207. Mindful Holidays: Practical Tips to Combat Seasonal Anxiety

The holiday season can be a time of joy, but it often brings anxiety and stress. In this insightful episode of Health Bite, Dr. Adrienne Youdim explores the reasons behind holiday anxiety and offers practical strategies to help you navigate this challenging time with ease and grace.

Join Dr. Adrienne Youdim as she discusses the common triggers of holiday anxiety and shares actionable tips to cultivate calmness and well-being during the festive season.

What You'll Learn From This Episode:

• The reasons why anxiety peaks during the holiday season
• How to shift your mindset and let go of perfectionism
• The importance of managing expectations for yourself and others
• Practical strategies for setting boundaries and asking for help
• The role of nutrition and movement in supporting mental health
• Mind-body techniques to ground yourself and reduce anxiety

"Embrace the messy, imperfect moments and prioritize your peace of mind." — Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Ways that Dr. Adrienne Youdim Can Support You

1. Join the Monthly Free Mind-Body Workshops: Participate in engaging mind-body practices designed to help manage your stress response. Register here.
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3. Freebie alert. Register for our monthly free MindBody Workshop and receive a downloadable guide on emotional labeling to help you manage your emotions effectively.

Connect with Dr. Adrienne Youdim

• Website :https://www.dradriennespeaks.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dradrienneyoudim/

Transcript

Wow, guys, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. And now with that one behind us, and Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and the new year just weeks away, we are officially in the holiday season. And you know, while the holidays bring to mind the celebrations, the food, the gifts, the cheer, it can also bring about anxiety. Personally, I have flashbacks to the days when I was employed and had little children. The holiday season always gave me anxiety over how I would manage those long weeks off of school with all of my end of the year work responsibilities. And I wonder if the holiday season feels more stressful to you as well. If so, you're not alone. So in today's episode, we're going to talk about why anxiety can peak during the holiday season and most importantly, I'll give you some actionable bites on how to ease it. Welcome back to Health Byte, the podcast where I offer small, actionable bites to greater physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being. I'm your host, Dr. Adrienne Udim. I'm a triple board certified internist, obesity medicine, and physician nutrition specialist, and I've learned in working with patients and clients for nearly 20 years that good nutrition is not just about the food that you eat, but all the ways in which we can nourish ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Together, we will explore the intersection of science, nutrition, health, and wellbeing in the pursuit of living well. These quick bites will leave you feeling motivated, empowered, and inspired. And I just love this stuff. So thank you for being here and for joining me on this journey. So let's get right in to talking about understanding holiday anxiety. And there are lots of reasons why anxiety increases during the holidays. Like I mentioned earlier, there are many working parents like me who have the very real challenge of managing all these wonderful festivities with the reality that the work just does not stop. But there are other reasons as well. some of which we do to ourselves, like unrealistic expectations of ourselves in terms of perfectionism and gift giving, hosting, parenting, and doing all the holiday things in the right way. We also create anxiety by over committing, over committing to social activities and allowing ourselves to feel pulled in many directions. of course family dynamics and tensions that come from spending that just a little too much extra time together, there are financial pressures and then of course changes in our routines, changes in our routines because of travel, parties and disrupted sleep, changes in our routine in eating, drinking, movement, all of this can impact our health and well-being and can kick up feelings of anxiety. And anxiety can feel differently for different people. Some people feel just a little extra restlessness or irritability or reactivity to overwhelm. Some can even experience anxiety as flat-out anger. Anxiety can come on as ruminations, thinking about things over and over and over again, cycling in the mind, or as a sensation of doom or dread. And in its most severe form, it can be incapacitating, as in panic attacks. Anxiety also presents as physical signs like heart palpitations, chest pain, muscle aches, headaches, insomnia, and fatigue. Digestive issues like reflux or changes in bowel habits or straight out stomach aches. And I think it's important to say that some degree of anxiety is normal. Anxiety is a normal human emotion, and you wouldn't be human if you didn't experience it. But if you feel like anxiety is impacting your health, your quality of life, or your ability to go about your day-to-day in the way that you wish, then please get help. That may come in the form of a friend, a trusted confidant, or a health care professional that can help you navigate and lead the way. So let's now segue into talking about strategies that can help. And the first, you may have guessed it, is a shift in your mindset. For example, letting go of perfection. Let's recognize that striving for a perfect holiday creates unnecessary pressure for yourself and for others. So can you just hold the holiday season kind of loosely in mind with an intention of what you want to feel and experience rather than what you expect from yourself in terms of how you're going to plan and create and execute. Remember that the best memories aren't the perfect ones. They're the ones that are real. And when you allow yourself to be real and imperfect, you also give permission to others to do the same. And that allows for the most authentic and enjoyable experience for everybody. Next, Manage your expectations, and this is not only in regards to your expectations of yourself, but your expectations of others as well. Remind yourself of what really matters. Meaningful connections, moments of joy, and time for rest. You may even want to consider writing down your priorities to allow yourself to stay aligned to what really matters to you. Writing is a way of processing and reaffirming and making your own values known to you. It's also a great way to avoid over committing to what is not essential, to what may not be necessary or needed. And finally, don't be afraid to ask for help. Manage your expectations of others by actually allowing them to raise the bar and raise the expectations for you. Use your resources. Ask for help from friends or family or your partner. Ask for help with the kids. Ask for help with the cooking. And if you don't feel like you can lean on the people around you right now, hire help if you can. Do what you need to relieve yourself of some of your to-dos and some of your expectations of yourself. Basically, lighten your load. There's also some practical tools that can help us manage our anxiety and cultivate like a holiday calmness. First and foremost, I want you to think about the boundaries that you can set. Learn to set your boundaries and to execute them. Be okay with saying no. You don't have to do everything. You can say no with love and with grace. Consider setting boundaries with your time. You can plan downtime between commitments so that you can recharge. You can also be more mindful of how you spend your time. Make sure that the things that you're committing to and you're doing are ones that actually give or are giving to you, not draining of you. Manage your consumption in terms of food. in terms of alcohol, in terms of indulgences, but also manage your consumption in terms of screens and news and the other ways that we consume that can impact us. We're going to talk a little bit more about the food side in a second, but let's finish with boundaries. setting boundaries with your time, and also setting boundaries with your family. Set boundaries around family dynamics. Set an intention in advance to not discuss certain topics or topics that you might find triggering. I should have done a little bit of that myself this past Thanksgiving. And if you find yourself in a conversation that you didn't intend to be in or that you don't wish to continue, give yourself permission to remove yourself from that conversation. This can be hard to do in the moment, but remind yourself that setting and executing boundaries is not only an act of kindness to yourself, but it's also an act of kindness to the people around you. So if you're anticipating this, spend some time in advance to consider how you plan going about it. So you can do it in a way that feels right to you, in a way that is not reactive, in a way that is kind. But again, Once you set that intention of setting boundaries, don't be afraid of executing it because boundaries mean nothing if you are not firm about them. Next, nourish yourself. Support yourself with good nutrition. I know holidays are a time for fun, for food and indulgences. But remember that your consumption matters. And this is not in terms of your weight. I'm not talking about weight loss right now. This episode is talking about anxiety. And remind yourself that the way that you consume does impact your mood and your mental health. So be intentional about what you consume as well. Try and incorporate healthy meals into your day. avoid that all-or-nothing mindset that happens this time of year you know what i'm talking about like thanksgiving rolls around you're already in that overindulgent state holiday parties are coming, family events are coming, all of which culminate in Christmas and Hanukkah and the new year. And you might coax yourself into throwing in the towel until it's all over. Try and avoid that all or nothing mindset because the way in which you go about the day to day, the little micro changes or micro initiatives that you can take may be everything in terms of supporting your mood and managing your anxiety during the season. Remember that the intake of sugar and alcohol, while it's part of the festivities and the celebratory time for many, they can impact your mood and your reactivity. So set boundaries there too. And then think about movement. Support yourself with nourishing movement. Remember that exercise does so much more for you in terms of your mood and mental health than your weight. And I bring that up because we bring in this all or nothing mindset when it comes to exercise as well. And it often goes like this. um you know something like i've already indulged or i'm already indulging or i'm overeating and so because you are maybe eating more excessively um than you normally would then you tie that in with your exercise and you throw in the towel on that as well oh if i'm not managing my food i might as well not be exercising or managing my movement But again, movement is so much more important than the numbers on the scale. Remember that all movement helps release dopamine and endorphins, and that is critical when it comes to your mood and mental health. But remember this, that vigorous exercise, so the kind of exercise that makes you huffy and puffy and sweaty, that can give you an added bonus. Because when you stretch yourself physically, you're better able to tolerate that emotional stretch. you're better able to tolerate emotional and psychological distress as well, including anxiety. So make an intention to support yourself with movement, whether that is gentle movement or whether you're going to take the jump and engage in some strenuous exercise or activity, like I had a momentary pause right now because I was thinking about the 5k that I do with my family during Thanksgiving. So whether it's again, doing something like stretch or gentle movement or yoga, or something a little bit more intense that may even take you the extra mile in terms of managing your anxiety. And then finally, Consider the many mind-body grounding techniques that you can engage in. Simple breathing practices. We talk about breathing a lot on this podcast and I do breathing practices a lot with my patients in the office and I'm always impressed in terms of how quickly we can shift are mindsets with a simple, short, like five-minute breathing practice. There are several ways that you can do this. One of them is called box breathing. Basically, you inhale for four seconds, you hold your breath at the top of the inhale for four seconds, you exhale for four seconds, and then you pause or hold your breath at the bottom of the exhale for four seconds. So that's called box breathing. Four in, four hold, four seconds out, and four seconds hold, repeat. Just doing three, four, five cycles of this technique can help you regulate your nervous system and manage your anxiety. There's another technique called 4-7-8. That is one in which you breathe in for four seconds, you hold your breath for seven seconds, and then you prolong that exhale for eight seconds. And we know that when people really prolong that exhale, so really breathe out every last oxygen or CO2 atom or molecule from your lungs, prolonging that exhale has a even greater degree of benefit in terms of regulating your anxiety. Another mindful technique you can do is guided visualization and I do this with my patients as well. Basically, you just sit in a quiet place, close your eyes, Take a few breaths to bring yourself to presence and to ground yourself. And then allow yourself to visualize a scene that is soothing to you. For me, I always go into the woods. But for you, it may be somewhere else in nature, maybe by the ocean. Maybe it is a place in your home that you find very comfortable, like a lazy boy chair. maybe it's a place you've seen in a magazine and you've actually never been to maybe it's another country um it could be anywhere because remember this is all in your mind and in your imagination but when you do a guided self-guided visualization you allow yourself to go to that place really experience that place with all of your senses that means Feel your body in that place. What are you wearing? What is the temperature like? Is there a breeze? Is there a smell to that area? Smell of the forest or smell of the ocean? Who or what is there next to you? Are you laying in a cozy chair? How does that chair feel on your body? Allow your body really to relax and to imagine that feeling. really take in the experience with all of your senses. And again, I've done this practice with my patients many times, and it's incredible how you can literally transport yourself into another time and place and space with a guided visualization practice. Another mindfulness technique is a gratitude practice. Think of several things that you are grateful for, and really bask in it. Really savor it. When you do a gratitude practice, sometimes people just think of it as a quick list that you write down. But I would do it as an actual mindfulness practice, where you sit in a place, you close your eyes, you really bring those things that you're grateful for to mind, and you really savor. in those things. Just that presence, that savoring of gratitude can take you out of your anxious mind, your worry about the past or worry about the future, bring you to presence and help you feel more grounded. So I hope that these reflections and tools and strategies are helpful for you. Remember that anxiety is normal. It's a normal human emotion. You'd be abnormal if you didn't experience it. If you feel like your anxiety is excessive, get help, whether it's a friend or someone who is a professional, but don't let yourself suffer unnecessarily. remind yourself or recognize your triggers and try and change your mindset around it. Let go of perfection, set appropriate boundaries and give yourself the care that you need to navigate what's a celebratory but also stress-inducing time of the year. Focus on what really matters. Remind yourself of what truly matters, and allow yourself to let go of what doesn't. And then finally, use grounding tools to prioritize self-care, not only nourishing yourself in your mind, but nourishing your body with good food, good movement, good sleep, and forgoing the noise and the distractions that don't serve you. So on this holiday season, I invite you to embrace the messy, imperfect moments and to prioritize your peace of mind. You certainly deserve it. And if you love this episode, please share with someone you care about and subscribe to us for more episodes because I'll be here in your inbox again, same time and same place next week on Health Byte. Until then, have a great holiday.