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The end of the calendar year, planning for the next one, high hopes for New Year’s Eve and, as a result, frustration … For many, December becomes the most stressful month of the year. One common way to relieve stress is alcohol. However, alcohol consumption in large quantities only aggravates the psycho-emotional state. Consider more effective ways to relieve stress response.
Stress is a part of our lives, and it’s normal to experience it occasionally, but too much stress harms the psyche and physical condition. In fact, alcohol (like, for example, social networks) is a passive reaction to stress, a path of escapism, in which we do not solve, but mask the problem.
“It’s like putting all your problems in a big bag: you don’t notice them, but you always carry them with you. The more problems you accumulate, the heavier your burden becomes, – Dr. Jessami Hibberd is a registered clinical psychologist and author of eight books, including the bestselling Imposter Cure.
Avoiding problems will only make you feel worse in the long run. It is much better to take a proactive approach to a positive attitude towards stress. For example, if a stranger steps on your foot in a subway car, then you can have many responses: from neutral (step aside) and positive (smile) to the most negative (make a scandal). How you respond to a situation is your responsibility and your choice. Let’s look at positive options for getting out of a stressful situation.
Good planning
Foresight and planning for your workload in December will help you maintain balance both at work and at home. If you see every year that in December you have a lot of projects and tasks, then try not to take on a new one without finishing the old one. Or, if this is not possible for you, try to take some of the burden off your home. For example, buy New Year’s gifts in advance – you can start as early as October. Or do not take responsibility for organizing a New Year’s party, but go to visit.
Track your condition and analyze it
If you systematically feel heaviness in your shoulders or your head suddenly starts to hurt after one or another action (for example, after talking with a distant relative or a persistent customer), then this is probably how your body signals you about hidden stress or fatigue. Analyze the reasons for such a physical reaction: if you understand what exactly brings you discomfort, this will be half the solution to the problem.
Sports and physical activity
The Nagoski sisters, in a book on burnout, cite running and other physical activities as the main way to reset the stress response. The body does not know how to distinguish between sources of stress: since our reactions were laid down many millions of years ago, our body perceives any danger as an attack by a lion or other predator. In order to complete the stress response, the disappearance of the predator alone is not enough – the body continues to experience stress, it is necessary to escape from the source of stress. If you don’t have time to go to the gym or jog, then even minimal physical activity (squats) will help you complete the production of stress hormones.
Leave time for hobbies and entertainment
Even if you didn’t manage to unload December, don’t give up going to the skating rink with friends or walking in the park. There must be sources of positive emotions – they are what help your psyche and your body to understand that you are safe, among the people you love and appreciate. Communication with loved ones and especially physical contact (hugs, kisses) make you feel safe, and stress reactions come to an end.
Gratitude Principle
We thank the world and those around us for what we already have, and not for what we don’t have – which is why the principle of gratitude rewires our brain to positive thinking. Tonight, before you go to bed, remember three good things that happened during the day – for example, the weather was great today, the seller smiled at you in the store, a colleague said a kind word, or even just ate a very tasty cake.
Sleep and gadgets
Get better sleep and use fewer gadgets. You can set the warm screen mode after 21 pm to start producing melatonin, the sleep hormone.
Relaxation
In order to truly relax, it is not necessary to go to a spa: just lie down on a bed or any other horizontal surface and begin to relax each muscle in your body one by one. In addition, yoga and various breathing techniques help, as well as a warm bath at night, aromatherapy and herbal teas – or better, a combination of them.
Laughter and crying
All those emotions that have settled inside help to release two diametrically opposite actions – laughter and crying. If it’s hard for you to cry or really laugh right now, then theater and cinema give you a legitimate opportunity to release inner feelings. At the same time, it has been proven that our empathy for a fictional character is sometimes indistinguishable from a reaction to real events. And the New Year holidays are a good time to review Christmas melodramas or thrillers (depending on your taste and mood).
It is a common misconception that alcohol helps fight stress, as alcohol works as a depressant in high doses and the body is faced with even more stress. Moderate alcohol consumption is a smarter approach. And in the long run, a combination of the methods we’ve looked at should be used to manage stress. To learn more about responsible drinking, please visit is a 10-question test that helps debunk common myths about alcohol and its effects on the body.