How Food can Cause Anxiety and the Holiday Blues + Foods and Fun that Calm and Cheer You Up

Part 4 – Find Your Zen this Holiday Season

The Holidays are supposed to be joyful and peaceful, right? Well, yes, but sometimes it requires a new approach, some small shifts to find your zen and connect with your joy centers. When we’re not feeling happy during the holidays, we sometimes think that we’re not doing it right, or we’re not O.K., or everyone else is having the picture perfect holiday, or some other negative thought that starts to bring us down and makes us feel on edge and anxious. Or, you might just be totally overwhelmed and tired from all the extra work the holiday season brings with it.

Good news! It may be as simple as watching your diet over the holidays (and for the rest of the year too).

Holidays are both wonderful and stressful, and often even bring on some sadness. In my work as a psychotherapist and life coach for 25 years, I have seen many people who have situations that make the holidays a challenge. And, personally, I haven’t forgotten the very sad (and traumatic) Christmas I spent shortly after my 27-year marriage ended in divorce, or the Christmas I almost came unglued because I was in finals for my graduate program up until the week before Christmas (long after my college days, when I was married and had two children).

Things happen, life isn’t always neat and pretty, but, if you’re overindulging in sugar, junk food and alcohol over the holidays, you most likely will experience unhappy mood swings, and miss out on some of the beauty and joy of this special time. Good news – you can start smoothing out those mood swings today. Here are a few of the helpful tools I’ve used with others and for myself to enjoy this time of year – no matter what’s going on.

Holiday Mood Tips

Food

Researchers at Columbia University found that having refined carbohydrates in your diet make you depressed. The study used data from the Women’s Health Initiative—which tracks  more than 70,000 women—and found that the higher a woman’s blood sugar rose after eating sugar and refined grains, the higher her risk of depression.

Research shows that when sugar and refined carbs hit your gut, they begin to do a lot of damage to the villi and the gut’s lining that is designed to keep things inside your gut. Sugar and refined grains loosen the tight junctures of this lining and allow undigested food and toxins to leak out into your bloodstream, where your immune cells identify these particles as invaders and create a full out attack on them.

This attack by your immune system leads to inflammation, candida (yeast and fungus overgrowth), and can also instigate a host of auto-immune diseases, like allergies, asthma, digestive disorders, thyroid problems, multiple sclerosis, etc.

Besides wrecking your health, how does eating sugar and refined carbs affect your mood? Sugar, caffeine, and refined carbs elevate cortisol, your stress hormone, leading to feelings of anxiety and initiating a host of other damaging actions in your digestive system and entire body. Another way eating sweets affects your moods is that 95% of your serotonin and other mood chemicals are produced in your gut, so if your gut isn’t happy with the foods you’re sending its way, (as in creating inflammations and leaky gut) it will send neurotransmitters to your brain telling you it is not happy, and you will start having negative thoughts and feelings. Your serotonin will be depleted, as well as other important feel good hormones made in the gut.

How does this happen? Researchers have discovered a gut-brain connection which proves that the gut has over 500 million neurons that send information to your brain 24/7 via neuropeptides and neurotransmitters. Some scientists have even dubbed your gastrointestinal system (gut) your “second brain”.

The research on sugar’s (including carbs and alcohol) damaging effects on physical, mental and emotional is exploding.  You can follow the tips I gave you in my latest blog to reduce your sugar, carb and alcohol intake, here.

While holidays are a never-ending parade of special treats and indulgences, and it’s good for the soul to indulge sometimes, being able to limit your sugar and high-carb foods and alcoholic drinks will make a huge difference in your moods, and allow you to enjoy the holidays even more and avoid the after effects of overindulging.

Fun

Make sure you’re doing things that you love, that feed your soul and lift your spirit. Don’t let the endless to-do list rob you of all your free time. Make the time, even if only 10 minutes a day to relax and renew yourself. There are many enjoyable things to do over the holidays, and many of them are free.

Fun things to do during the holidays

1. Music – Research shows that listening to moving music causes the brain to release dopamine, a feel-good chemical. Christmas music is some of the most beautiful and up-lifting music you can listen to.
2. Lights – Holiday lights bring a shimmer and peacefulness to the season. See the history of holiday lights here. Light some candles, decorate your home with lights, go on holiday light tours, attend parades that feature light, attend candlelight church services, meditate with a candle or soft light, or just light a candle, sit down and enjoy the ritual.
3. Friends – spend time with friends, reach out and connect with people you care about during this month, even for a cup of tea, or a warm phone conversation. If sending cards sounds like fun, this is a great way to stay connected with friends and family.
4. Crafting – Make something– a gingerbread house, some cookies (healthy-gluten-free), decorations, gifts. Even though it sounds crazy when you’re so busy, crafts are actually proven to be not only stress relieving, but good for your mental health.
5. Sip hot drinks with a throw blanket – This is one of my favorite things to do.
6. Get out and Celebrate – Splurge on a Nutcracker ballet, an Ice Capades, or find a free holiday concert. Look at the events list in your town or city, choose something and just go have fun.

Wishing you a joyful, week filled with lots of light, love and fun!