Ah, the holidays. A time of family, friends, good cheer, and so much stress. As if cooking for a group or traveling to see family isn’t enough stress, there’s often a mad push to get work projects to a good stopping place before the holiday break. This is obviously a recipe for stress at home and at work.
Today we’re going to look at two main forms of stress reduction: preemptive, i.e. not getting stressed in the first place; and ways to mitigate acute (circumstantial) stress.
First let’s think about the ways we can reduce stress before it happens.
Planning Ahead is an Act of Self Love
… or at least self preservation.
It’s easier said than done, especially if you have a lot of moving pieces to your life such as juggling multiple gigs or if you have children. But oftentimes the extra energy it takes to get a step ahead of yourself for the next day is fairly minimal, and the peace it brings you is absolutely worth it.
Of course this isn’t a fail-safe plan, but having your Is dotted and Ts crossed in advance is usually a nice feeling.
Here are a few ways to preemptively get ahead of the stress:
- Streamline your morning. Whether that means setting the coffee pot to brew the night before or picking out the next day’s outfit, anything you can do in the evening to spare yourself any morning friction is helpful.
- Take a look at the next day’s agenda, both at work and at home. What is about to be due? Are there appointments on your schedule you may have forgotten about? This helps keep surprises to a minimum.
- Leave your house with enough time to get where you’re going so you don’t have to speed and have your blood pressure rise at every red light.
- Use the “reminder” function on your smartphone to ensure nothing important will ever slip your mind.
- If you’re cooking for the holidays, try to plan out your menu in advance and make a grocery list of all the non-perishables. If you can gather those ingredients early, you’ll be less likely to forget something in a huge, all-encompassing store run.
- When planning a family event, try the mental trick of refocusing on what can go right versus what can go wrong. Try to let yourself be excited to spend quality time with your family rather than worrying that your baseboards aren’t sparkling. Try to look forward to the delicious meal rather than worrying you’ll catch the oven on fire. If nothing goes wrong, all your negative doom thinking will have been in vain. If something does go wrong, worrying about it in advance only means you had to suffer it twice!
Managing Existing Stress
No matter how much you plan in advance, perfection is a myth and isn’t possible to achieve. Build a little extra time into an activity, commute, and overestimate your budget so when something does go wrong, it isn’t catastrophic. When something goes wrong, there are some helpful methods to help you keep your stress from boiling over.
- Take a deep breath. No, really. This advice we give to kids who have fallen off a bike is real. There’s science behind it! Deep breathing stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps to calm us down. Take a second, breathe, and recenter yourself. This works anywhere, including in traffic.
- Reduce caffeine intake. Too much coffee only makes stressful situations worse!
- Stretch before bed. Stress increases muscle tension, which in turn can keep you from getting a restful night’s sleep. Releasing that muscle tension anytime during the day is good, but especially before trying to sleep.
- Create and stick to your personal boundaries. Sometimes it’s the other people in our lives that stress us out. It’s somewhat normal to be stressed out by your family during the holidays, but it could also be a boundary issue. Here’s a smart and compassionate breakdown of boundary styles from UC Berkeley.
- Remember, even if having a drink makes you feel less stressed in a particular moment, the ongoing use of alcohol to manage stress can lead to more stress. Repeated alcohol consumption raises cortisol levels in the body, the same hormone created by stress.
If you’re interested in reading more, here is a great article from Healthline about useful stress-reduction techniques.
Note: this blog deals with acute, or circumstantial stress. However, stress can go on for longer and become chronic stress. This article from Yale defines chronic stress as “a consistent sense of feeling pressured and overwhelmed over a long period of time.” Some activities that help manage chronic stress include getting enough exercise, taking mental breaks, meditating, and talking to a therapist. Some people respond well to medication such as anti-anxiety medications or antidepressants. Only a qualified healthcare professional can prescribe such medications, so if you think you would benefit from them, talk to your doctor.
From all of us at ICBA, we hope your holidays are stress-free and merry!