How to Navigate Holiday Stress

Hi and welcome to how humans heal. I'm Dr. Donnie Wilson, and today's episode is all about helping to support you through holidays and events, making sure that you're able to take good care of yourself and support yourself through it so that you can feel good and enjoy the holidays and events in your life, as well as how to recover from it, even when it is stressful. Right. Because no matter what, what studies show and what we know from life experience is that when we have this additional experience, this extra thing in our schedule, whether it's the holidays of any time of year, really, or events in your life, I see this a lot with my patients when they are planning a wedding, for example, so very stressful. Or maybe you're having a baby in the family, or maybe there's a death or planning a memorial in your family, let alone the December holidays, New Year's, and we have holidays all year long. And what happens, what tends to happen when we have a holiday or an event that we're planning? It's one thing on top of everything else, right? We still have to keep up with our whatever your job or your career or your work during the day, all the tasks of running your home and making sure you have food for yourself and anybody else who's living with you or your animals, making sure you're keeping, keeping up with, paying for different things and renewing. Oh my gosh, it's like we have to renew our cars and renewing all other licenses and continuing education credits and oh my gosh, right. The list can get so long. So when we, even though it's something we look forward to and we enjoy and we want to have opportunities to take a break from our usual schedule, get together with people we love and enjoy, do things that are relaxing and fun. That's all good for us, but sometimes it's hard to actually enjoy it when we're feeling stressed about it. So let's talk through what are the most common experiences of stress during holidays and events and how to help you take care of you. And we're going to use my acronym, care, C for clean eating, A for adequate sleep, B R for recovery activities, and E for exercise. So I'm going to be guiding you and giving you some tips you can use right away. As soon as you listen to this podcast episode, you're going to be armed and ready to go in your life. So first of all, again, it can be just a time stress. How do I have enough time to complete everything while also taking good care of myself? And so sometimes It's a matter of prioritization. How do we just sit for a minute and think through your schedule and and even write it out? Whether you keep your calendar on in an online device or you write it out on a piece of paper. But let's get your day to day schedule planned out, your time management in your priority so that you're sure you're getting to accomplish the highest priority things. Now this is the thing I always wish the days could be longer and a priority list we could get more done each day. Believe me, I'm the first on the list of wishing for that. But at the same time I'm more and more acknowledging that the 24 hours we have in a day is the way it is. We live on planet Earth. That's what we're dealing with. It's not going to change. So how do we determine what's most important in a day? And what I am encouraging all of you to do is to put yourself high on that list. And I know this goes against sometimes what we're taught because we're kind of taught to think of others before ourselves. But the truth is if we're not taking good care of ourselves, we're not going to be able to take care of anybody else. And so sometimes that's a really hard lesson and we have to purposely and with a lot of intention and practice doesn't help to be hard on yourself. I want you to just practice. And that's why I like to use my self care notebook because then you can write down what am I going to try today, what's my schedule right now and then see how it works out, identify what worked and didn't work, make some tweaks and then do it differently the next day. So really use this as an opportunity to use is a practice. Prioritizing self care is a practice. And so that's why I want to talk you through with some tips. And in my book the Master your Stress Reset yout Health Book, it's in the very last chapter of the book which I give you permission to skip to the last chapter where I give you some examples of a self care routine. What do from the minute you wake up, hour by hour, what are you going to be doing, what's the first thing you're going to do, what's the next thing you're going to do and really go through this time management. I remember because of my background and my degree I had to do this when I was in college and it really has stuck with me. I've done it multiple times since then or all the time frequently since then. But I realized that having that opportunity to write down your schedule and look at how am I spending my time, what did I do for the last 15 minutes? What did I do for the last hour? Does it really match up with what my priority is today and this week can help that practice can help you to fine tune what you're doing with your time. And it comes into play with the holidays and events because again, now your priorities are shifting. Now you go, oh, I have this event I need to go to at 6pm so what do I need to get done during the day so that I can get to that event? Or what do I need to get done today and tomorrow and the next day so that I'm ready for this holiday party or guests coming over? Right. So really taking this as a chance to do your planning ahead and in that planning ahead for an event, make sure you're planning for your self care. So what does that mean? Well, care is C for clean eating, A for adequate sleep, R for recovery activities, and E for exercise. So let's talk through some examples. And for clean eating, everyone might be starting in a different place, right? So some of you might be starting with, hey, we need to look at where the sugar is there too much sugar in your diet or in your beverages and let's reduce the sugar because what happens when we consume more sugar as actual sugar versus I'm not referring so much to fruit, I'm thinking of like white sugar. What happens is it tends to raise our blood sugar and then our blood sugar dips again. So we're on this blood sugar roller coaster which disrupts our energy, our focus, our mood that's going to throw you off. You're not going to be near as productive with your routine if you've got this sugar throwing you off. Right now you're dealing with this extra layer of a blood sugar roller coaster. So as much as you can look through any foods that you're eating, even your protein shaker and protein bars, your beverages you drink, and look for sugar on that label. And if it has sugar in there, then try to find a replacement for it. And certainly you can just decrease your consumption of foods that you definitely know have sugar. And definitely if you're adding sugar to recipes, you could just stop adding the sugar. And so by starting to decrease sugar now, instead of being on this big loop de loop roller coaster, you're going to be on a nice smooth roller coaster now. Yes. If you're really struggling with your blood sugar. Sometimes we have to take it to next steps. I really help patients to even do continuous glucose monitoring and figuring out what, how to help them manage their blood sugar levels better. Because that's a key piece I find for every kind of health issue, is making sure we have your blood sugar as balanced as possible. The other thing that helps, and this includes just day to day, but also especially during the holidays, is I also like to aim for protein. That's the way I think about it. Whenever I sit down to eat something, I've trained myself to ask myself, where's the protein? So every meal needs to be balanced. It, it should have. And, and I don't even mention snacks. I don't, I don't. Cuz snacks usually are just carbs and sugar. So we don't, that doesn't even, we don't even need something that's only carbs. So forget the snacks. We just want nice balanced meals that are gonna have some protein, some healthy carbs with high, some good fiber in there like vegetables, fruits for example, maybe nuts or seeds or legumes if you like to eat legumes. And then we need some healthy fats because the healthy fats and the protein help stabilize your blood sugar and they give you energy, sustainable energy and focus. Okay, so these are some of my starting tips. In fact, if you're going to a holiday event or party, what I do is I actually eat a small balanced meal before I go to the party because this way I know I already ate, my blood sugar is not going to be all over the place. I'm not going to be hungry and hang, I'm going to be fed and I don't, we don't always know what food might be available when we get there. So this way, you know, you ate and you didn't, you don't feel full because you just have a small meal that's balanced. So now you can go in with good energy, feeling good. And if they happen to have something at this event that you like to eat and it matches for your body, great. You know, then you can have a little bit more, but it doesn't mean you're going in starving. And then, then it's already going to be a diffic experience for you, right? So eat something especially with protein and healthy fats before you go to the party. And I would say that's how I choose to. Even before I came to record this podcast, I had something with protein and healthy fats and vegetables. So I'm like ready to go okay. So that's part of clean eating. And with any of this, I'm just starting with some beginning tips. If you're like, oh, I need to learn more about this, then I'll put links down below so that you know. Okay, you want to know what the next steps are? Definitely the next steps are in the Master of Stress book and they're also. I'll share them in my. The link below where I have a seven day self care reset. So I teach you more tips and how to integrate them into your life in a way that's doable and doesn't stress you more. That's the key. Right? Like we're trying, I'm trying to help you, support you through stress. I don't. My goal is not to stress you more. Okay. So that was the c. So some ideas in terms of sleep is. It's mostly just setting a time where you know you're gonna need to get into bed and get to sleep and figure out your bedtime routine before that. So what are you gonna. What are the things you need to do? Like I'm always like, I need to start the dishwasher, we need to brush our teeth, whatever, other things. And maybe you're gonna do a meditation, maybe you're gonna do some journaling. What are the things that you can like really also tell your nervous system and your body that it's time to wind down and head towards bed so that you can get at least, hopefully at least seven and a half hours of sleep. And if you're not sleeping well, I have a ton of resources for you. I'll put a link down below because I have, I wrote a book about helping with insomnia and I have many blog posts and articles for you about that. So we're. I'm here to help you if you're not sleeping well. In terms of the R for recovery activities. Here's where I think about it is part of your self care routine. So say during the holidays, even if you're. I said to a patient today, even when you're around your family and you're all in the same house for let's say the weekend or several days, and sometimes what happens is we lose track of our own self care when that's happening. So what I encourage her to do and I encourage all of you to do is set out your schedule and even communicate it with your. Your. If you have kids or your spouse or whoever you're traveling with or whoever you're hanging out with, say to them, here's what I'm what I'd like to accomplish today and here's what time I'm thinking and get used to communicating about that. Hey, I'd like to spend some time outside. Would you guys like to go for a walk with me? Or I'm going to go for a walk by myself at this time and I'll be back in 20 minutes. Right? Or because we know spending time in nature and getting some sunlight exposure is really good for your circadian rhythm, really good for resetting your stress response system. So it's like, okay, let's prioritize getting some time in nature. However that looks based on where you are and what you're up to. Also, things like journaling, meditation, mindfulness, singing, playing instruments, playing music. And these are things, a lot of things you can do with others, right? Like laughter, singing, music we can do together. So if you just say to yourself, hey, I really want to go down my checklist and make sure I get some recovery activities in today. Maybe some other people want to do it with me. Playing games is a great way to have fun and laugh with others. So this is ways that we can get in the stress recovery. Even when you're at an event or with traveling with other people. And the E is for exercise. So depending on where you are with your exercise at this moment in time, if you have not been exercising regularly, just start with five minutes. Or if you're around a group of people and you don't only have so much time to yourself. But I definitely encourage you to still get your exercise in. You know, especially if you have an event later in the day, be like, okay, I definitely need my 30 minutes. And that could be core strengthening. That could be going for a walk, that could be yoga, that could be breathing, it could be doing some strength training or a hiit workout. Like it needs to match for you. And I always in the book, I encourage you to tailor your exercise based on your stress type. So if any of you have not yet, if you don't yet know your stress type, make sure you go to the stress type quiz. It's drdonnie.com quiz find out your stress type because then I can guide you with how to implement these care activities. Actually based on your stress type, it's important. It makes a difference. Which means that your stress type is based on how stress disrupts your cortisol and adrenaline. Some of us it goes too high, some of us it goes too low. And how you implement care. And the supplements you take is different. If you have high cortisol versus low cortisol, for example. That's why you need to know your stress type. So do the quiz and then you'll get emails from me where I teach you. Here's the supplements that are going to help balance your cortisol and adrenaline. Because if cortisol and adrenaline are out of balance, even if you're doing good self care, you're probably not going to feel good. Because the cortisol, just like when blood sugar's off, if cortisol is too high or too low and you're on this roller coaster of cortisol or adrenaline, then it's going to affect your mood, it's going to affect your energy level, it's going to affect your body weight, it's going to affect your digestion, your focus. I mean, your productivity and your enjoyment of your life is going to go way down. And so I don't want that for you. I want you to feel good. And that's why I figured out that we each need to know our stress type so that then you can go, okay, my cortisol is too high at this time of day. I need to take these supplements to help bring it down and I need to implement care in a way that's going to help keep my cortisol from going too high. Right? And these are doable things we can actually do. They're not addictive, they're not harmful, they're not side effects. The only side effect is that it helps you feel good and prevent health issues. That's a good side effect. So definitely find out your stress type and use the Master Stress book. And then you can also do my 7 day stress reset where I teach you how to do this in more videos. And then there's the Stress Warrior program where I teach you how to use the right supplements to optimize your cortisol, adrenaline and neurotransmitters, which is like serotonin, dopamine and gaba. These can all be optimized. Then what I find is when my patients have optimized cortisol, adrenaline and neurotransmitters, they can enjoy their holidays and events so much more. And once they've really fine tuned their care routine, then they're like, okay, I got it. I can do the holidays and I know what to do to take care of myself in the process. And if you, or if you're listening to this and you're like, maybe you feel like the tidal wave of the holidays and events just came crashing over you and you're like, you're like, I can't move, I'm tired, I'm anxious, I can't sleep, I'm gained weight, I'm bloated, all the things, right? If that's how you're feeling, then it's definitely time for a reset. And so that's the perfect time to the seven day self care reset. And I set it all up, it's online, you can start anytime. I guide you with the videos and talk you through, teach you so that your even has a meal plan so that in blood sugar balancing so that you can get back on track again. So you can be like, okay, yeah, those holidays I was not prepared for, they crashed me, crashed me down. But I am ready now to pick up again and get back on track so that going forward you can really enjoy yourself. So I just wanted to mention a couple more things which is say you're getting ready to go to a holiday event. As I mentioned, get that clean, eating protein before you go. Also, there's a supplement called GABA support. It's the most popular stress management and mastering supplement in my practice. That's why it's in the nature empowered product line. It's called GABA support. It has GABA and theanine. You take it, it works within half hour to 60 minutes. It does not make you sleepy, non addictive, it's just nutrients and substances that help buffer the stress. So to me this is like if you know you're going to a holiday party and you don't know what kind of triggers you might bump into, take a gab of support before you go. Also take an immune support because of course when we're around other humans we could get exposed to viruses and we want to help you prevent getting sick when you go out to an event, right? So take a GABA support, take an immune support and I would usually even take an immune support when I get back home again. So this way, in case I get exposed to a virus, I'm able to help my immune system fend it off. And if you need more help, if you do catch a cold or other virus, I'll put the link to my cold and flu survival guide. So you can just follow, I have it all listed out for you. Exactly what to do to help you recover faster because that's the would be the worst is when you end up sick and now you feel now it's taking you a week or longer to recover just from going to an event. So right. So it's like okay, now you're armed and ready, you can go in and be buffered with GABA support. You fed yourself well. You took care of yourself during the day. You're getting your immune support, so you know how to protect yourself from viruses you might get excited, exposed to. So now you can really actually enjoy yourself now. One other thing at the party is of course, a lot of times parties have alcohol. And I'm not saying that you have to have zero alcohol. A moderate amount of alcohol is okay for most people. Some of you maybe just choose not to have alcohol and that's fine too. If you choose to have alcohol, make sure you're having water. In fact, if I'm going to have a little bit of wine, what I try to do is bring a biodynamic, like organic wine so I know I'm drinking a wine that my, that does better for, better for my body and then I'm drinking. If I'm drinking alcohol, then I'm also having a glass of water. So it's almost like you need two drinks. Let's make it normal to have a glass of water with your alcoholic drink because water helps your body to metabolize and detoxify the alcohol. The other things that help definitely in addition to water, is getting sleep. You can also take something called Nac N acetylcysteine to help with metabolizing alcohol. And probiotics have been shown to help with with metabolizing alcohol as well. So I'll list those for you down below so you know where to get them. We have these things for you here at my website because I want you to have access to what I see works for my patients. You can have access and we'll put the links for you so you're covered. You know what to do. And I'm so glad you joined me here. I can't wait for the next episode of How Humans Heal. Please let me know if there's anything you really was helpful or you'd like for me to cover in more depth. And make sure you join my newsletter, subscribe to the podcast and and, and let me know what what you'd like to hear more. All right, thanks for joining me and I look forward to seeing you next time. Happy holidays, happy events, happy New Year, whatever's going on. When you're listening to this, I'm there to celebrate with you and help, help make it really fun and enjoyable and it doesn't have to make you feel worse. That's the goal, right? We want you to feel good, enjoy it, and come out the other side ready to continue with your goals and intentions. All right, talk to you soon.

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