Some useful and easy tips for Christmas stress relief!

Here are some tips for stress relief using herbs and relaxation for the Christmas period.

Hello Lovely and happy Tuesday!

Our mental, emotional and nervous systems all play a role in how we respond to stress and at this time of the year everything from financial stress, to spending hours travelling to family homes, social obligations and the excitement from Children and celebrations can all have an impact on our body.

Let's get organised, relaxed, refreshed and feel good. here are my top five tips with herbs and relaxation techniques.

1.. Make a pot of herbal tea such as chamomile, passionflower, blue lotus, melissa or valerian and drink it through the day. Yes taking calming herbs really helps you. Instead of drinking plain old water lets amp it up and make herbal tea! Hot herbal tea or iced cold its delicious and supports us.

2. Get good sleep. Make the effort to get to bed at a decent time and wake up refreshed. Nothing spells stress releif better than sleep. We all know that quality sleep equals quality lifestyle!

3. Have some herbal extracts in your formula to get you through the season. We can always add stress relieving herbs targeted to your needs in your blends and that always helps, all year around and not just at christmas.

4. Stop, take a breathe and just pause..... for a moment and take some deep breathes. Its true deep breathing can help us very quickly and it takes the body from the sympathetic ( flight and fight) nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system ( rest and relax) really fast if you do it right.

To breathe correctly you need to make the breathes deep through the nose , and put your focus on the out breathe, making it longer than the in breathe. You can do this as often as needed. Just pause, take three big long breathes, clear the mind and move on with your day. Thats the single best thing you can do to help yourself cope when its stressful.

5. Do things that make you happy. Go for a walk, eat a delicious dopamine enhancing piece of chocolate and laugh with your family and friends. Its good to drop the small stuff, get on with the goodness and enjoy the festive season. Make that your priority... to feel the joy! Then the stress can just drop away as it wasn't that big anyway!