The holiday season is a special and joyful time, but it can also be very stressful.
At this time when routines and schedules are shifting to accommodate family or celebration, try to prioritize some of your healthy practices and stay happy and healthy through the holidays.
Mental Health Tips: Coping with Holiday Blues
Identifying and understanding what’s causing your holiday blues is a first step in helping to manage it. There are several strategies you can use to help you through this time and take with you into the year ahead.
Top Heart Health Tip: Know your limits
Cherished holiday traditions and time with family can also mean stress and anxiety. That feeling of I can’t get it all done! can really take a toll. Stress can cause our heart rate to spike and our heart muscles to contract — raising blood pressure, prompting the production of heart-damaging stress hormones and inflammatory proteins, increasing the risk of heart disease.
Top Kids Tip: Work off some energy.
Holidays with relatives, can end up focused around the TV and the kitchen. Schedule some unstructured time for your kids to get outside, walk or run around, and to work off some of their holiday excitement. They will be less bored and probably better behaved when they are back inside.
Stay Ahead of COVID: Get boosted.
Get your booster as soon as you can before the holidays. It takes a week or two for your immune response to develop. The protection should stay strong for at least two months.
Safe Holiday Driving Tips: Don’t drink and drive.
‘ Tis the season to be merry. Which is why the holidays are one of the peak times for drunk driving related crashes. The danger includes buzzed and drugged (high) driving. Keep yourself and your loved ones safe and make sure your driver stays sober.