Are you stressing out this holiday season? The holidays can be stressful, but there are ways to reduce that stress level. Gary Crawford talks with an expert on this edition of Agriculture USA.

PARTICIPANTS: Gary Crawford and Bradley Dirks, Kansas State University Extension behavioral health specialist.

Transcript

Happy holidays.

Ah yes, it's the holidays, a time of peace on Earth.

But for many people, it's more like stress time.

Yes, this is extremely stressful time.

So coming up on this super stressful edition of Agriculture USA, how to recognize and handle some of the stresses of the holidays.

I'm Gary Crawford.

So are you feeling a little bit stressed right now?

Well, maybe that's not always bad.

The stress that we experience on a day to day basis oftentimes can be healthy.

It drives us to succeed.

It drives us to learn.

It drives us to do a lot of positive things or can drive you crazy.

Kansas State University extension behavioral expert Brad Dirks says the stress here and a stress there.

It might be okay, but he says stress is additive.

So let's demonstrate that concept with some nice holiday type music.

But let's throw in another layer of holiday cheer.

Feeling the stress a little bit and of course more jingle rock.

Looking for your gift.

It's in your sock.

Starting to feel the stress a little bit and of course more.

Now, Brad says you could handle one thing, but if two things or three things are layered on top of each other, there's an additive experience of stress that makes it difficult to handle.

And he says at some point, sometimes the scale tips and the stressors become overwhelming to the point it affects us and impairs our ability to be successful in our lives or to enjoy the good things of the holidays.

And in many cases, we get overwhelmed, we get tired, we get worn out and we've done it for how many years.

And now again, with everything else adding to that stress level, it can be really rough because many of us are trying to come up with money for gifts and there are special meals and gatherings to plan for and relatives to visit and gifts to wrap and a million other things.

What's driving all this?

Brad Dirks says for one thing, we're driven by expectations and there's external expectations of the family.

We've always done this in the family and therefore it's your job now to maintain this.

And there's expectations we place on ourselves.

Is this how I think it should be?

I should be able to do this and accomplish this.

And so he says it might be good for us to take a look at all of the things around the holidays that we do almost without thinking and ask the question, if I'm not enjoying this or if I'm so tired at the end of the day that I don't enjoy the family when they get here, is this worth it?

And to be clear about this, it's not that we're doing negative things, it's just that even if it's good, if it's overwhelming in its scope, we need to just look at this and go, how do we change this?

And then be intentional about making some changes.

Doing so though in conversation with family and or friends, asking the questions.

Do we have to do what we've always done or how can we go about making this enjoyable for everyone and reduce our own stress?

Of course, having that conversation might stress me out, but it's a great idea.

Meanwhile, Brad says we can physically be affected by holiday stress with all kinds of symptoms and we might not even realize it until we stop and take an inventory.

What is your experience of this stress?

Is it in your shoulders?

Is it in your back?

Are you getting headaches?

Are you tired?

Are you depressed?

Are you having insomnia?

Brad said there are things that we can do to alleviate some of those problems.

Eating the right types and quantities of food, of course, exercising a little bit, not depending on pills or alcohol to relax.

And one more thing.

We used to call it biofeedback and now we call it mindfulness.

Mindfulness.

It's just a little routine that Brad Dirks says really can work for you.

First, find a quiet place to do this or use noise deadening headphones and drop your shoulders, take three or four cleansing breaths, focus on something that's positive.

Some people think of go to their happy place, whatever you want to call it.

If we relax our shoulders, do some deep breathing exercises, close our eyes, focus on our breathing for three to five minutes, learn to discipline your mind.

Those times of mindfulness can be very effective in reducing that in the here and now stress.

Of which there can be a lot during the holidays.

So he says every night if you can.

Spend 10 minutes relaxing your body, deep breathing and those things are very, very effective.

I mean it sounds kind of weird.

Sounds touchy-feely.

It does.

It does sound touchy-feely, but it kind of resets your computer back to kind of closer to baseline.

And it can really help make the holidays much more enjoyable.

This has been enjoyable, I hope.

Agriculture USA.

I'm Gary Crawford reporting for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.