The holidays are supposed to feel merry & bright. They’re the most wonderful time of the year, right? Between the travel, the to-do lists, the family dynamics and the extra hours on your feet, though, your body often feels something else entirely.
Stress doesn’t just live in your head though we carry it with us in our bodies. Each time subconsciously hold our breath waiting for the next hammer to fall or grind our teeth trying not to say something hurtful we create tension in our bodies with emotion. When life speeds up this happens even more. Your nervous system shifts into “go” mode and your muscles brace for impact. Once the moment passes, that bracing doesn’t always let go. Here’s where holiday stress tends to hide, and what you can do about it.
1. Your Jaw
Clenching and grinding are some of the most common ways the body holds stress. We add to that every time we hold back what we have to say. We add to it every time we bottle up our emotions. Many people do it in their sleep without even knowing. If you wake up with a sore jaw, headaches or tight temples, your jaw may be working overtime.
2. Your Breath and Upper Back
Stress makes breathing fast and shallow. Our nervous system is bracing for a metaphorical impact that may never come. Many of us stuck in constant stress mode aren’t breathing at our full capacity. When your diaphragm stops moving fully, the muscles of your chest, ribs and upper back pick up the slack. That’s why stress can feel like a weight on your chest or a knot between your shoulder blades.
3. Your Neck and Shoulders
When we’re stressed, our shoulders creep up toward our ears. Add long drives, airport lines and hours hunched over a phone or the stove, and you have a recipe for stiff necks and tension headaches. Pretty soon it’s Christmas and you’ve been wearing your shoulders as earrings since Halloween.
4. Your Hips and Low Back
Planes, trains, or automobiles, no matter how you get there it’s the season for travel. Long car rides, flights and keep your hips flexed and your low back loaded for hours. Marathon kitchen sessions making the perfect turkey dinner or batch of tamales will add to the strain. Don’t forget baby sitting the smoker or the turkey fryer either. The result is often that familiar end-of-day ache.
5. Your Gut
Your gut and your brain are in constant conversation. When stress runs high, digestion often slows down or speeds up, and it shows up as bloating, discomfort or irregularity, right when holiday meals get heavier. Many people forget that your myopractor can help with digestion by checking organ placement.
How We Help You Let It Go
At Health and Healing Studios, we don’t believe in one-size-fits-all bodywork. Our team chooses from a whole toolbox of techniques based on what your body needs that day, including myopractic therapy, fascial stretch therapy (FST), NeuroKinetic Therapy (NKT), cupping, fascial scraping and energy work. We also talk to each other as a team, so your care stays connected from one visit to the next.
This month we’re putting it all together in our Unclench and Give Thanks, a session designed to melt holiday stress from the top down. It includes upper body bodywork, gentle cranial work, intraoral jaw release when you need it, and energy work, and you’ll take home a gratitude ritual kit to keep the calm going through the season. You’ll find it when booking listed under the “Specials” section.
Don’t Wait Until January
Your body carries you through every gathering, every errand and every late night this season. Give it a little something back.
