A Doctor’s Guide to Thriving (Not Just Surviving) this Holiday Season
Written by Dr. Natalie Barriball
How to enjoy the holidays with energy, balance, and presence — without sacrificing your health, hormones, or sanity.
The holidays are meant to be a time of joy and connection, but for many, they bring stress, fatigue, and feelings of overwhelm. Between travel, sugar, late nights, and social expectations, it’s easy to end up run-down and burned out by January.
This is an annual pattern: patients push through the season, then crash afterward. The good news? With a few mindful shifts, you can protect your energy, support your body, and truly enjoy the season without giving up the things you love.
Keep Calm and Manage Stress
Why It’s Important
Chronic stress keeps your body in “on” mode, causing consistently high levels of cortisol and adrenaline that make you feel wired but tired. Over time, this suppresses digestion, weakens immunity, disrupts sleep, and leads to anxiety and fatigue.
The Holiday Impact
The extra stimulation of noise, travel, social plans, and less rest overloads the nervous system. Even joyful excitement can become stress when the body doesn’t have an opportunity to reset.
What to Do
Take intentional pauses throughout the day to shift to “rest and digest” mode.
Take 2 minutes to do deep, diaphragmatic breathing: breathe with your belly and inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, and exhale for 6 seconds.
This activates the vagus nerve and physiologically shifts the body into relaxation mode.
Step outside for fresh air and natural light to regulate your circadian rhythm.
Talk to your provider about stress supports like ashwagandha, rhodiola, and L-theanine.
Protect your schedule and say “no” where needed. Choose the most important events and let go of FOMO (fear of missing out) for the rest.
Choose presence over perfection: focus on the joy and memories rather than stressing about details.
How It Helps
Calming the nervous system improves digestion, hormone balance, immunity, sleep, and mental health. You’ll feel more grounded, less reactive, and more present to actually enjoy the moment.
Support Your Digestion
Why It’s Important
Gut health directly affects immune function, mood, and hormone metabolism. Proper digestion allows nutrient absorption, sustained energy, and helps regulate inflammation and neurotransmitters.
The Holiday Impact
Irregular meal times, overeating, sugar, alcohol, and stress all reduce stomach acid and enzyme production, leading to bloating, gas, or irregular bowel habits.
What to Do
Eat slowly and chew thoroughly to activate digestive enzymes.
As able, pause for mealtimes. Aim to make them a break rather than eating on the run, as having calm mealtimes allows for the “rest and digest” nervous system to activate, making for better digestion.
Try to keep meals consistent, eating at abnormal times or skipping meals can cause larger fluctuations in blood sugar, leading to fatigue, brain fog, and irritability.
Consider bitters or ginger tea before meals to stimulate stomach acid, bile flow, and gut movement.
Peppermint tea after meals can help reduce bloating and discomfort. Plus, it’s a perfect holiday flavor!
Aim to include fiber and protein with every meal to stabilize blood sugar and reduce cravings and crashes.
Warm lemon water and a balanced breakfast (protein + healthy fat + fiber) helps reset digestion the next morning.
How It Helps
A calmer, well-functioning gut reduces fatigue, brain fog, and inflammation. You’ll feel light, more comfortable, and less reactive to both physical and emotional stress.
Keep Your Immune System Strong
Why It’s Important
Your immune system is constantly bombarded with germs, especially during sick season. And when cortisol is high, immunity drops, making the body more vulnerable to illness. While it’s okay to get sick occasionally, no one wants to be sick or spreading viruses during holiday gatherings; supporting the immune system keeps you healthy and able to enjoy the season to the fullest.
The Holiday Impact
Late nights, poor diet, sugar, alcohol, and travel deplete key nutrients needed for immunity (vitamin C, zinc, magnesium). When combined with stress and poor sleep, immune defenses go down.
What to Do
Prioritize 7–8 hours of sleep per night, even if it means leaving some events early or letting some tasks fall to the next day.
Stay hydrated: water, herbal teas, coconut water.
Eat plenty of whole foods high in vitamin D, zinc, and vitamin C to keep your immune system in top function.
Limit excess sugar and alcohol, which can temporarily suppress immune activity.
Ask your provider about using immune stimulating herbs like elderberry, echinacea, and astragalus for protection in high exposure areas like schools, airports, planes, and parties.
How It Helps
A strong immune system gives more energy, better recovery, and fewer sick days. You’ll make it through the holidays feeling revitalized, rather than run down.
For more information on supporting the immune system this winter, check out my last blog post here.
Balance Your Hormones
Why It’s Important
Hormones like insulin, cortisol, estrogen, and progesterone are highly sensitive to stress, sleep, and blood sugar. When imbalanced, they can affect energy, mood, and metabolism.
The Holiday Impact
Irregular eating, poor diet, sugar, caffeine, and alcohol cause blood sugar spikes, sleep disruption, and cortisol surges. This can result in irritability, PMS symptoms, and mid-afternoon crashes.
What to Do
Eat protein with every meal to keep blood sugar steady, reduce cravings, and keep nutrition up.
Limit alcohol and refined sugar where possible to support liver detox and hormone metabolism.
Incorporate gentle movement when possible to keep detox pathways open, balance insulin, and regulate cortisol.
Even if the gym isn’t an option, going for walks, looking at lights, and playing outside with the family (weather-permitting) can be fun and family-friendly ways to keep moving.
Just 15 minutes of movement after meals can improve insulin sensitivty and mood.
For menstruating women, honor your cycle: rest more during the luteal phase and get more done during the follicular phase and ovulation when energy is up!
How It Helps
Balanced hormones mean steadier energy, less bloating, better sleep, and a calmer mood, making it easier to handle holiday stress with grace.
Emotional and Mental Wellness
Why It’s Important
Emotional stress causes the same physiological response as physical stress in the body. Cortisol spikes, digestion slows, and the immune system weakens.
The Holiday Impact
While the holidays are considered a time of joy, sometimes old family patterns, grief, or social obligations can result in mental-emotional exhaustion that feels anything but joyful. And the constant stimulation leaves little time for emotional recovery, leading to difficulty coping and burn-out.
What to Do
Practice mindfulness daily. This can look like box or diaphragmatic breathing, journaling, walking, or even coloring. These activities can slow the brain down and reset the nervous system toward calming pathways.
Spend time in nature. Forest bathing, grounding, and walking outdoors is shown to lower heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol. (1)
Set boundaries. Give yourself permission to skip or leave early from events that drain more than fill you.
Replace perfectionism with intention. Your presence matters more than flawless plans.
Make time for activities you enjoy! Whether that is working out, watching Christmas movies, spending time with friends, or taking some time for yourself, make time every week for something that nourishes you.
Focus on gratitude. Gratitude is shown to reduce depression and anxiety, improve heart health, regulate the nervous system, and improve sleep. (2).
How It Helps
You’ll feel emotionally lighter, more resilient, and better able to enjoy the season. By protecting your mental space, you create room for genuine joy and connection.
Simplify and Be Intentional
Why It’s Important
Overcommitment is a major cause of burnout. Being constantly “on” without taking time to rest and recover causes sustained high cortisol and nervous system dysregulation, making focus, planning, and the times you do get to rest that much more difficult. (3)
The Holiday Impact
Endless to-do lists, expectations, and running from event to event pushes the body into chronic stress mode, making it tough to rest or digest effectively.
What to Do
Choose 1–2 meaningful traditions and let go of the rest.
Let go of FOMO (fear of missing out), and remember quality connection is more memorable and treasurable than the quantity of events.
Simplify gifts. Consider Secret Santas, White Elephants, homemade, or experiential presents.
Block out times on your calendar that are specifically for resting.
Set a post-holiday “recovery week” with a bare schedule, lots of sleep, and nourishing foods.
How It Helps
Intentional simplicity restores time, calm, and connection. You’ll feel fulfilled rather than frazzled, and start the new year off balanced rather than burnt out.
Bottom Line: You deserve to enjoy the holidays feeling grounded, not drained. When you slow down, nourish your body, and protect your energy, you make space for what really matters—connection, gratitude, and joy. This year, give yourself permission to thrive, not just survive.
Wishing you a peaceful and nourishing holiday season!
References:
Peterfalvi A, Meggyes M, Makszin L, Farkas N, Miko E, Miseta A, Szereday L. Forest Bathing Always Makes Sense: Blood Pressure-Lowering and Immune System-Balancing Effects in Late Spring and Winter in Central Europe. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Feb 20;18(4):2067. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18042067. PMID: 33672536; PMCID: PMC7923773.