The holiday season doesn’t have to be so difficult! A physical therapist and wellness coach share their top five tips for boosting mental and physical health this year.

The holidays can be a time of overwhelming stress. One study found finances, family dynamics, and maintaining healthy habits to be the top stressors during this time of year.[1] Yet, health doesn’t have to feel so overwhelming.

I sat down with Eric Ullman, a physical therapist and founder of ReThrive Wellness so we could share our top tips for maintaining healthy habits this holiday season.

Key Take-Away Points: 5 Tips to Boost Your Health During the Holidays

Tip #1: Keep Moving

  • Do short, flexible routines that can be incorporated throughout the day. This can be worked into your holiday activities, like cooking, decorating, and shopping.
  • Keep equipment to a minimum to make it simple and convenient.
  • Rest to decompress your spine.
  • Involve your friends and family – consider getting the whole family to go for a walk after a big holiday meal.
  • Choose something fun so it doesn’t feel stressful.

Tip #2: Do Something Enjoyable First

  • Each day choose one thing that improves your mental health and do it first. Rather than prioritizing all your chores and tasks first, prioritize something that boosts your well-being.  Think of these activities as preventative, rather than a luxury. You are preventing burnout!
  • If you choose activities you enjoy, this will feel easy. As James Clear writes in Atomic Habits, to make a new habit stick, it must feel easy!
  • Remember “Parkinson’s Law,” a concept discussed in Oliver Burkeman’s 4,000 Weeks: Work expands to fill the available time. If we put off our self-care until the holiday work is done, we’ll never get to it!

Tip #3: Stay Hydrated

  • Carry a water bottle wherever you go so you drink throughout the day.
  • Use phone reminders to help you stay hydrated.
  • Eat water-rich foods like oranges, apples, cucumber, and celery so you don’t have to drink all your water.
  • Drink water first thing in the morning to get the day started right.
  • Drink one glass of water for each drink containing caffeine or alcohol, to help with dehydration.

Tip #4: Control Your Stress Response

  • You can override your stress response by controlling your breath. Our bodies send signals to the brain, which then interprets how we feel and mounts the appropriate response.
  • Controlling our breath is one of the easiest, quickest, cheapest ways to override our body’s stress signals. We can do this anytime, anywhere and no one has to know!
  • Try the “Perfect Breath,” a five-second inhale followed by a five-second exhale for five-minutes.

Tip #5: Hire an expert!

  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help this holiday season!
  • ReThrive has a team of experts who can comprehensively tailor a rehab and wellness experience to your needs. Whether it’s physical therapy, occupational therapy, medical massage, or wellness coaching, we can help develop or maintain your healthy habits.
  • Wellness coaching can help you learn to make simple, but proven, lifestyle changes to improve your health, manage your stress and anxiety, and live a more purposeful life. You can feel calm and be well – let’s work on it!

Small Changes, Big Transformation

These are small changes we can make this holiday season to prioritize our health and build resilience. Wellness doesn’t have to feel so overwhelming. Give these practices a try this season and let us know how it goes!

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[1] https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/holiday-stress-brain