Ho Ho Ho! It’s that time of year again—and as usual,
the holiday joke is on us!
It’s not enough that jobs, kids, in-laws, domestic partners—as well as various and sundry life situations—vie to afford us the maximum bang for our stress buck, add the holidays into the mix and pretty much all of us get the screamin’ meemies at least once between now and the New Year.
And don’t forget to factor into the equation that all of us are supposed to be thrilled and delighted that we
1. Get to spend too much money on all sorts of holiday related merriment
(Whee!) and not enough time enjoying it
(Yipee!)
2. Eat (and drink) too much
(Oh boy!)
3. Are required to spend way too much time with relatives and acquaintances we avoid like the plague most of the year.
(Who wants first dibs on predicting exactly when Uncle Al fall face first into the Figgy pudding?) And let’s not forget,
4. We are expected to be
hap, hap, happy—even when we really don’t particularly feel like being so.
Ahhhhh…holiday stress. It’s enough to make you want to hide under the Wassail Bowl with a blankie and an endless supply of hot toddies until the dawn of 2002.
But of course, you can’t.
So how to cope during a time of year when you can’t even seem to manage getting your underwear on the right way without suffering a total mental breakdown?
Well ya’ gotta
relax, bunky—
Progressively.
Progressive Relaxation is a stress reduction technique developed in the 1930’s by psychologist Edmund Jabobson; he believed that internal stress (the kind in plentiful supply around this time of year) manifests itself externally—and that to get rid of the stress on the
inside, we need to deal with the stress that shows up on the
outside. 
We all have a “center point” where most of the stress in our bodies resides. Some people clench their jaws, others their shoulders or their toes or facial muscles. (They don’t call them “stress lines” for nothin’!)
The key to relaxation of the mind lies in working on ferreting out all the small and large pockets of stress in our musculature, through a combination of rhythmic deep breathing and stretching of each muscle group in our bodies.
Believe it or not, it actually works—and it works so well that I have found myself nodding off while attempting to use this technique. It’s a wonderful way to take some time to do something good for yourself—and it’s a great way to “de-stress the mess” that is you during the holidays (or any other time of year for that matter!)
Here is one Progressive Relaxation exercise that takes about ten minutes and should be done daily. I like to do this one just before going to bed every night. This is just one of a number of different Progressive Relaxation exercises—but it’s among the simplest to do and is very effective.
It is however, an exercise that takes a little practice to get the maximum benefit. Don’t add to your stress level by feeling badly if results aren’t immediate for you. Stick with it and you will notice a marked improvement in your overall mood and disposition after just a few days of practice.
Find a quiet place, free of distraction and get comfortable. Being seated in a chair or reclining in bed or on the couch are among the best locales for this exercise. Soft music is a nice complement to this routine but it isn’t necessary.
Take a second to gently “shake out” the muscles in your arms and legs. (This is a chance to return to your childhood by pretending you are a big ol’ Raggedy Ann Doll.) Flop your arms and legs around a bit until the muscles start to relax.
Loosen up your neck muscles by slowly and
gently dropping your head in the direction of a shoulder. Note: This is
not a contest to see how close you can get your head to your shoulder!
Slow and gentle is best. Continue this gentle rolling motion around to your back, your other shoulder and then down to your chest. Repeat the motion until you feel your neck muscles begin to loosen.
Next, relax your shoulders by gently rolling them in a circle several times working out the kinks and relaxing those muscles as well.
Proper breathing is an important part of this next part of the Progressive Relaxation routine. Once you have loosened up a bit you should try and add slow rhythmic breaths to the next set of relaxation exercises. Close your eyes as you breathe in slowly and deeply through your nose, and exhaling softly through your mouth. Think of the exhalation as one more way to cleanse all that tension from your body. Start out by inhaling on a 5-count and exhaling the same way. In a week or so you can concentrate on working toward a 10-count inhalation/exhalation, but a 5-count is where most people start. Try to get 10 of these cleansing breaths into your routine before getting ready to work on relaxing the rest of your body.
Once you have begun releasing tension with your breath, it’s time to give the rest of your body a final nudge toward total relaxation with the following:
While you continue your cleansing breaths, begin your routine at the bottom of your body by concentrating on releasing tension from your toes. While inhaling, scrunch up your toes as hard as you can. (Keep the rest of your body relaxed—we’ll get to those other muscles soon enough!) As you exhale, unclench your toes and think about all the stress in your toes and feet being expelled with your breath.
Next isolate and clench the muscles in your feet, exhaling all the stress in those muscles away.
Repeat the clenching and releasing process in all your body’s muscle groups, from the tips of your toes (Don’t forget your arms and hands!) to the top of your head, until you have given every muscle a workout. The muscles in your face and jaw will benefit from a good “scrunch” as well. Not only will you relieve tension in one of the major stress targets of your body, the exercise helps tone your facial muscles as well!
If there are areas in your body where you know you store a lot of your stress, it’s a good idea to repeat the clench/release process more than once in order to get those muscles completely relaxed. For example, most of the stress in my body travels into my shoulders and jaw. I give extra attention to those areas when doing this routine.
Once you get the hang of Progressive Relaxation, you’ll discover it makes a tremendous difference in your ability to get a handle on things that stress you out.
The benefits of reducing stress are cumulative and trickle down into all facets of your life and health. Stress can be very draining both physically and mentally. Stress takes an incredible amount of energy to maintain. But if you take the time to dump stress from your daily dance card, you’ll have lots more energy to direct toward other more constructive things in your life. You’ll sleep better. You’ll feel more positive. You’ll digest all those fabulous holiday foods much more easily.
Reducing stress has been clinically proven to have major cardiovascular benefits as well.
But most important, when you take the time to get rid of the stress inside, you handle future stressful situations far better than if you allow new stress to build upon (and feed off) all the old stress you’re already carrying around. Overall, you’ll discover you have a much better outlook on life after doing this exercise than you had before it.
So take ten minutes each day to take care of you.
You’re worth it, yes?
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