Managing stress and anxiety for Christmas and New Year

For many people, Christmas and New Year celebrations bring experiences of fun, joy, laughter and love.  

Unfortunately for others, Christmas and New Year can bring increased levels of stress, anxiety, money worries, relationship challenges, career concerns and changes, and so much more.  

We find at times that we can become so wound up with feelings of stress, anxiety and worries inside our minds, that by Christmas time, we can often spend the first few days, if not longer, poorly and suffering from illness, especially just when we begin our festive holiday period and look forward to having quality time with our loved ones. By the time people recover, they realise it's time to go back to work and find themselves on the treadmill of life once again.  

This can have damaging effects on your mind and body over a period of time.  

So this year, I felt it may be helpful if I provide an insight on how to release the stress and tension, with the sharing of a proven technique leading up to Christmas and the New Year that can help you release built up tension and stress.  

It may not deal with the underlying cause of your symptoms, but hopefully, it will provide a release so you can find help and support.  

The exercise below is designed to help you relax your state of mind and release tension and stress through your breathing.  

Allow yourself 10-15 minutes a day to practice the exercise below   Releasing tension, stress and unwanted feelings through your breathing.  

• Find a quiet space with no distractions and a view to the outside. If possible either sit outside or open a window.
• Make a mental note of how intense your level of feeling is between 1-10. 1 being low and 10 being high intensity.
• Allow yourself to put down any distractions, such as your phone, switch the TV off and ensure you are in a quiet space. Also, Switch your phone on to silent
• Draw your attention to your breathing, and if you wish, close your eyes.
• As you breathe in and out, see if you can notice the temperature of the air you breathe in through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
• Allow yourself to breathe gently, and as you do so, begin to imagine the air you breathe in is beginning to circulate your whole body.
• As you breathe out, imagine you are exhaling any unwanted feelings, tension or stress. Imagine the stress or unwanted feelings are being exhaled like a dark mist that when leaves your mouth as you exhale, it evaporates into the air releasing you form your unwanted feelings or thoughts.
• As you do so, once you begin to feel calmer in your mind, begin to allow yourself to drift to a safe place of peace and tranquillity.
• Take your time to enjoy your peaceful place
• As you find you are beginning to relax, imagine you are inhaling fresh cleansing air that is circulating your whole body.
• Now begin to think of your heart beginning to glow with a sense of love. Like a radiant glowing heart projecting warmth and love throughout your whole body.
• After you have practised this exercise for 10-15 minutes, reflect on how you are feeling and whether the intensity level has reduced on the scale 1-10 you noted at the beginning. If you have reduced the intensity, well done. If you feel it is still the same, try it again, and if you still feel after trying it a second time there is no difference, why not contact a hypnotherapist who can help you explore this further.

Try and allocate time to practice this breathing exercise at least twice a day. This will help you to release unwanted feelings through your breathing, so you can make room for more positive feelings.  

If for whatever reason you feel you need more support and wish to address any stress or anxiety worries, please contact a hypnotherapist who can help you explore this further.