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Holiday anxiety is a real thing.

People with anxiety know it can have a significant negative impact on quality of life and their ability to participate in typical activities most of us engage in every day. Severe anxiety can prevent people from completing basic tasks such as getting up, getting ready for school or work, getting out of the house, getting to work or school, running errands, making it home, getting dinner ready, eating – and repeating it all the next day.

During the holiday season, added pressure can trigger an increase in anxiety symptoms: family issues, concern over money, and the urge to make the holidays perfect can all contribute all count as stressors that can cause problems.

If you have anxiety, we know you don’t want to have problems or experience challenges with these daily tasks. We know anxiety creates patterns of thought – which lead to patterns of behavior – that make some things feel almost impossible for you.

But we know something else. You can manage your symptoms and accomplish everything you need to accomplish – during this holiday season, and throughout the year – and live your life with your symptoms under control.

First, it’s important to follow your treatment plan. See your therapist or counselor, take medication as directed, if medication is part of your treatment, and do the things you and your treatment team identify as helpful and productive.

In addition to professional support with therapy and medication, you can also implement simple and effective lifestyle practices to help reduce holiday anxiety. You and your therapist develop tools to manage difficult emotions and navigate challenging situations, and medication can help regulate brain chemistry. However, the simple lifestyle tips we offer in this article are an important part of a holistic, comprehensive treatment plan for anxiety.

Managing Holiday Anxiety: Tips That Empower You

The holiday season is the perfect time to use complementary strategies to augment your existing anxiety treatment plan. The things on the list below aren’t therapy, in and of themselves. Rather, they’re things you can do to create a solid and healthy foundation for your mind and body, which increase the likelihood the work you do with your therapist will be as effective as possible.

Here are five things you can do this year – and every year – to keep that holiday anxiety in check:

1. Exercise/Activity.

Finding half an hour to an hour to exercise is an effective strategy to manage and reduce holiday anxiety. Go to the gym, go to a group exercise class, go for a walk, do yardwork – you choose, but whatever you do, get your body moving. Many people with anxiety find that a regular exercise routine helps reduce symptom frequency and severity. In addition to the three suggestions above, options include:

  • Aerobic activities: moderate-effort cycling, jogging, or swimming. Aerobic activity is any activity that increases your heart rate above resting, but only to an intensity you can maintain for 20 minutes or longer.
  • Anaerobic activities: include high intensity interval training – called HIIT classes – and any activity that involves intense effort you can only maintain for a short period of time.
  • Resistance training: this is the modern term for lifting weights – but don’t let that scare you. In 2024, resistance training can include everything from resistance bands to very light free weights to 100-lb kettlebells straight out of the World’s Strongest Man Competition. Light or heavy, resistance training can help you build muscle, lose weight – and reduce stress associated with anxiety symptoms.

2. Mindfulness.

Progressive relaxation, meditation, and simple mindfulness activities can help reduce symptoms of anxiety. Here’s a simple exercise you can do at your desk at work:

  • Sit up straight, but stay as comfortable as you can.
  • Take a deep breath in, and as you exhale, relax your neck and shoulders.
  • Take another deep breath in, and as you exhale, relax your torso and hips. Feel the weight of your body in your chair.
  • Take another deep breath in, and as you exhale, relax your legs and feet. Feel your feet flat on the floor.
  • To close, take three deep breaths, and on each exhale, repeat the relaxation cues above.

This exercise can help ground your body, center your thoughts, and help you manage any symptoms that may appear during your day at work. Here’s a version of progressive relaxation you can do at home before you go to sleep. Start out laying down on your back – on a yoga mat or you bed – and relax as you follow your breath in and out for 3-5 slow, deep breaths. Then follow the instructions below. Everything happens on an exhale, after a slow, deep breath in. On each exhalation, one body part at a time, relax your:

  • Feet, ankles, calves, knees, thighs, hamstrings, glutes, hips, low back, middle back, upper back, shoulders, arms, elbow/wrist joints, hands, neck, jaw, scalp, face.

Do it in order, head to toe. If your mind wanders, simply bring it back to your breath. Restart with the last body part you remember relaxing. When you get to your head – if you haven’t fallen asleep – follow your breath in and out for ten deep, slow breaths, then you’re finished. If you’re not in bed, get up slowly and give yourself a nice, feel-good stretch. If you’re in bed, then we encourage you to drift off to a nice solid 7-9 hours of sleep.

3. Journaling.

Keeping a daily journal can help you identify and resolve automatic patterns of thought that can contribute to anxiety symptoms. If you can name and identify them in your journal after the fact, you can then transfer this knowledge to your daily life, and use this knowledge to avoid, prevent, or take steps to manage your anxiety before you experience the trigger, i.e. the factor(s) you identified in your journal that led to negative thought patterns and feelings of anxiety.

Before the holiday season, we encourage you to reflect/journal about what has caused symptoms anxiety over the holidays in the past, so you’re ready to manage them effectively if you experience those same triggers this year.

4. Avoid Alcohol and Tobacco/Reduce Caffeine Intake.

It’s not uncommon for people with anxiety to use alcohol and tobacco to reduce symptoms. But research says they do the opposite. While alcohol and tobacco may offer temporary symptom relief, they exacerbate symptoms in the long run. Alcohol masks emotions but does not help process them, and nicotine is a powerful central nervous system stimulant. This study describes the negative impact of nicotine on brain areas related to panic and anxiety, while the new text revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR) includes a category of diagnosis called caffeine-induced anxiety disorder.

5. Sleep Hygiene.

Experts at Harvard University and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) indicate adults need at least 7 hours of sleep per night. Chronic lack of adequate sleep can lead to a variety of negative physical, psychological, and emotional consequences, including anxiety. Sleep scientists say attending to our sleep hygiene is essential:

  • Keep your bedroom dark and cool
  • Turn off all electronic devices half an hour before bed
  • Don’t doomscroll on your phone or tablet or laptop in bed
  • Create a relaxing routine before going to bed
  • Avoid intense exercise before bed
  • Go to bed and get up at the same time every day – even on weekends

During the holidays, it’s tempting to completely abandon your regular daily schedule. And you can – except for the parts essential to managing your anxiety. If you’re off work or on vacation from school, you can drop routines built around school and work. With regards to things like exercise, journaling, or mindfulness, it’s fine to skip a day, or maybe two, but that’s really about it. You create a routine for a reason: one or two missed days shouldn’t upset the apple cart. More than that, though, and you may experience negative consequences.

You Can Manage Your Anxiety

These five lifestyle tips are easier to implement than you may realize. If they appear overwhelming at first glance, then choose one and start there. Any of them can help reduce anxiety. If one works, try another. Then keep going, one step at a time, until you have five new strategies in place to help handle any extra stress and anxiety that appear during the holiday season – or at any time during the year.

If you have clinical anxiety, it’s important to learn strategies like these each day and make them a default part of your life. Implementing a new bedtime routine takes time and practice, but the point here is that during the holidays, remember to get plenty of sleep, because it will help keep your emotions steady and even. The other things on this list – even if they’re new to you – can be useful right away. You can exercise, try the two mindfulness exercises, and avoid tobacco, nicotine, and caffeine without planning or practicing. H you goal is to reduce frequency, intensity, and duration of anxiety and its symptoms, finding effective ways to cope is well worth the effort.