Welcome to December! The holiday season has officially kicked off, with Thanksgiving just behind us and Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s fast approaching.
This is always an exciting time of year. I love seeing Christmas lights and holiday decorations and feeling that little extra buzz in the air. But if you’re rushing around trying to get everything in order to properly celebrate, it can also be a stressful one.
Want to relax? Schedule a chiropractic appointment!
Fortunately, stress and the holidays don’t have to go hand-in-hand. My favorite approach to holiday stress relief? Chiropractic!
Chiropractic is a great way to tell your body: “it’s okay to calm down.” In fact, that’s part of what chiropractic does best. A chiropractic adjustment doesn’t just relieve tension in your joints and muscles, but actually lets your body know that it doesn’t need to tense up again when you get off the table.
Stress in the body is regulated by something called the sympathetic nervous system. That’s the part of your brain that tells your body to react a certain way when you experience something stressful. Your heart beats faster, your muscles tighten, poised to run. This is all normal in a stressful situation.
However, often times, our bodies don’t do a good job of recognizing when the stressful situation is over. We can stay locked in that stress response, guided by our sympathetic nervous systems, even when everything is okay. This means that we can carry a lot of tension with us throughout the day.
Chiropractic adjustments activate the parasympathetic nervous system, or the part of the brain that is supposed to calm you down. The parasympathetic nervous system reverses the body’s stress response, signaling “all clear.” By switching on the parasympathetic nervous system, a chiropractic adjustment can quickly leave you feeling much more settled and grounded. Many of my patients experience immediate relief.
Sounds like a pretty good holiday gift, doesn’t it? :)