Beating Holiday Stress

So how do you keep from completely blowing your lid? The answer, as always, lies in getting good, clean and repetitive exercise!

Start Simple, Stay Smart

Whether you’ve completely let yourself go or you’re in pretty good shape, the holidays are probably the most important time of the year to exercise smart. By “smart”, we mean take care to not over-exert yourself or cause injury – down time during the yuletide will only compound your stress level.

Talk to your doctor if you’re concerned about a particular nagging injury, excess weight, etc. that you feel may impede your exercise progress, or has you leery of stepping on the treadmill. There are so very many different forms of exercise (and physical and occupational therapies, if you’re that far gone) that no matter what your problem areas are, there’s something you can do to exert a little physical exercise.

Low Impact Forms Of Exercise

Swimming – hitting the pool (it’s wintertime, so choose somewhere indoors and heated) combines both resistance training and cardio because of the distances involved in swimming for exercise. What it does not involve is impact-stress on your joints and ligaments, like running.

Biking – if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere where winter doesn’t completely rule out the possibility of outside exercise, haul the old bicycle out of the shed, closet, etc. This low-impact form of cardio is also fun – and lets you sight-see a little bit along your route.

Yoga – don’t rule out Tai-Chi or Pilates, either. If you’re a beginner, well take beginner’s yoga. Yoga (as well as the others) isn’t for push overs – it’s as hard as you want to make it. But the camaraderie of yoga classes (should be) altogether different from what you’ll find in a weight room, and has been used to reduce stress and get the blood pumping for hundreds of years.

Battling Stress With Exercise

First of all, don’t see exercise during the holiday season as a chore. It’s not – in fact, while you should always watch what you eat, go ahead and not worry about the scale from now until about January 2nd. Exercising during the holidays is about making you feel better – trying to watch your weight will make you feel worse.

As an added plus, getting into an exercise routine now, without the calorie counting, will help you when New Year’s Resolution season rolls around. But what makes exercise such an excellent stress-dumper?

Exercise Triggers Endorphins – when you exert physical energy, your body produces and releases endorphins into your brain and bloodstream. These “feel-good” transmitters translate into what is commonly known as a “runners high” – but you can reap the pick-me-up benefits of endorphins from almost any kind of exercise, as long as you don’t over-exert (read: hurt) yourself!

Exercise Helps You Think – it’s no illusion, and you’re not crazy: you really do think better when you’re moving. As you exert yourself, your blood flow increases, and oxygen surges to both your mind and the other parts of your body that are doing the work.

Physical activity stimulates the hippocampus, the part of your brain in charge of learning and memory. Way back in our caveman days, thinking fast was the difference between earning a meal … and maybe even becoming one. Nowadays it’s a great way to ruminate on place settings, family arrangements, and everything else the holidays throw at you.

Put you in a Better Mood – Exercise can improve your mental outlook and reduce the negative emotional and physical effects of stress and even depression … which makes sense, if you take the first two reasons into account. Exercise can also help you get a better night’s rest.

This is one of the most important (as well as most-often-overlooked) aspects of personal, mental and physical wellness. Getting sufficient sleep is key to losing weight, defeating depression, and performing your best at work, at home, and especially during the stressful holidays. So go jogging – and then hit the sack!

Set Goals For Yourself, And Keep Going!

We mentioned avoiding the scale. Focus on setting easily-achievable goals for yourself. It might seem more important and impressive to start with “train until I can run a 5k” but if you cannot run a mile, then you should start there. The key to this technique is to REDEFINE your goals regularly.

So if your goal is to run a mile, and you run a mile, up your goal to 1.25 miles, and so on. This way, you’re constantly achieving your goals. Don’t think this is worth it? Keep a notebook. By the time you achieve your 3rd“revised” goal, you can look back at what your first goal was – and be amazed and impressed with yourself!

A word on Scheduling – you have GOT to keep this good thing going once you start. Not only will you lose physical progress with an on-again-off-again workout routine, but it won’t be as beneficial to your mental and emotional health, either.

If you can only exercise twice a week, do that. Try looking forward to it – pencil it in as “me time”. This way, it doesn’t become a chore. Other options for de-stressing during the Holiday mess: get a massage. Laugh – seriously. Laughter can reduce stress, and it’s free!

Lastly, it wouldn’t be the holidays if we didn’t mentions spirituality. We’re not talking about church, necessarily – unless that’s what floats your boat. After all, for many “spirituality” means a form of religious observance but for others it can be found in nature, music, art or a secular community. Spirituality is different for everyone.

Find Your Zen!