Hi Everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed some time off with family and friends. It seems like every year the holiday season sneaks up on me! Since life can get extremely busy during this time of year, I wanted to share my tips for staying stress free and setting yourself up to enjoy the season.
Be in the moment: The only thing we can control is the present moment. Often times during the holidays our minds are elsewhere thinking about all we have to do, presents we still need to buy and the party dishes we still need to make. When you find your mind starting to get inundated with these thoughts, pause for a second and take a deep breath in and out. Once you’ve taken that quick breather, look around and make a point to focus on where you are and enjoy that moment. Sometimes we are so focused on where we are going or what we have to do that we forget to enjoy the present time. When you focus on the present moment we laugh a lot more, smile a lot more and we are so busy focusing on the moment that stress cannot creep its way in!
Gratitude journaling before bed: This is KEY! There is a lot to stress about in life but there is a lot to be grateful for. Right before you go to bed write down what you are grateful for. That way when you fall asleep you are thinking about positive things versus the things that stress you out. I guarantee you’ll wake up feeling so much better. Also another fun fact about this is that we cannot be two emotions at once. So if you are feeling grateful you can’t be feeling stressed. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Move: Movement has been proven to be one of the best ways to combat mental and physical stress. When we move we get rid of stagnant energy and release hormones that help us feel better. Even a 10 minute walk can be a game changer! When you have a free moment write out a quick plan for how you are going to get moving in the month of December. Here are some ideas to help you with your planning: book a workout class at Fitness Unlimited with a friend, hire a personal trainer, go for a walk with a coworker at lunch, stretch for 5 minutes when you wake up. Even just the simplest movement can make a huge impact.
Limit Sugar & Alcohol: Although both sugar and alcohol can be very tasty in the moment, the aftermath can cause you to be even more stressed. Both sugar and alcohol create an inflammatory response in the body when they are being processed which put the body under stress. This is a huge contributing factor to stress around the holidays because we are constantly surrounded with holiday treats and going to holiday parties. To limit your intake, try swapping a boozy drink with this fun holiday mocktail or make one of the recipes from our Holiday Desserts Recipe Book ($20). Our Holiday Recipe Book is filled with delicious recipes that help you keep things tasty without all the added sugars.
Take a Yoga Class: Yoga is an awesome way to help calm aspects of ourselves that are often affected by stress – mind, body and breathing. The poses in yoga are specifically designed to help alleviate stress in the body and yogi breath work will help you relieve stress in the mind. We offer all types of yoga from gentle to vinyasa and all of them have incredible effects on the body and mind. Click here to book a yoga class.
I hope these tips and tricks help you stress less this holiday season. You deserve to enjoy the moment!
Happy Holidays!
Jillian & The Fitness Unlimited Team
