The Secret to a Happy & Healthy Holiday Season

Seasonal Wellness, Made Simple

As we race headlong toward the holiday season, you may feel a bit stressed, overwhelmed, and concerned about upcoming travel plans. But take heart! With a little preparation, we can approach the holidays joyfully, while staying healthy and happy. In this post, we will explore a few quick and simple lifestyle hacks and herbal remedies that can help you cultivate robust health in mind, body, and soul. Let’s get started!

Less Stress, More Joy: My Everyday Habits

Many of you may already know I am a big proponent of gratitude to help maintain a bright outlook, encourage contentment, and relieve stress. Whether it is keeping a gratitude journal or cultivating active thankfulness around the dinner table, these practices can radically shift our outlook — and in turn reduce stress and promote health. Studies have shown that gratitude supports increased emotional and social well-being, lower rates of depression, better sleep, and improved cardiovascular markers.^1,2,3,4,5

What’s more, the simple act of being thankful can lower stress hormones, such as cortisol, by an impressive 23 percent, according to Dr. Robert A Emmons PhD in “The Little Book of Gratitude”. This helps to lower our risk of anxiety, weight gain, brain fog, and more. It also supports immunity. How so?

When you are under chronic stress and have elevated cortisol, this triggers higher levels of systemic inflammation over time. It also decreases your body’s lymphocytes, which are white blood cells that fight infections — including seasonal influenza, colds, and the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome. Additionally, chronic inflammation can lead to the development and progression of a range of diseases, such as fibromyalgia, arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, lupus, and other autoimmune disorders.⁷

Since all of us would like to stay healthy and avoid catching a bug over the holidays — especially when traveling — practicing gratitude is a smart choice. Beyond keeping a gratitude journal and beginning your day with thankfulness, what are some other ways to weave this habit into your day? One of my favorite gratitude practices is called “savoring walking”. To kickstart the exercise, you will want to set aside 20 minutes every day for a week to take a walk. During this time, you simply notice as many positive things around you as you can. Pause often to absorb those elements that give you pleasure and think about why. It’s recommended that for each day of the exercise, you explore a different environment to keep your appreciation fresh. Once the week is finished, I encourage you to integrate the practice several times a week into your routine for ongoing benefit.

In addition to gratitude, we can cultivate creative hobbies, use breathing exercises, and embrace mindfulness practices such as yoga to help relieve stress as well. I also turn to herbal extracts for an extra level of support.

All-Natural Remedies to the Rescue!

Lemon balm is one of my favorite herbal remedies to help calm the stress response, promote a bright outlook, and clear the mind. I use it either as a stand-alone tincture or as part of a comprehensive Anxiety & Stress Blend if I’m traveling through a particularly intense season of life. Lemon balm also helps to soothe ADHD symptoms, enhances sleep quality, and fortifies against colds and influenza.

MY GO-TO FOR INSTANT CALM

“Lemon balm is always helpful after a stress filled day at work. When I get home I feel like I’m in flight or fight mode and just tense. This calms my central nervous system, calming my fight or flight response. It helps aid in a nap after work or sleep before bed or simply just not having aggressive feelings of a type of outbursts or frustration towards my loved ones. Basically it’s calming and soothing to those stressed out.”

-Staci

To stay healthy during the holiday season and beyond, I use the three remedies found in our Travel Pack. It contains an immune-supporting, no-sugar-added Elderberry tincture, Usnea throat spray, and a tin of our All-Purpose (First Aid) Salve. This trio is so essential to keeping me healthy when I am out and about that I never leave home without it!

ELDERBERRY

• Helps suppress certain inflammatory compounds and helps inhibit histamine release.
• Helps strengthen the body against the negative effects of stress, including: hormonal imbalances, high cortisol, fatigue, brain fog, and low-energy
• Helps with autoimmune diseases and leaky gut issues through its anti-inflammatory action and immune system modulation.
• High in beneficial beta-glucans, glycoproteins, and triterpenes to support gut and metabolic health.
• Promotes quality sleep, helps alleviate adrenal fatigue, and encourages healthy immune function.

USNEA

• Known to help with a multitude of viral, bacterial, microbial, and fungal issues, including respiratory and sinus issues.
• Can be sprayed on the back of the throat to help prevent illness (I use this often when traveling, when in a crowd, and during influenza season)
• Helps with thrush and other fungal issues

ALL-PURPOSE (FIRST AID) SALVE

• Contains herbs known for their antibacterial and antifungal properties and can be used inside the nose as a preventative against contagious illness.

COLD & FLU FREE! KEEPS US HEALTHY!

“My wife and I own a book store with the town post office in the store. We are the post masters, so I deal with people coming and going all day long 6 days a week. When all this covid stuff started I started using Nicole’s Elderberry Tincture, Usnea Tincture Spray and the First Aid Salve. I have not had a sore throat or anything. I stand behind Nicole’s herbal remedies 100%.”

-Matt M.

The holidays and travel can be filled with long days, busy schedules, and not nearly enough rest. Our Lemon Balm Tincture helps calm your nervous system, promote quality sleep, and defend against viral illness, while our Travel Pack keeps your immunity in top form on the go.

Each blend is rooted in herbal wisdom and supported by clinical research, so you can navigate the holidays with confidence — and a little extra calm. Visit the apothecary today and stock up. Here’s to a healthy (and happy) season!

Nicole Apelian

Nicole’s Apothecary Products in this Post

References

1. Florencio F. Portocarrero, Katerina Gonzalez, Michael Ekema-Agbaw, A meta-analytic review of the relationship between dispositional gratitude and well-being,
2. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 164, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110101.
3. Jans-Beken, L., Jacobs, N., Janssens, M., Peeters, S., Reijnders, J., Lechner, L., & Lataster, J. (2019). Gratitude and health: An updated review. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 15(6), 743–782. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.1651888
4. Iodice JA, Malouff JM, Schutte NS (2021) The Association between Gratitude and Depression: A Meta-Analysis. Int J Depress Anxiety 4:024. doi.org/10.23937/2643-4059/1710024
5. Cousin, L., Redwine, L., Bricker, C., Kip, K., & Buck, H. (2020). Effect of gratitude on cardiovascular health outcomes: a state-of-the-science review. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 16(3), 348–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2020.1716054
6. Chen Y, Okereke OI, Kim ES, Tiemeier H, Kubzansky LD, VanderWeele TJ. Gratitude and Mortality Among Older US Female Nurses. JAMA Psychiatry. 2024;81(10):1030–1038. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.1687
7. “Yes, There Is Such a Thing as Stress Sickness”  Cleveland Clinic, December 1, 2023. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-happens-when-your-immune-system-gets-stressed-out