The holidays are a time for everyone to take a break from work and while relaxing and joyous celebration may come up, it’s often a time that stirs-up a range of feelings. At times it may even bring about stress. It’s possibly not all negative stress, though when we feel overwhelmed and increase in tension and difficult emotions, it’s often a sign that our nervous system is dysregulated. It’s okay to not feel okay, there are different circumstances that may influence how we feel around this time. It’s when that sense of pressure is too high and we are unable to feel “like ourselves” that we may want to create a toolkit for stress release. These are a few tension relief activities that bring our bodies into a more balanced state and regulate that nervous system. While it may not bring relief from difficult emotions, stress may exacerbate what is already challenging. Stress relief provides us with more of an opportunity to move towards our own sense of self and reconnects us to our core identity. With that we are able to ground ourselves in our reality, make better decisions, tend to our own mental health, and connect with others and our values. With stress-management in the holidays, it opens the road to healthy coping mechanisms and gets us through tough times in a way that aligns with our goals and overall wellbeing. Here are some of our “go-to” quick calming techniques for short-term stress relief.

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