9 Ways to Relax This Holiday Season

The holidays can be a stressful time for just about anyone. Whether you get together with family or friends or have to make your appearance at work-related parties and get-togethers, the idea of just getting some downtime is more of a fantasy than a reality. When the days get shorter and the nights get longer, many people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder to compound all the other stresses in their life.

Let’s look at some causes of stress and some great ways to relax this holiday season using CBG for relaxation! People often find themselves alone, stressing out over bills, and finding themselves in a downward spiral of stress, health problems, and emotional meltdowns. Stress is among the worst culprits affecting your health during this time of year.

This time of year is supposed to bring people together, with holiday celebrations, the coming of the New Year, getting back into longer days, and a promise of warmer weather just around the corner. 

Stress is a health concern this time of the year

Studies have shown that stress contributes to many health problems that shorten our life spans and generally affect the quality of the lives of millions every day. Here are some ways that stress is hurting you.

• Cortisol: This hormone is produced when the body is under a lot of stress. A so-called “fight or flight” hormone, cortisol levels increase during moments of stress and anxiety and really jump up at nighttime. Cortisol enhances your reaction time and may improve your senses, and it also, unfortunately, limits your ability to sleep restfully.
• Insomnia: With increased cortisol levels, you might find it harder to sleep well. The holidays are also a time when people celebrate with alcoholic beverages more often than usual. Alcohol binds with chemical compounds in your body, such as the hormones that allow you to sleep well. Though you may feel sleepy after a nightcap, your body might process alcohol into sugar a few hours later, waking you up, interrupting your circadian sleep rhythms, and preventing restful sleep.
• Staying up too late: New Year’s Eve is often a time when we perform self-induced insomnia to ring in the New Year. But as we get older, sleep loss is harder to recover from. With late-night holiday parties, Christmas Eve celebrations, and general socializing at bars, parties, or other events, those sleepless nights can drop our immune systems.
• Sickness: With a lack of sleep and alcohol binding with enzymes and nutrients in your body before being flushed out, your immune system can take a serious nosedive during the holidays. Exposure to other people with viruses at holiday concerts, office parties, and other events increases your chances of getting sick. Stress also prevents your body from dealing with viruses, meaning you may be slow to recover from sickness.
• Health problems: Stress is linked to various diseases, from diabetes to heart disease and even many forms of cancer. Being in a heightened state of what your body perceives as a reaction to physical danger takes its toll. The holidays can make this even worse.

Managing stress

Your stress levels might be through the roof this time of the year. So here are some great ways to give yourself a little bit of self-care whenever you feel stressed.

• Eat right

Stress affects how our bodies process nutrients, putting an emphasis on survival rather than efficiency. Stress can affect how our bodies store and process calories, often putting more energy in our fat reserves and increasing our weight. Eating cleaner during the holidays might be more of a challenge due to all the candy, pastries, cookies, and feasts over the next several weeks. Now more than ever, enjoying your holiday treats and meals in moderation is important. Overeating will usually make you feel uncomfortable and can even put a bigger burden on an already stressed-out metabolism.  

Some studies have shown that foods rich in carbohydrates, saturated fats, and other not-so-good-for-you ingredient binds to cortisol, providing temporary relief from the effects of that stress hormone. This relief is short-lived, however, and you may find that increasing your consumption of steamed or fresh veggies, whole grains, and food that feels less heavy will improve your mood and limit your weight gain. Vitamins and other dietary supplements such as CBG can go a long way to reducing your stress.

• Get plenty of sleep

Even with all the stressors of the holiday season and long to-do lists you haven’t gotten done, especially during those Black Friday sales, getting sleep is vital to reducing your stress. A restful sleep without drugs or alcohol is best. Your body can reset itself in various ways after a decent night’s sleep. From reducing cortisol levels to allowing your body to process calories better and fight infection, sleep is enjoyable and vital to improving your health.

• Exercise to reduce stress

Not only does exercise improve vascular health and improve your general health, but exercise also creates feel-good chemicals in your body. These endorphins can go a long way to improving your mood, reducing depression, and allowing you to have a more restful sleep. Just a few minutes of cardio or weight training a day can provide some quick results to improving your mood and some long-term results towards the better heart, lung, and overall health. It’s also a good way to help burn off all those calories from so many turkey dinners with all the fixings.

Relax in healthier ways

Here are some other ways to relax this holiday season: 

• De-stress with family and friends

Sometimes, spending time with your family can feel like a fiasco. With family drama, irritated kids, political conversations at dinner, and hardly a moment of peace, you might not think of spending time with family as relaxing at all. By finding more enjoyable activities than arguing over election results or complaining about money, get proactive and have a family game night. Have a holiday movie marathon. Go sledding or even ice skating rather than fighting the crowds at the stores.

• Better living through chemistry

Many people might find themselves increasing nicotine, alcohol, or even caffeine consumption to keep up. These chemicals can actually have a reverse effect and make you feel worse over time–especially if they contribute to your texting an ex. CBG may be a better alternative because it is a compound your body recognizes and processes very well. Cannabigerol oils and compounds may react with those stress chemicals in your body, neutralizing them and allowing your body to process them more efficiently.

• Get away from it all

Instead of staying at home, consider taking a vacation someplace quiet and relaxing. From tropical resorts to ski trips, getting out of your stressful environment can be a total game-changer in reducing stress. After all, aren’t you supposed to be resting when you go on vacation?

• Pamper yourself

Take time to relax whenever you can. Whether it is sitting in your favorite chair with a good book, or watching movies in a blanket fort, get creative with how you spend time on yourself. Listen to your favorite music. Call up an old friend and share a few laughs over some good stories. Don’t let yourself feel guilty for investing in yourself for a change.

• Quiet time

Spend less time connected to things that stress you out. Detoxing from social media has been shown to improve your mood and reduce anxiety whenever you feel stressed.

• Mental health

Take the time to visit your therapist if you have many things stressing you out. Mental health is a priority; this time of year, too many people succumb to the downward spiral of stress, depression, and anxiety. Taking time to address challenges with your mental health is essential, not only for yourself but for your loved ones as well. Activities such as yoga, meditation, and others can help you fill your buckets when it feels like the world is out to drain them.

CBG for Relaxation

This time of the year, it is important to know when to pick your battles. Treating yourself better can make you more resilient to sickness, deal more reasonably with confrontation, and make healthier mental and physical health decisions. Hemponix offers a variety of natural CBD, CBG, and CBN tinctures, lotions, edibles, and other products which deliver high-grade cannabinoid compounds safely to your system.

The use of cannabinoids is a natural method that may improve your overall health by reducing stress and pain and regulating your body’s natural functions and chemistry. Check out our selection of cannabinoid products to see which may reduce your stress levels this holiday season.