spend it on you! Be sure to try practicing yoga or give yourself a manicure, do something that makes YOU happy, because protecting your health is the best holiday gift you could give to yourself and your family this year.
And, if you need some extra help to relieve stress, try Jubilance for PMS. It’s the only clinically proven supplement to help relieve stress and anxiety during that time of the month. At least you don’t have to stress during PMS!
[1]“Holiday Stress.” Natural Solutions Magazine – Dedicated to Teach People How to Live Better, 6 Nov. 2020, naturalsolutionsmag.com/holiday-stress/.
