4 Ways to Get “Un-Stuck”and Find Balance During the Holidays

Catherine
Dec 13, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Nov 26

Let’s be real, it’s a busy time. Exercise takes a back seat. It’s easy to feel like you’re not doing enough. The holidays can be a joyful time but they can also be a time to feel out of your routine or stuck. Here are 4 tools if you’re feeling stuck or out to balance over the holidays.

Hum

Humming is a simple activity with major health benefits. A study by the National Library of Medicine1 found that humming can help enhance the parasympathetic nervous system and slow down sympathetic activation. Exercise and sleep also do this but since humming generates the least amount of stress on the body it’s particularly effective at stress busting. At TDM you’ll often find us humming, sighing and sticking out the tongue in class for this very reason - enhancing the parasympathetic response. Because your vagus nerve2 runs through both the larynx and pharynx in your throat, humming creates a vibration that stimulates your vagus nerve and can help you move out of "flight or flight" response.
Hum to enhance the parasympathetic nervous system and slow down sympathetic activation

2. Myofascial Release - for your Face...

Holiday’s can bring about stress and stress can bring about jaw tension. Did you know that New York Dentists have reported that 70-80% of their patients are teeth grinders compared to 10% nationally2. So while jaw tension, along with dealing with subway creatures, might just make you more of a New Yorker, it’s important to relieve it. 90 seconds with a fascia ball at the masseter muscle is a good start. One of the most popular classes in the library is the Headache Relief class and for good reason.

TRY IT: Check out this class to release tension thru the jaw, neck and shoulders. Because I think this specific fascia release technique is so effective, this class is offered complimentary, you don't need to be a subscriber. Please enjoy!

Headache & Jaw Tension Relief Class on the Digital Library

TRY THE CLASS

Routine Exercise

Pick a form of exercise you can stick to during this hectic period. It can be a specific online class that you’ll repeat or commit to run outside a few times a week. Pick something you’ll be equipped for, that’s familiar and fits with your holiday plans. For me, it's the 12 Min Challenging Core class in the digital class library (no props needed) and running 2x week. Stick to what you know. Save the new, fancy things for January and right now just do something you know you'll actually do.