The holidays are here and while this time of year is exciting and energizing for many people, it can be exhausting and illness-provoking for others.

While most people feel happiness, love, and other positive emotions over the holidays, the American Psychological Association recognizes that those emotions are usually accompanied by feelings of stress, sadness, irritability, and fatigue.

In fact, more than one-third of people surveyed during the holidays report an increase in their stress level due to time constraints, financial concerns, commercialism, the pressures of gift-giving, and, of course, family gatherings.

It’s important that we don’t get lost in the hustle and bustle of traveling, buying presents, entertaining family and friends, attending parties, and other holiday shenanigans without also taking steps to preserve our mental and physical health.

Here are ten tips to preserve your wellbeing during the busy holiday season:

1. Maintain a healthy diet: We are bombarded with chocolates, baking, and many other goodies this time of year, whether given as gifts from clients or co-workers, or served during holiday parties. While it’s nice to indulge in your favorite treats occasionally, this time of year it’s easy to fall into a pattern of unhealthy eating. If possible, try to limit sugar intake by requesting your holiday espresso beverage “half-sweet”, restricting your alcohol intake, and limiting the number of treats that you indulge in. It also helps to eat as many vegetables as you can (always choosing vegetables over fruit, which is a natural source of sugar), in order to fill yourself with healthy food that provides much-needed vitamins and allows you to feel more “full” so that you eat fewer treats.
2. Get out in nature: Walking in the woods or taking a trip to the mountains can be incredibly therapeutic this time of year. Just 15 minutes in nature decreases our cortisol concentrations by 15% and 2 hours increases attention span and memory by 20%. So, bundle up (if it’s cold) and head outside for a dog walk, hike, snowshoe, or cross-country ski in nature.   
3. Find time to exercise: So often this time of year exercise moves to the bottom of our list of priorities. This can have detrimental effects on our mental health and leave us feeling sluggish, tired, and anxious. Many people have the misconception that unless exercise is performed for at least 30-60 minutes every day, the benefits are minimal. In fact, recent studies demonstrate that short bursts of high intensity exercise (20 second sprints on a stationary bike or treadmill with 2 minutes of rest in between for 10 minutes) has equal physical health benefits compared to 50 minutes of steady aerobic exercises at a moderate pace. This means that even if you have just 20 minutes per day to exercise, plan to do something high intensity and know that you are getting the same benefits as someone jogging for almost an hour! 
4. Practice mindfulness: Mindfulness is a non-judging awareness of what is happening in the present moment and it has a multitude of researched benefits including decreasing stress (no shortage of that during family visits), improving processing of emotions (which can run high this time of year), shortening the duration and severity of colds (who doesn’t get sick this time of year?), and improving sleep (very important – see #10). So, when you find yourself waiting in line or stuck in traffic over the holiday season, take a moment to bring attention to the feeling of your breath, sensations in your body, and any thoughts or emotions that are coming up. Remember that the intention is not to assess or criticize, rather simply to notice.       
5. Meditate daily: Meditation is one way to practice mindfulness and has the benefit of improving focus, regulating emotions, and enhancing problem-solving when performed routinely. While it might sound “hippy-dippy”, anyone, anywhere, anytime can meditate. All you need is 5 minutes of privacy and quiet when you can sit or lie down, bring awareness to your breath, and notice the sensations and thoughts that arise. For those who are new to meditation, it is usually easiest to use a recording for guidance. There are many apps that are easy to use including Calm, Insight Timer, Aura, Buddhify, or Headspace (all available on IOS or Android).
6. Don’t forget to breathe: Most of us rush through our days with shallow (upper chest) breathing only to feel exhausted and depleted by the time the evening rolls around. Deep conscious breathing has many benefits including improving energy levels, activating the parasympathetic (restorative) nervous system, improving digestion, relieving tension, and reducing reactivity. Place a hand on your belly and chest and notice where the movement is more noticeable. Then see if you can take 5-10 deep belly breaths when you consciously pull air deep into the chest, move your diaphragm down, and expand your belly. Then notice after how relaxed you feel.   
7. Connect with others: While there is no shortage of social engagements this time of year, very often they are filled with contrived superficial conversations with people we don’t know well. But it is important to make time for the people in our lives with whom we have healthy relationships and feel connected to. These relationships allow us to maintain a positive outlook on life, form secure attachments, have constructive interactions, and engage in restorative behaviors more efficiently. So, be sure to schedule coffee dates with close friends and family members in between all the other busy holiday gatherings.  
8. Make time for play: Play time is not just for kids! Benefits for adults include stress relief (releasing endorphins), improved brain function, stimulation of imagination, and enhanced connections with others. Play time is when you forget about work and commitments and are social in an unstructured way. Examples include playing board games, going bowling, singing karaoke, and having unstructured time at the park to build a snowman, make snow angels, or have a snowball fight (assuming you live somewhere with snow!). 
9. Schedule downtime: Downtime is more than doing laundry or catching up on household chores in between holiday chaos. It is inactivity and doing nothing that has a pre-determined goal. The benefits of down time are numerous, the most important of which is taking a break from the stress and anxiety of decision-making, which is a “limited resource” brain activity. For a few minutes every day, consciously engage in doing nothing and surrender to letting your mind wander in any direction that it chooses. This could be done while standing in line at the grocery store or filling up your car with gas…basically any time you would normally be checking your phone!
10. Get enough sleep: Sleep is one of the most important activities we do each day, even though it’s the first to be sacrificed during the holiday season. During sleep, memories are consolidated, tasks are replayed, experiences are integrated, and emotions are processed. Without the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep per night, we are at risk of a weakened immune system, impaired brain function, moodiness, and many other physical health problems. So, while it is tempting to cram as many activities as we can into our holiday schedules, be sure to maintain your typical sleep regimen by setting an alarm for bedtime, turning off electronics 1 hour before bed, stopping caffeine intake > 6 hours of sleep, and limited alcohol consumption within 2 hours of bedtime. These sleep hygiene tools will help to improve sleep quality and duration, thereby improving your mental wellbeing and energy each day.