During the holiday season, everyone gets busier than usual.

There are gifts to be bought and wrapped, parties to plan or attend, dinners and treats to be cooked, and if you are a mom, there are kids’ activities too. When things get busy, I always tell my daughter to remember to take her vitamins, because she has a tendency to get sick when she is overworking.

When we get busy, we have a tendency to neglect our health, and this can cause us to get sick or burned out. It is even more important to take care of our health, the busier we are.

1. I haven’t meditated much recently, and instead, have been choosing yoga.

It incorporates elements of both meditation and exercise, so I consider it to be multi-tasking. That is why I started doing yoga almost three years ago. I wanted something to help my mind, body, and spirit and to calm my anxiety.

Yoga is a great way to take care of ourselves, as are both meditation and exercise individually. There are many different styles of yoga to choose from, and it can have many benefits to our mental, physical, and spiritual health. It can make us calmer and more fit, as well as benefitting our heart health and our sleep.

I fell in love with yoga quickly, and I have learned to do progressively harder yoga routines. I started with doing free YouTube videos 10 minutes a day, and then moved up to doing 15 and 20 minutes a day. It is great to do first thing in the morning—it helps me to feel grounded, calm, and energized.

2. Our physical health matters, too.

In addition to yoga, we can take care of our physical health using proper nutrition, taking a multivitamin, and making sure to drink enough water. Getting proper sleep is also key to combatting stress and improving our mental and physical well-being.

3. Mental health for the holidays.

To take care of your mental health, you can use mindfulness in addition to meditation, and consider seeing a therapist if you are feeling overly stressed. Therapy can be helpful for anyone to learn better coping skills for stress. You don’t necessarily have to have a mental health issue. A therapist can provide a listening ear and an objective viewpoint on issues that you may be experiencing.

Therapy has been really beneficial for me since I have PTSD, anxiety, and depression—but honestly, it can be helpful for anyone. Now, after COVID-19 times, there are even online therapy options if you don’t have time to travel to and from appointments and spend all that time in the waiting room.

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Coping with stress effectively is much easier when you are in balance. Taking care of yourself mind, body, and spirit is a great way to create that balance in your life.

If you are a busy mom coping with stress, taking care of yourself is something you can do first thing in the morning before the kids get up. That is what I do: I spend at least an hour in the morning doing things for myself. I do yoga, journal, and drink coffee on the patio most days. Then, when I get the kids up, I am ready for their flurry of activity the rest of the day.

This holiday season, be sure to take some time for yourself and your health. If you are in balance, then stress isn’t going to ruin your holiday.