10 Simple Holiday Self-Care Tips

It's so easy to get caught up in the busyness and expectations of the season. Self-care is easily put on the back burner and leads to unhealthy lifestyle choices and exhaustion, illness, and guilt. Here are 10 simple self-care tips for the holiday seasons to meet your basic needs and enhance your health.

10 Holiday Self-Care Tips

Tip #1: Breathe

When you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed, your breathing becomes shallow and intermittent. Even though you breathe regularly, it changes with your moods and behaviors. Taking a purposeful pause to breathe, even for 10 seconds, resets your mind, body, and spirit for health and happiness. Schedule it in, at least once a day and notice the results.

Tip #2: Take a Walk

It's okay to step out and away from your office and home. Fresh air opens your mind and body. Take in your surroundings, without technology. Be present and breathe in the fresh air and new perspective. You may even be excited to walk further than you originally planned. Do what feels right, but take that first step. If the sun is also shining, BONUS! This helps those with seasonal depression and clears the lungs during a time when indoor allergens and illness is heightened. If you have a dog, make their day too - the more the merrier!

Tip #3: Hydrate

Drink extra water and/or herbal teas. It's common to increase caffeine, sugary drinks, and alcohol during this stressful time. Hydrating with water cleanses and energizes your mind and body. It also curbs your appetite and can assist with calorie consumption. Lastly, it can help you sleep more soundly. Water is a natural detoxifier and healing liquid.

Tip #4: Take a Bath

Immerse yourself in water and healing salts, as an incredible purifier of your mind and body. It also helps you to release that extra sodium and sugar that you consumed at the party. Feel lighter and cleaner by prioritizing this healing experience. If you have essential oils, with caution, enhance your experience by adding them in a safe amount for an aromatic experience.

Tip #5: Eat Before You Attend Holiday Gatherings

Fill up on nutrition before you attend a gathering. Holiday parties and work gatherings tend to be full of sugar, salt, and less-healthy foods and beverages. It's easy to get wrapped up in the merriment and lose sight of your nutritional needs. Focus on nutrition before you attend the party to meet your needs and possibly decrease the calories you consume while at your happy (or stressful) gathering. Emotional eating is heightened this time of year. Get ahead by treating yourself in healthy ways first!

Tip #6: Prioritize SLEEP!

This is a common time to decrease your sleep so you can do more. Shopping, wrapping, cooking, meeting year end goals at work, attending parties, and your list continues. You give these priority and you lose yourself in the process. Less sleep increases your appetite (for unhealthy convenient, processed foods and beverages) and sets you up for making additional unhealthy choices. Once on this cycle, it's difficult to step away. Decreasing sleep also leads to inflammation, illness and possible disease. Get your sleep!

Tip #7: Remember the Reason for the Season

This season is about love, joy, and connection. It easy to get wrapped up in the doing and forget about the being. It's not always about the perfect gift or appetizer, or party. It's about connection. Yes, parties, giving and receiving are also connections. But I invite you to connect more emotionally than physically with stuff. Enjoy the being and start new traditions that resemble love, joy and connection without expensive and time consuming preparations/expectations.

Tip #8: Schedule in Breaks

It's ok to take a time out; to pause. It can be in your car, while shopping, while eating a meal with family, or as you observe your holiday lights and decorations with music. Enjoy the pause, noticing your breath, heart beat, and mind. You get farther by taking breaks, doing less, and breathing more. It also reduces your stress, which unmanaged, can lead to cardiovascular disease. Taking breaks may save your life.

Tip #9: Practice Gratitude

There are many ways to express gratitude. It can be physically writing in a journal, sharing out loud with others, and/or posting on social media. Some families even like to have a gratitude wall/bulletin board in their home where the family can contribute each day. Even allowing yourself the opportunity to reflect in your mind while driving on 5 things of which you are grateful, can have a tremendous shift on your mind and body, for health and happiness. The science is clear - gratitude is a healthy habit. It changes the brain and improves your health. How simple.

Tip #10: Forgiveness

It's easy to get caught up on in the rat race and think/say/do things that may be harmful, coming from a stress response. The same is true for others. When feeling hurt, know that this may be coming from the other person's stress response. Use forgiveness to reduce the hurt and possibly address it again later (next year!) Stressed and hurting people, hurt others. It doesn't make it right, but understanding the source can help. Practice forgiveness and when necessary, create space from others who may be causing you pain.

I wish you all a healthy and happy holiday season. I look forward to connecting with you further in 2023. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.

Dr. Jennifer Culver?is a Nationally Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, a Certified Functional Medicine Health Coach, an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation, and holds a PhD in Holistic Life Coaching. She's also an Experienced Yoga Instructor and Mindfulness Coach. Dr. Culver spent 15 years in corporate leadership roles and knows stress, commitment, and corporate culture. She blends all of this wisdom to coach, motivate, and hold her clients accountable to their own health and happiness, as a professional partner in their care team.

To view upcoming virtual workshops offered by Dr. Culver,?click here.

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