With Christmas edging closer, now is the perfect time to embrace the festive cheer! However, that doesn’t mean your Christmas wellbeing has to take a pounding!

Christmas wellbeing is achievable

We believe that Christmas wellbeing is something we can all master and have a great time too!  Christmas is a time to nurture our physical and emotional health by connecting with loved ones, engaging in acts of kindness, and enjoying the simple pleasures of the festive period.  The spirit of giving and receiving, as well as indulging in delicious festive meals, can actually boost our sense of happiness and contentment. Additionally, taking time to relax, unwind, and focus on self-care during this time can contribute to overall wellbeing.  And what is more, being on top of your Christmas wellbeing will help you to step into the New Year a happier, healthier you

10 top Christmas wellbeing tips

1. Savour the moments – disconnect to re-connect. Christmas is all about spending quality time with families and friends. Our modern world makes it very hard to be truly present, but Christmas is a great time to practice this skill. Don’t spend Christmas getting a ‘buffer face’ watching endless movies, rubbish TV or surfing on Facebook. Disconnect from your screens to re-connect with the people that really matter in your life.

Fun Fact: Just having your phone on the table (even if it’s face down) is proven to reduce social trust and engagement.

2. Stay hydrated. Mulled wines, festive cocktails, binge drinking and even too much tea and coffee are enough to cause chronic dehydration. Set yourself up for success by getting into the habit of drinking a glass of water when you wake up every morning before doing anything else! Whilst drinking alcohol – set reminders to drink water between alcoholic drinks – one water one wine – and make sure you drink plenty of water before you go to bed!

3. Spend more time being than doing. Have you ever found yourself snapping over the tiniest things due to a build-up of life pressures? Although connecting with others is great for our health, spending 10 minutes a day to pamper yourself or just be on your own simply enjoying being rather than doing, is also vitally important. Nobody wants a stressed super Mum, sweating into the gravy, or a burnt out do it yourself Dad frantically trying to assemble the new toys with no instructions – that really isn’t good for our Christmas wellbeing!

Scheduling 10 minutes for yourself every day will reduce the festive frictions as well as giving your adrenal glands a much-needed break. (The adrenal glands produce the hormone, cortisol, which helps us respond to stress).

4. Give your digestive system a holiday too! No-one likes to be overworked at Christmas, so don’t force your digestive system to work back to back shifts either!

This is especially relevant if you eat lots of processed foods, drink alcohol or consume too much sugar. These are the worst offenders for cell damage. Our digestive system can only regenerate cells and repair damage when we are in a fasted state i.e. not digesting. Therefore giving your body a 12 hour break will reduce the amount of damage that takes place as well as increasing the amount of time the digestive system has to repair itself and process the night before’s over indulgence!

5. Focus on upgrades. There’s no escaping the fact that Christmas revolves around food and drink! You can still enjoy yourself by keeping ahead of your Christmas wellbeing with the basic 80/20 concept . In order to be have a healthy and balanced diet, you don’t always have to make 100% healthy food choices. 80% is enough! It helps you to balance your food intake, eat in moderation and occasionally indulge! Realistically Christmas is just one day so enjoy and truly savour every mouthful on Christmas day but try to upgrade your choices where you can over the whole Festive period.

6. Conscious consuming. Digestion starts in the brain; seeing and smelling food releases the correct enzymes to aid digestion, chewing your food properly then allows you to savour tastes whilst reducing the workload on your stomach acid. This is such an important rule! Humans cannot effectively digest foods in a sympathetic state i.e. stressed. This means when we are rushing around, having family feuds or shovelling food down our necks like it’s an Olympic sport – our body simply doesn’t absorb as many nutrients and our mind forgets we’ve even eaten! This results in over consuming empty calories, making us more and more nutrient deficient and increases those dreaded cravings!

If weight loss or maintenance is your long term goal, this one tip alone will save you A LOT of unnecessary weight gain and mean you won’t start the New Year with a sugar monster on your shoulder!

7. Move your lymphatic system. Your lymphatic system is your body’s waste removal system. It requires movement to eliminate the toxins your body is constantly processing. Otherwise, if these toxins hang around too long they get re-absorbed into your blood stream – yuk! Exercise is a great place to start to shift these toxins. Short bursts of jumping, dancing and sprinting are the best choices but power walking also has its benefits.

Other ways to move your lymphatic system include dry skin brushing, massage and relaxing in an Epsom salt bath for 10-20 minutes.

8. Get outside to experience the magic. Thousands of studies have been carried out on the benefits of being in touch with nature; from reducing depression and anxiety to lowering blood pressure. It can even help with ADHD and autism in children. You don’t need mountains or woods to reap the benefits of the great outdoors. Find parks, green spaces or even your garden, wrap up warm, throw on some wellies and encourage outdoor exercise and play!

9. Practice daily gratitude. Graduate, Shawn Anchor, has studied happiness at Harvard University for over 12 years. He found that writing 3 things you are grateful for every day for 21 days straight increased people’s happiness levels, decreased their stress load and even boosted their immune system! 

10. Give more than you ever expect to receive. I’m not talking about presents and I’m definitely not talking about money. In my opinion, the most valuable thing anyone can ever give – is their time.

Doing something for a friend, helping a stranger, volunteering, making a present, completing random acts of kindness or simply taking the time to genuinely thank someone will strengthen relationships and create experiences that material gifts can’t even get close to. Happiness is a choice. It is the best gift you can give others because it’s contagious!