Happy holidays! These two words, or comparable phrases for seasonal well-wishes, adorn emails, decorations, shop windows, news columns and blogs.
The expression is a gentle reminder to carve out time for friends and family and the festivities of the season. Yet, in doing so, one can find that holiday joy comes wrapped with holiday stress.
Case in point: My alarm was set earlier than usual knowing the deadline for this column and end-of-year reporting were quickly approaching, as were my travel plans. The two were at odds with one another, both fighting for limited time.
Type a sentence, delete a sentence. The lack of progress and ruminating thoughts of all that needed to get done was putting my stress response in overdrive.
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As I sit at the kitchen table, hovering over a second cup of coffee and a blank screen, something catches my eye. Poised motionlessly from its last known location is Sparky, the infamous elf on the shelf.
No words needed to be said. With the first tinge of light breaking the night sky, I knew I just entered another race against the clock.
In a desire to keep the magic alive, I reprioritized and quickly shifted tasks. Think, think, think, how can I get creative, and quickly? The internet, of course!
Within minutes, I had a plan and took on the role of stage director for our little friend. What I didn’t realize in the moment though, was the impact of this activity on my stress level. You could view it as one more thing for the to-do list, but this to-do offered something unique.
By engaging the creative side of the brain in a different task, two things happen. One, the brain is activated for problem-solving. And two, when engaged in the art of creation, cortisol levels decline.
Cortisol is a stress hormone. In small, infrequent doses it allows us to think and respond quickly (historically to danger). Unfortunately, when chronic stress opens the tap and floods the system with cortisol indefinitely – health is compromised.
Should you find that your holiday joy is clouded by stress, initiate your own version of art therapy. From a quick pen-and-paper doodle to the intricate steps of quilting – any art form will do the trick, so long as the difficulty level is within your capacity or an attainable challenge.
You don’t have to consider yourself artistic to use this stress-reducing strategy. It’s about losing yourself to creativity in a way that appeals to your senses. If you need a starting point, you might like one of these quick, easy ideas to get started with:
- Fill spray bottles with diluted food coloring and “paint” the snow.
- Adult coloring books.
- Play a song and re-create the lyrics – sing as loud as you please!
- Draw a simple, random squiggle. What do you see? Fill in the squiggle to bring your vision to life.
- Cut out images from old magazines to create a themed collage.
- Decorate cookies.
Nicole Clark is director of La Plata County Extension Office. Reach her at nclark@lpcgov.org.
