Relaxation Techniques for The Holiday Season

The Christmas or holiday season may be one of the happiest times of the year, full of celebrations, get-togethers with family and friends, giving and receiving, food and beverages, and generating magnificent memories of love, happiness, and cheerfulness.

And around the holidays, a variety of emotions, including negative emotions such as worry, sadness, and stress, might arise. During the holidays, many people face greater stress as they attempt to plan perfect Christmas celebrations, cope with family conflict, holiday shopping, and financial strain, and balance work and social responsibilities.

Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, most people's lives get busier, making it more difficult to find time for relaxation, exercise, and proper rest. However, regular relaxation is essential to our well-being and mental health.

Besides other relaxation techniques, using certain essential oils for stress, anxiety, and exhaustion is a fantastic way to feel a new sense of equilibrium, harmony, and relaxation during this stressful holiday season.

Relaxation Techniques for The Holiday Season

A moderate degree of stress can boost our creativity and motivation, as well as improve our memory and learning, but an excessive amount can be damaging. An accumulation of anxiety and frustration can knock us off the balance if its effects become too intense.

Here are some relaxation techniques that will make this holiday season calmer, smoother, and stress-free.

Avoid Unpleasant Events

You need to identify the sources of your holiday stress. If, for example, a particular Christmas tradition causes more worry and discomfort than happiness, allow yourself to start behaving differently; start focusing on and producing more of what makes you truly happy and relaxed.

Be Physically Active

It might be challenging to stay active during the holidays. However, regular exercise is essential to your overall well-being, and this becomes even more crucial during the cold, sluggish winter months.

Regular physical activity, whether it's a brisk stroll after lunch and dinner, stretching and running, playing your favorite sport a few times a week, or performing yoga, can benefit your stress levels and overall health.

Try putting 3-5 drops of lemon essential oil in a diffuser if you can't seem to get yourself to the gym. Harmony's Essential Oils - Lemon smells fresh and energizing, which will make you feel more focused, relaxed, and ready to put on your workout clothes. It also works well as a deodorant and an air freshener. During the holiday season, you should consider it a must-have addition to any blend you use at home.

Breathe Deeply

A simple breathing technique will help you relax wherever you are by calming your anxious mind and body. Get comfy on a bed, couch, or floor at home and put one hand on your belly. Take a deep breath in for three counts, and then let it out for three counts. Feel the rise and fall of your belly with each breath and expiration. It's best to do this five to ten times, depending on how relaxed you are¹.

Do Mindfulness Meditation

"Being mindful" is all about living in the present. This can be helpful in managing anxiety. In addition, it is simple. Take five to fifteen minutes to close your eyes, relax, and concentrate on breathing. From your feet to your head, move your attention through your body, noting how everything feels. This daily routine is regarded as a practice that is extremely beneficial to your body, mind, and soul.

Meditation has been shown to have numerous health benefits, including improved self-awareness and awareness of the world around you, the ability to step back and view difficult events with fresh eyes, increased intuition, inventiveness, and creativity, a more optimistic outlook, self-control and moderation, better sleep hygiene, more patience and tolerance, and lower anxiety and stress response².

Moreover, you can meditate while doing just about anything, including going on a stroll, taking the bus, waiting at the doctor's office, or even sitting through a stressful business meeting.

Find a quiet, private spot in your home before work, a peaceful park over lunch, or your office when you know you won't be interrupted. Ensure that you have a minimum of five minutes of quiet time.

Feel Relaxed with Harmony's Essential Oils - Relaxation

Carrying essential oils can be beneficial if you are prone to stress or anxiety over the holiday season. The aromas of certain essential oils are known to induce quick feelings of peace and relaxation.

It is believed that bergamot essential oil might help with stress, despair, and anxiety. It also emits a very energizing aroma, which could help you unwind in your house or car. Although you might use bergamot oil alone, it is most effective when blended with other essential oils. The orange essential oil also alleviates anxiety and depression. Additionally, orange oil has an uplifting scent.

Harmony's Essential Oils – Relaxation is a blend of bergamot, orange, and lavender essential oils. Consider adding this relaxing oil to your diffuser if you're experiencing heightened stress levels throughout the Holiday season. It is widely believed that this oil can assist in energizing the body as well as improving moods.

Harmony's Essential Oils – Relaxation is a great way to brighten your home. Use an Ultrasonic Aroma Diffuser to set the mood for a happy, upbeat day. The lovely fragrance will naturally diffuse throughout the home, creating a relaxing atmosphere.

Try To Laugh More

Laughter has instant, beneficial impacts on the body. Not only can laughter relieve your mental load, but it also promotes physical changes in the body. Laughter increases the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your organs, which in turn strengthens your heart, lungs, and muscles and triggers the production of feel-good endorphins in your brain. Moreover, laughter can both stimulate and ease your stress response.

So, try to laugh this holiday season as much as you can.

Don't Drink or Eat Too Much

It's common to seek comfort in unhealthy eating or drinking when feeling overwhelmed. However, this solution is just temporary and ultimately generates further issues. Maybe all you need is to take a step back, relax a bit, have a good laugh, and take a deep breath.

Listen To Music

Try listening to music when it becomes difficult to escape the downward spiral induced by overwhelming stress and anxiety. Music has the ability to instantly alter our mood by influencing our subconscious mind, where troubling negative thoughts feed on our anxieties and stoke the flames of stress. Music is a reasonably inexpensive, quick-acting, and virtually always available option.

While listening to music, you can use Harmony's Ear Candles for ultimate relaxation. Smoke, aromatherapy, and ambient sound work together to relax you and promote natural healing. 

Take A Relaxing Bath

A relaxing and warm bath is soothing to the soul. You can relax your mind and body and take some time off from your problems by adding a few drops of Ylang Ylang essential oil to your bath.

This essential oil is said to have a sedative and soothing effect, making it great for preparing the body and mind for sleep. Many people who have tried the oil have found that it helps them relax and unwind, making it a great choice for adding essential oil blends during the stressful holiday season.

The next time you take a bath, try this fantastic bath salt recipe using Harmony's Essential Oils – Happy (a blend of Ylang Ylang, bergamot, lemon, and melissa essential oils) and OSI Magnesium Bath Flakes. Magnesium is an essential mineral for body, and bath flakes are a calming approach to raising magnesium levels.

Ingredients:

• Harmony's Essential Oils – Happy 6 drops
• Harmony's Essential Oils – Geranium 4 drops
• Harmony's Essential Oils – Grapefruit 4 drops
• OSI Magnesium Bath Flakes 2 cups

How To Use:

Combine the bath flakes and essential oils in a bowl or jar. Pour the mixture into a bathtub half-filled with warm water and stir until it is completely dissolved. Then, fill the tub with hot water. Soak for at least fifteen minutes to experience this bath salt mixture's relaxing and purifying properties.

Just Go with The Flow and Accept Imperfections

As we prepare for the holidays, we frequently raise the bar unreasonably high for ourselves, only to be disappointed when our celebrations fall short of our expectations.

Before you begin preparations, recognize that things may not go as planned. It's all right if it isn't perfect. Imperfection is normal and healthy. Some of us may require a little practice.

React Kindly

During the holiday season's stress, you cannot control the actions of others, but you can control your responses to situations.

Whenever I have to deal with a challenging individual, I remind myself that their behavior results from their own pain. It lessens my anger, encourages me to be more empathetic, and reminds me that it is not personal. Take several deep breaths if things become tense with someone. These few breaths can alter your perspective and provide new insight.

Remember that the holidays are particularly challenging for people who are alone. Consider performing a nice gesture for people without family and friends throughout the holiday season.

Massage Your Stress Away with Harmony's Essential Oils - Peppermint

Not only does the aroma of peppermint have the power to transport you back to joyful holiday times, but it also has the potential to be an excellent essential oil to use in a massage blend for the cold season.

Peppermint essential oil is commonly used to relieve painful muscles. Try this massage blend containing Harmony's Essential Oils - Peppermint if you've been rushing to complete office work and Christmas activities before the deadline. The aroma alone is enough to put you at ease and do wonders for your sore muscles.

Ingredients:

• Jojoba Oil 1/4 cup
• Harmony's Essential Oils - Peppermint 8 drops
• Harmony's Essential Oils - Lavender 8 drops

How To Use:

Mix thoroughly, then massage over the entire body. Warm the blend between your fingers and massage the feet, hands, shoulders, back of the neck, and temples with light-to-moderate pressure to alleviate any stiffness.

Reconsider Your Resolutions

Common New Year's resolutions are doomed to fail. If you are looking to improve yourself in the coming year, consider the following tips.

Break up your goal into smaller steps that you can work on throughout the year. To lose weight, you don't have to do anything extreme. Attempt to consume more vegetables during the first month and fewer sweets during the second.

Let it go if you failed to accomplish your resolution from the previous year or strayed off the road this year. We often make up stories that only make us feel worse. We may learn to recognize this inner critic, release its grip, and recommit to our goals without feeling any shame or guilt if we slip up now and then.

Improve Your Winter Skincare Routine

Neroli essential oil is the ideal essential oil for winter skincare. When diluted and applied topically, it is wonderfully hydrating and pampering, assisting in the healing of dry, dehydrated, and rough skin. Some aromatherapists claim that Harmony's Essential Oils – Neroli can lessen the appearance of scars like stretch marks, acne scars, and pitted scar tissue.

In addition, Harmony's Plantain Salve contains antibacterial and antiseptic characteristics that aid in clearing and cleansing the skin.

This winter, benefit from Harmony's Essential Oils – Neroli's calming and hydrating properties by mixing a couple of drops into a high-quality moisturizer, such as ŐSI Magnesium Body Butter, and then applying it all over your body. Neroli essential oil is photosensitizing; therefore, use it at night to avoid exposure to the sun.

Get 7-8 Hours of Restful Sleep Every Night

A survey by the American Psychological Association reveals that stress keeps more than 40% of Americans awake at night.

Some practices that contribute to a good night's sleep are:

• Going to bed every night at the same time.
• Avoiding coffee eight hours before bed.
• Quietly unwinding for one hour before bed (say no to electronics and housework, but yes to reading and a nice bath).
• You can also promote optimal sleep using Bodytox® Lavender Sleep Patches, which are based on reflexology principles. 

The Bodytox® Lavender Sleep Patches are formulated with high-quality natural substances, such as tourmaline oil, wood vinegar, etc., that help you relax and promote restful sleep. The use of lavender oil in these patches facilitates a restful night's sleep with fewer interruptions. Multiple studies have shown that lavender can create a calming and relaxing impact that can enhance sleep³.

The Bottom Line

The holiday season is intended to be filled with joy, laughter, and cheerful socializing, but this is not always the case. Your days may be packed with gift-buying, family gatherings, party planning, dreary weather, overeating, and lack of sleep. Preparing for the holidays can be stressful for everyone.

Therefore, this Holiday season, give yourself the gift of relaxation by trying above-mentioned relaxation techniques with the recommended natural products that can help make you more relaxed and your holidays more enjoyable. Whatever techniques of relaxation you decide to use, the key to living a healthy and well-balanced life is to make them a daily priority and create the habit of engaging in some form of self-reflection at least once every day.