Holiday Hacks: essential tools for maintaining balance during the holiday season

5 essential holiday wellness habits! Because we all know that the holidays can be a tough time to prioritize your self-care routines.

Despite the overall jovial nature of the holiday season, some of us may find ourselves feeling off (ie. reactive, unhappy, tired, resentful, lonely, etc) after a few celebratory days away from routine (and potentially around triggering foods, friends, or family members).

These holiday hacks are very similar to my own wellness non-negotiables (the health habits I never compromise myself), and you can probably guess why. Spending time with loved ones and community is undoubtedly essential medicine, but the ritual of celebration, at least in American culture, is often filled with items that do not support long-term health. Thus, it is extremely helpful to have a few indispensable habits that keep you grounded in your body and heart while celebrating.

These are my holiday hacks (in no particular order):

1. Hydrate appropriately

2. Move your body

3. Get into Nature

4. Practice stillness

5. Work on boundaries

1. HYDRATE: with filtered water and a dash of electrolytes (lemon, lime, Himalayan or sea salt, trace minerals, etc). Water is essential to life. A general rule of thumb is to consume half your body weight in ounces of water daily (i.e. if you weigh 150 lbs, aim to consume at least 75 ounces of water daily). Appropriate hydration is important for stress relief, cognition, detoxification, and pretty much every cellular process in your body. Many of our holiday habits (sugar, coffee, etc) are dehydrating. If you consume alcoholic beverages, aim to consume one glass of water per every drink to avoid dehydration.

2. Move YO BODY! I don't care how you move it (dance, swim, run, walk, jump rope ;), stretch, yoga, Qigong, etc). Movement does many wonderful things for the human body (mentally, emotionally, and physically) including supporting cellular detoxification and lymph flow, boosting circulation and heart rate, and improving sleep. Your body is meant to move in unique ways, not melt into a couch with endless Netflix (though this is okay in moderation- just move before or after!) Also, just 7 minutes of movement after meals allows your muscles to take in glucose passively (i.e., without insulin), so a post-meal walk with the family is a great way to support metabolic health around the holiday festivities.

3. Get into Nature: I feel like I say this every day but that's because it's so important!! Ideally, you'd put your bare feet on the Earth for at least 20 minutes daily to receive the nourishing effect of the Earth's electromagnetic energy. Grounding (also known as Earthing) is a free, accessible anti-inflammatory activity that has been shown to provide many benefits in the human body including pain reduction and stress relief. If you can't go outside, open a window, hold a stone/crystal, sit by a fireplace. You can even listen to the sounds of water, fire, or wildlife if you cannot access any Nature elsewhere. Bonus if you get 10-20 minutes of morning light exposure to support your circadian rhythm and energy production.

4. Learn and uphold your boundaries. This can be a toughie (especially during the holidays), but it is very important. Boundaries can come up in a variety of ways from what you want to consume (food, media, products) to how you choose to spend your time. Family dynamics can incidentally preserve trauma patterning and maladaptive ways of interacting, so it is necessary to know how you want to be seen and communicated with. Journaling is one of my favorite ways to sort through this stuff.

Some fun prompts I like to repeatedly ask myself include: who am I today? How do I want to feel? What activities feel in alignment with the way I want to feel? How do I want to feel when I interact with others?

We teach people how to treat us. As Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." If we think of triggering encounters as opportunities to grow, we evolve beyond our limited notions of self and make way for new ways of being. Sometimes going against a ritual can make others feel uncomfortable, as we are all mirrors for one another. Having a grounded idea of self helps us stay authentic in our emotions so that even if others make comments about our choices (that fully pertain to their own emotions and life experiences), we can stay intentional in our actions.

5. Practice stillness: perhaps my own most vital non-negotiable health habit is to find some alone time to exercise mental-emotional hygiene. One of my teachers in my yoga training compared the practice of engaging in mental stillness to the habit of brushing your teeth. We would never go a week without brushing our teeth because we know how imperative clean teeth are to oral health, and likewise, how critical oral health is to overall health! If we could recognize the practice of engaging in stillness as a type of mental flossing, we would understand how important it is to create (at least) a daily stillness practice. For many of us, mental stillness follows physical stillness because it can be hard to disengage the mind when the body is focused on tasks. Historically, yoga asana (physical postures) was done to prepare the body for sitting through prolonged periods of meditation. It can therefore be helpful to practice meditation after movement, when the body is warm and able to sit still. But stillness doesn’t have to be a “meditation” practice. You could simply sit in silence (ideally in nature!) and focus on your breathing. If/when your mind starts to argue with this process, remember that you are rewiring your brain to remain still, and this can take consistent effort (especially if it is used to running around one thousand miles per house and carrying around a laundry list of moment to moment to do’s). Remember you are “brushing your teeth” for your nervous system, which is equally (if not more) important as the real oral hygiene! 3 minutes daily is a great starting place that is very accessible. Mornings and evenings are natural times that lend themselves to introspection.

I hope these health hacks are helpful for you and your loved ones this holiday season!