Worried about the eyerolls your family and friends might shoot your way if you want to get active on the 25th? Mental health educator Kylianne Farrell has the perfect counter-argument.
The stress of Christmas Day is real.
Travelling to and from celebrations, a mad amount of preparation, cooking, and any underlying family conflicts that all too often come to the fore after a few drinks; they’re all things that turn this day of celebration into a day we dread.
Add to this the fact that we’re all carrying a huge amount of mental baggage of yet another year that didn’t go to plan (thank you, Delta/Omicron) and you’ve got a recipe for stress and strain.
If you are like me and have found that exercise a great tool to starve off stress, then Christmas Day is the perfect day to put it into action. After all, the 25th of December is meant to be all about giving, connection and celebration, so it only seems right that you start (or end) the day giving back to yourself.
Making time to exercise will allow you to have the best Christmas possible; in fact you should celebrate the fact that you took the time to invest in your wellbeing!
To help you ward off the inevitable eyerolls from family and friends when you kit up to exercise on Christmas Day, I’m going to outline a few facts you can use to counter-argue with any judgement or discouragement that might come your way.
Exercise reduces the impact of stress
Get ready for some science! When we exercise it encourages the growth of neurons in the ventral hippocampus, a deep part of the brain that is responsible for emotional processing. This means that people who exercise are able to handle stressors and your emotions better. The neural growth that occurs when we exercise have been nicknamed the “anti-anxiety molecule.” A molecule we could all do with over the Christmas holiday period.
Move your mood
Our emotions are linked to our body, by moving our bodies we can move our moods. We can feel our emotions in our body. For me, if I’m stressed I hold tension in my jaw, my shoulders will try to make their way to my ears and my breathing becomes shallow.
A quick way to shift your emotions and mood is to acknowledge it, feel it and then move through it. Exercising can act as a circuit breaker for your mood, and the change is instant. My favourite way to move my mood is to get on the water on my Red Paddle Co SUP: it’s pretty hard to return from a paddle and not feel a flood of positive emotions.
Create deeper connections
Exercise actually helps create deeper social connections. We have all heard about the feel good hormones released when we move*, but what is not spoken about is the impact that those same hormones have on strengthening social bonds with others.
In addition to exercise, laughter, singing, dancing and story telling are all ways that we as humans can release feel good hormones that bring us closer together. This is something I experience on a regular basis in my line of work; there are many ways that you can move as a collective that could bring in these endorphin-producing elements on Christmas Day.
Post-exercise positivity
Exercise is a tool I use for emotional management, and let’s face it Christmas isn’t always a happy time for many people. Exercise is a way that you can increase positive emotions to head into, or out of, the day in the best mood possible; ready to handle any emotional challenges that may be thrown your way.
Positive emotions allow us to be more open-minded, flexible, be creative in finding solutions to problems and help you to connect with others on a deeper level. This is a great headspace to be in if Christmas it a tough time for you.
Mindfulness in motion
Mindfulness is a way of being present, focusing on the immediate experience rather than on worries that may be causing you stress, anxiety or depression. It is an amazing tool for stress reduction and mental restoration. Exercise is an amazing way to become more aware, present and connected to self.
A way to increase the benefits and be more mindful and calm on Christmas Day is to move in nature. This can help flick the switch from doing to being.
While some may say it’s rude to exercise on Christmas Day, I think it would actually be rude not too!
*The Joy of Movement, Author Kelly McGonigal, Pg 96
Kylianne Farrell is a mental health educator, Red Paddle Co expert and qualified counsellor. You can find her online here, or on Instagram here.
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