Along with the joy and love the holiday season brings, it can also increase our stress levels at times. Whether you’re caught in long checkout lines or stuck in traffic, taking a moment to decompress and practice mindfulness can help reduce the stress of the season and even benefit your brain health and overall wellness.

While mindfulness can be a formal meditation practice, there are also informal ways to practice the skill of focusing on the present to help give you perspective and reduce stress.

Here are our top tips to help you destress and enjoy the holiday season:

1. Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself: When planning holiday meals or family gatherings, we often set the bar impossibly high for ourselves. The table may be set perfectly and decorations hung with care, but when guests arrive, you never know what to expect. Try to accept that imperfection is healthy and normal. Find peace in the laughter filling your home and enjoy the time spent with family and friends. Even if your celebration isn’t perfect, sometimes good is good enough. 
   
   
2. Take a Breath: When you’re feeling overwhelmed by holiday activities, make time to breathe. Taking just a couple minutes to clear your mind and focus on your breathing will help restore your inner calm and may refresh you enough to tackle the rest of your day’s to-do list. These breathing exercises take just a few minutes, but can help reduce stress and enhance your overall wellbeing.
   
   
3. Create a Relaxing Environment: Before you start wrapping presents or cleaning the house, turn on music that makes you happy, light candles or open the windows on a sunny day. Research shows that listening to music and the scent of citrus can boost feelings of wellbeing.
   
   
4. Don’t Forget Your Healthy Habits: With all of the parties and tempting sweets, the holidays are famous for ruining healthy habits. Try fitting in a short workout each morning to help you make healthier decisions throughout the day. Take advantage of the season and encourage your family to try a new activity, like snow shoeing or sledding for extra exercise. If you’re somewhere warm, go for a walk outside. Make sure to have healthy food, like fruits and vegetables, at home throughout the season to snack on and help curb your eating at dinner parties and celebrations. Try some of these healthy snack ideas before your next holiday gathering.
   
   
5. Be Realistic with Your Resolutions: The typical resolutions we make for New Year’s often set us up for failure. Expecting to change your lifestyle overnight isn’t realistic, but starting small is a great way to work toward achieving your goals one step at a time. If your resolution is to lose weight, set monthly goals to work toward, like eating more fresh fruits and vegetables the first month and working to cut out sweets the next. Remember to be kind to yourself. If you didn’t follow through on your resolutions last year, let go of that negativity and make your resolutions more achievable this year. Need inspiration? This article offers tips to set yourself up for success in building new healthy habits.