While the classic carol “Deck the Halls” notes “‘Tis the season to be jolly,” the holiday season and winter months can significantly increase stress levels. Although factors, such as finances, social obligations, managing complex family dynamics, and shorter daylight hours can cause holiday gloom, many natural remedies have been proven effective to bring jolly back to any season.
Stress, as defined by the World Health Organization, is a state of worry or mental tension caused by difficult situations or mental circumstances. While the stress response helps the body to cope, chronic stress can have negative effects on health, leading to conditions like high blood pressure, inflammation, and mental health issues.
Research from the American Psychological Association shows that 89% of Americans report high stress during the holidays. Additionally, reduced sunlight contributes to about 5% of adults in the U.S. experiencing seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or winter depression, which, for some, can last up to 40% of the year.
Powerful natural healing modalities such as acupuncture, herbs, deep breathing, and meditation, have been proven to reduce stress, boost energy, alleviate anxiety, relieve depressive symptoms, and for many, restore a sense of jolly to the winter season.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture — a gentle needle technique that may address specific health complaints or be utilized to promote total wellness — helps the body communicate with itself through accessing channels of energy, related to different organs.
“It’s not that the needles are special, it’s that your body investigates each needle, which guarantees an immune response, nervous system response, and blood flow to the area. It is basically like having a backdoor blueprint to the nervous system,” said Andrei Stoica, 38, of Pekoe Acupuncture and Wellness Center. “There is nothing that we do to the body that the body doesn’t know how to do itself. Acupuncture is more of a natural reminder.”
Dr. Nicole Mires, founder of Pekoe Acupuncture and Wellness, explained the correlation between the environment and how it affects health.
“This is the time of year that things are slowing down in nature which can lead to people being sore and cranky and for some lowered moods,” Mires, 48, said. “We want to be consistent with our energy throughout the year but nature doesn’t work in this cycle so recognizing and working in harmony with what nature is doing is key to optimizing health and stress.”
The center recommends simple steps to improve your overall health and stress levels:
- Take a morning walk within two hours of sunrise.
- The low-hanging light helps with motivation, circadian rhythms, and blood circulation.
- Dim the lights and stop looking at phones and screens during the late evening. This helps build melatonin in the body.
- “Around 4 p.m. the body naturally switches gear into phase down mode. Many people think that this is an energy slump when really it is the body’s natural way of gently ensuring that the nervous system is prepared for a healthy sleep cycle,” Mires related.
- Use simple herbs like ginger for foot baths.
- “Your legs are like tree roots. Pay close attention to your feet,” Stoica emphasized.
- Explore the benefits of acupuncture.
- Acupuncture can naturally help vent excess frenetic energy and use the body’s natural channels to redirect the energy elsewhere in the body where needed.
Breathing and Meditation
At least 50% of the adult population in the United States has high blood pressure, reports a study from The National Institutes of Health on the beneficial effects of daily deep breathing.
Deep breathing exercises are an effective low-cost blood pressure and stress reduction therapy, the report explains.
“Stress is the body’s physiological response which occurs when facing situations that we don’t feel adequately prepared for or able to navigate. Even growth opportunities such as; starting a new business, buying a house, and providing for family require a series of steps which trigger a hardwired stress response in the brain,” said Joan McGoy, applied meditation script coach.
“If you haven’t practiced how your system responds to challenges then you will have a stress response which will show up in your health over time. Stress, grief, lack of fulfillment, and loss eventually all show up in your blood work in terms of diseases or health challenges,” McGoy related. “We learn, sometimes over a lifetime, parenting, spirituality, and career skills, however, we often fail to seek the same learning in practicing how to confront stress.”
McGoy, founder of The Managed Mind and practitioner of over 35 years, emphasized the importance of intentional mindfulness to reduce and manage stress:
- Have a set of moral principles by which you seek to live.
- Start imagining yourself in challenging situations and map out how you would respond.
- Learn how to breathe in a manner that elicits the relaxation response from your nervous system.
- Practice maintaining an inner quality of joy and gratitude even during hardships.
- Use meditation and scripting to ‘prehearse’ handling emotions during challenges and to change negative learned stress behaviors and responses.
- For best results, meditation and learned breathing techniques should be complemented by mental health counseling and regular doctor visits.
Herbs
Research shows that botanical herbs and medicines are safe and effective remedies for managing stress.
Herbal remedies can positively affect neurotransmitter and cortisol levels, helping to modify the stress response. They are often affordable, widely available, and have few reported side effects, making them a valuable option for stress relief.
ZáYn Muhammad, interdisciplinary wellness coach at The Wellspring Natural Living Center said, “stress in most people goes up, plateaus, and rises again without many downspikes.”
“Most Americans know two states of stress, stressed and neutral. Many of us do not understand that even during stressors, the body is capable of a third state, relaxed and calm,” Muhammad explained. “Mitigation of stress requires identifying or becoming familiar with ourselves and our state of stress, neutrality, and relaxation. Most people don’t even know when they are holding their body in a state of stress.”
As a traditional herbalist of 40 years, Muhammad offers the following stress relief advice:
- Acknowledge possible addictions to stress, such as drama, high workloads, the need to constantly be in motion or to overachieve.
- Breathe 99% of medicine is based on breath.
- Adopt a healthy bedtime and sleep schedule.
- Natural remedies such as magnesium glycinate, which is best absorbed with vitamin D, have been shown to help with sleep.
- Move. Implement an exercise regimen that fits your activity level and medical conditions.
- Change your perspective by reexamining what is really urgent in your life.
- “Many of us adopt a state of ‘I have to,’ I have to finish all this work, I have to buy an expensive car, I have to give them a piece of my mind. Eighty-five percent of the time you didn’t, and what was the cost to your stress levels and inner peace? Change your perspective about any and everything that is negotiable in your life,” Muhammad advised.
- Herbs.
- Seek herbs, such as ashwagandha, that qualify as adaptogens. Adaptogens naturally help the body to adapt and shift from a defensive nature to open and receptive. Ceylon cinnamon is also a powerful adaptogen especially for those inclined to alcohol or sugars.
- Reduce your sugar intake.
- Sugar stresses the body as it converts into triglycerides. The hyper effect of sugar makes it appear as we are receiving an energy boost. In reality the body has triggered a stress response which releases adrenaline that maintains itself until the sugar wears off which places the adrenal glands into overload.
Consult a Physician
While one doesn’t need a prescription for holistic treatment, consulting a doctor is still crucial to prioritizing health.
“Herbal remedies in conjunction with consistent medical care for many have proven life-changing,” said holistic physician Dr. Ama Tyus.
Tyus, medical director of Nyame Nti Natural Health Solutions offers the following advice:
- See a doctor and get blood tests to ensure that you do not have anemia or low thyroid levels.
- Check to make sure you don’t have sleep apnea or other medical issues that can present as depression and anxiety.
- Be mindful of your health and emotions during the winter as some may have seasonal affective disorder and require light therapy.
- Get adequate exercise, sunlight, fruits, fresh vegetables, and water. Also, talk to a doctor about vitamin D supplements and a good multivitamin.
- Process your emotions. Consider visiting a therapist to process emotions. Journaling also has proven therapeutic for organizing and navigating emotions.
Natural remedies can effectively reduce stress that may lead to serious health issues. While generally safe to use with conventional treatments, some supplements can affect medication efficacy.
Consulting a physician is essential to monitoring possible supplement deficiencies and optimizing a long-term holistic plan to mitigate stress and related health issues.
