Do the holidays make you sick?
Is it still Jan 1? I feel like days are moving faster than I am. I'm still trying to reflect on 2022! I have a half written email that I'd like to get out to you someday on the recap. It was another transformative year--But I don't want to be rushed in writing it. That week between Christmas and New Year's was nice but instead of finding myself curled on the couch writing, reading, reflecting like I had envisioned, I was just plain curled on the couch. I guess that's what I needed and my body left me no other choice than to take the time to come to full stop. For two days I slept. I was sick for the week of interlude and was pretty ineffective at anything more than sleeping.
Anyone else? Anyone else find they finally get a chance to take a break and instead find yourself sick? It probably has more to do with your nervous system and less to do with how many times Aunt Sally kisses you and the kids directly on the lips. We may not think of holiday preparations as putting us into fight or flight mode. There's no real danger in Christmas cookies or wrapping gifts. But you do recognize that you're stressed trying to keep up and get it all done?
In December, in our house, it's also our oldest son's birthday and our anniversary. This year it wasn't just any birthday or anniversary but 18th birthday and 20th anniversary. No passing celebrations for these milestones! Add in two high school basketball players and a ballerina in her first year on pointe in the Nutcracker. Christmas fits in there somewhere too. On top of that, we operate three businesses which also need decorated, holiday sales run, specials offered and year end financials tied off. Aaron's business has year-end crunch to prepare for tax season once January arrives, and in the health and wellness industry January is our hottest season, so its one busy season that bleeds into another. And I don't think our story is unique or special. We haven't won the December fullest calendar award. While I'm in it, I'm just in it. We're just doing the thing, keeping up, getting it done. It isn't until I stop and sleep for two days and everyone in the house is also sniffly and sleepy that I realize what we just lived through. I said to someone its like I've had too much chocolate cake. It's all so good, we've just eaten too much of it.
Stress puts the nervous system into response mode. Even if it's good things we're doing, the body is doing its job to help us keep going. It is pumping your system full of adrenaline and cortisol (together, known as epinephrine). Epinephrine is responsible for increasing your levels of energy and focus–and immunity. Think about it, you can't get sick if you're running from danger! These are awesome hormones. Needed. There are GOOD types of stress and healthy amounts of it. And then like anything, too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing. Your body/nervous system doesn't know the difference between a bear and a company Christmas party. Staying in that sustained alert will begin to take its toll. AND that state can't be sustained forever.
So when Christmas finally comes…the work is over, the list crossed off. You find yourself with days off, snowed in, that beautiful moment has come where you get to catch your breath… and instead you've caught a virus. You may first think it's all the people you've been around, and that plays a part, but with regular practices in place, your immune system would have been able to fight the germs and keep you well. You are sick because you stopped. Those hormones keeping you going and keeping your immune system on high alert have receded. There is a negative effect of epinephrine--too much of it and it can cause heart damage, high blood pressure, anxiety and interrupt your ability to sleep. (some of these sound like symptoms I was blaming the holidays on as well!)
This isn't true only at Christmas time. It can happen during the daily grind. If you're overworked, overwhelmed, burned out and stressed out, you'll be able to keep going–to keep grinding–until everything comes to a grinding halt when you get sick. Or when you go on vacation, or have a holiday. It probably isn't just that you caught a cold or the flu, it's more that you reached the point that the mind/body can't handle any more stress. It needs a reset. If you aren't giving it one regularly, it will wisely take what it needs.
The good news for next Christmas is that there is a way to do it all without spending New Year's Day in bed. And you can practice it as you live your very full daily life throughout the coming year. Sustain a full schedule by creating a rhythm of rest. A routine including resets. Take the time to build it in now, or the body will make you take the time when you really don't want to.
Simple Suggestions
I'm sure these are nothing new and are definitely not hard or earth shattering, but small steps make the greatest difference over time
Meditation: 5-10 minutes is effective at resetting the brainwaves from beta to alpha
Mind-Body connecting exercise: yoga, pilates, walking, something that gets you out of just thinking or just doing into a both/and flow state
Breathe: breath is most closely connected to the nervous system. Long deep breaths, with a longer exhale than inhale, as long and as often as needed, will slow the stress response
Watch your thoughts. Stress first comes from how you're thinking about life, not just from life itself
Chronic behaviors lead to chronic conditions. A holiday break won't fix the state you live in every other day of the year, but it may point to how you can save yourself from holiday/vacation/weekend depletion disease. Old habits are hard to break, and new ones are hard to create, but post-New-Year-illness me knows it's worth it. Obviously, I'm not perfect, but we are always better with someone alongside us guiding a better way.
Here, as always, to walk with you, to find the ways, the spaces and the patterns (and keep you accountable) as we design your wellness in order for you to be able to live the life you desire.