Tips for Holiday Stress Management

Beginning with Thanksgiving, the holiday season is a busy, fun-filled time of shopping, eating, family gatherings...and often, high levels of stress.

What, exactly, is stress?  Stress is a normal psychological and physical reaction to life's demands. Your brain is designed to kick into protection mode when it perceives a threat--and your body releases hormones, causing a fight-or-flight response. Once the threat is removed, your body returns to normal.

However, our fast-paced lives--especially at holiday time--mean that our brain is very often on high alert.  Because of this, learning to manage stress is crucial because high levels of stress can be quite detrimental to one's health.

In fact, prolonged exposure to stress can put a person at risk for such problems as heart disease, depression, obesity, memory impairment, worsening of skin conditions, sleep problems and digestive problems.

Stress is often inevitable this time of year, but there are many different strategies that can be used to help minimize its negative effects on the body.  Some of the most common stress-control strategies include exercise, relaxation techniques, psychotherapy or counseling, getting plenty of sleep and cultivating healthy relationships.

The Mayo Clinic offers some suggestions specifically for holiday-related stress, including giving yourself permission to express and acknowledge your feelings, seeking out social events and activities, setting aside grievances with friends or family members, sticking to a budget, avoiding food overindulgences, and spending time alone to refresh and regroup.

As you can see, there are many steps you can take to make sure stress doesn't put a damper on your holidays--or affect you negatively down the road.  Follow these tips as well as consider Allegheny Medical's WellnessCare programs so you can enjoy this time of year to the fullest.