The holiday season can bring up a lot of emotions around self, family, events, food, and more. This week on the Trimester Bubble, we chatted with Jessica Van Antwerp for a better understanding of stress and learned some helpful, practical ways to tackle stress this season!

Why is Stress Management Important?

Stress levels are a key indicator of overall health (as well as nutrition and movement). It’s a contributing factor to all major diseases and changes your body’s processes when heightened.

Finding ways to manage the stress of everyday life and the added stressors of life events and holidays can support your longterm disease prevention, help you absorb vitamins and minerals better, and support your body’s innate healing process.

Stress Management Ideas

Stress management can include anything that helps you breathe and slow down. This might look like:

• Getting a massage
• Take three mindful breaths
• Meditating
• Practice qigong
• Go for a walk in nature
• Spend time in a steam room
• Paint
• Dance
• Sip tea (without your phone around)
• Put your bare feet in the grass, sand, or water

Self Care

While “self care” can feel like a buzzword, it can be pretty simple and very helpful. During the relentless pace of the holiday season, your stress management practices will make great self care practices.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to self care, but we’ve put together some ideas to get you started on your self care path:

• Take time for yourself, even if it’s a couple minutes a day
• Connect with yourself through meditation and/or movement
• Grounding (learn more in the podcast!)
• Eat nutritious meals
• Get a good nights sleep

In this episode you’ll hear about:

• The common stressors and feelings that come up around the holidays like keeping your center around family and managing travel anxiety
• Understanding “grounding” and how to do it!
• Qigong as moving meditation for health
• Pillars of health: nutrition, movement, relaxation
• How our fight or flight response impacts our physical bodies and how to deal with daily stress
• Qigong as a way to connect with your growing baby and yourself
• What is self care really?
• The importance of managing your stress and the detrimental effects of unmanaged stress
• Taking control of your own health

Resources in this Episode:

• Pain-Free Pregnancy registration
• Body & Balance website
• Jessica’s Website for wellness coaching
• Jessica’s Website for Retreats
• Intro to Chigong online course: Use discount code “alottalove” for $100 off!

Learn:

• Episode 6: Staying Healthy This Cold and Flu Season
• Episode 7: It Takes a Village - Functional Medicine
• Healthy Holiday Eating
• Stress Free Home for the Holidays
• A Good Nights Sleep

Connect:

• Boulder Locals: Join our free, in-person Pain-Free Pregnancy community each quarter. Register here!
• Body & Balance: New patients start here
• About Dr Elyssa and Dr Katherine
• Connect with Body & Balance on Instagram
• Connect with Body & Balance on Facebook
• Connect with Jessica on Instagram @integral.travel
• Connect with Jessica on Facebook: integral.travel and jessicalynbodywork
• Enjoying the podcast? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review!

Disclaimer

This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of such advice or treatment from a personal physician. All readers/viewers/listeners of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding specific health questions. Neither Dr. Elyssa Wright nor Body and Balance Chiropractic. LLC nor the publisher of this content takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading, listening or following the information in this educational content. All viewers of this content, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement or lifestyle program.