Combatting Holiday Stress With Help From Your Chiropractor
The hustle and bustle of the holiday season can often bring with it an unwanted guest: stress. There is an endless tug on your time and wallet — parties, shopping, cooking, cleaning, entertaining, just to name a few. And for those who have to alter their holiday plans again this year due to the pandemic, the feeling of sadness and despair is compounded.
With the holidays just around the corner, it’s a great time to plan ahead and do a self-check of your physical and mental well-being so stress (and even depression) don’t stop the holidays from being merry and bright. Treating stress with chiropractic care may be just the self-care you need for a happy and healthy holiday season.
What causes stress during the holidays?
Stress can cause your holidays to not be merry and bright for many reasons. According to the American Psychological Association, 38% of people surveyed said their stress increased during the holiday season. Another survey said that 45% of Americans would rather skip the holidays than deal with the stress that comes each year.
As your body perceives stress, your adrenal glands make and release the hormone cortisol into your bloodstream. Often called the “stress hormone,” cortisol causes an increase in your heart rate and blood pressure. This is a normal reaction in humans (often called your “flight or fight” response) but when left unchecked, can lead to many other issues including chronic physical issues, anxiety, depression, illness, or a lack of sleep.
Even a simple physical stressor, like bad posture, can have a trickle-down effect and lead to subluxations that cause a physical stress response that releases more cortisol.
As stress attacks your body, it becomes increasingly difficult to do anything and you start to experience headaches, migraines, muscle aches, and back and neck pain. This feeling of constant pain and helplessness can lead to anxiety and depression. Rather than let these feelings overwhelm you, take control of your stressful situation this holiday season by asking your Chiropractor for help! Your chiropractor has many ways to relieve stress including:
Chiropractic Adjustments
Massage Therapy
Acupuncture
BrainTap
Yoga Classes
Reduce Muscle Tension & Stress with Chiropractic Adjustments & Massage
When under chronic stress, muscles will tense and contract. This can cause a person to grip their muscles in an unnatural position. For example, someone experiencing chronic stress may unconsciously hold their neck to one side, slump their shoulders, walk with an unnatural gate or sit with extremely poor posture while at their desk.
Chiropractic spinal adjustments and massage therapy can release the tension held in muscles, which relaxes the body and increases blood circulation. This action can help soothe the flight or fight response (high cortisol release) of the body.
Adjustments to the neck and spine also move those bones back into proper alignment. This action is important in removing the pressure placed on muscles and bones, eradicating nerve pain, and preventing nerve interference.
Proper alignment can provide relief from tension headaches and other physical pains. For many patients, pain relief also leads to an immediate reduction in emotional stress.
Acupuncture Helps Curb Stress & Anxiety
Acupuncture is mostly known for relieving pain within the body, but it can also relieve stress and anxiety. According to Chinese medicine, energy flows through our body through meridian pathways—often thought of as a highway system in the body. Stress acts like a traffic jam, blocking the free flow of energy (Qi) throughout the body.
Acupuncture treatment clears these roadblocks and helps energy flow smoothly, alleviating stress and anxiety altogether. It eases stress by releasing endorphins, which are natural pain-killing chemicals in the brain. Additionally, acupuncture improves the circulation of blood throughout the body, which oxygenates the tissues and cycles out cortisol and other unwanted chemicals. Lastly, acupuncture treatment is very relaxing and calming, which alone reduces stress by lowering blood pressure, decreasing heart rate, and relaxing muscles.
Guided Meditation Calms More Than Just the Mind
Your Chiropractor might offer a guided meditation program, such as a BrainTap. Called Braintapping, this is a quick and easy way (sessions are 10 to 20 minutes long) to relax, reboot, and revitalize by simply optimizing your brain’s peak potential. Backed by neuroscience and research, BrainTap’s guided meditations are proven to help people who experience high stress, difficulty sleeping, low energy, and other symptoms of holiday season stress.
Our BrainTap Headsets also bring a whole new dimension to your meditation sessions by adding the restorative power of light frequency therapy. In addition to the sonic effect of the audio sessions, the BrainTap Headset delivers gentle light pulses that travel through the ear meridians and the retina, sending direct signals to the brain and guiding you into an extraordinary brain state that would otherwise take years of disciplined effort to achieve.
Feed Your Mind & Body With Yoga
There are many reasons that almost 36 million American’s practice yoga and why we offer a free class every Monday. Yoga encourages mental and physical relaxation, which naturally helps reduce stress and anxiety. A recent study found that people who did an 11-minute Yoga Nidra meditation for 30 days reduced their stress levels, enhanced their overall well-being, and improved their sleep quality. Researchers found that these benefits stayed the same at a follow-up 6 weeks later.
The physical yoga poses, or asanas, promote flexibility, relieve tension, and alleviate pain by releasing both physical blockages and emotions and tension. Practicing yoga also promotes the release of mood-boosting endorphins, which are the feel-good hormones that can positively affect how you handle stress.
Enjoy a Stress-free Holiday Season
If you are one of the people who suffer from holiday stress, just remember that this is indeed meant to be the most wonderful time of the year. There are many ways your Chiropractor can help you combat holiday stress before you even feel it starting.
For more information on how the methods described above can help you, contact our clinic today. We look forward to working with you!
