Minimizing The Holiday Stress

Know I would like talk about on how to:
Minimizing The Holiday Stress

The great thing about holiday stress is that it’s predictable. Unlike many other types of negative stress we encounter in life, we know when holiday stress will begin and end, and we can make plans to reduce the amount of stress we experience and the negative impact it has on us.

So here are some tips you can try to help reduce holiday stress before it begins so that the holidays remain at a positive level, rather than an overwhelming the person:

*#1 Set Your Priorities
Before you get overwhelmed by too many activities, it’s important for you to decide what traditions offer the most positive impact and eliminate superfluous activities.
For example,
If you usually become overwhelmed by a flurry of baking, caroling, shopping, sending cards, visiting relatives and other activities that leave you exhausted by January, you may want to examine your priorities, pick a few favorite activities you like to do and really enjoy them. The other ones you can ask a member of the family to pick another one to part take of and that way you want be skipping the rest. Than the whole family can have a good time and no one will be stress out to enjoy the fun.

#2 Send Christmas Cards:
For example,
When you go to send out your Christmas cards only to those with whom you maintain regular communication. You don’t have to include a personal note or letter in each one. Find a way to simplify it. You can go and find little book markers and put one in the card. That way you show them that you were thinking of them and makes it a lot easyer to do.
The same goes for the baking -- will anyone be enraged if you buy baked goods from the bakery instead? If you find ways to cut corners or tone down the activities that are important to you and your family, you may enjoy them much more.


Change Your Expectations For Togetherness

With your family and friends, it’s important they are to be aware of your limitations. Think back to previous years and try to pinpoint how much togetherness you and your family can take before feeling negative stress. You might have to limit the number of parties you attend or throw, or the time you spend at each? Can you limit your time with family to a smaller timeframe that will still feel special and joyous, without draining you?

You also may want to down scale some acttivites when dealing with difficult relatives, it’s okay to set limits on what you are and are not willing to do, including forgoing your visits or limiting them to every other year.

For those who experience loneliness during the holidays, consider inviting a group of friends to your home. If virtually everyone you know is with family during the holidays, you might consider volunteering to help those less fortunate than yourself. Many people report these experiences to be extremely fulfilling, and your focus will be on what you have rather than what you lack. You might start something new and share it with family and they may want to join you. I just might relieve the stress in the family so erveryone could enjoy the holidays.

The best thing to do is Set A Schedule:

When putting your plans on paper it will show you, in black and white, how realistic they are. If you find a time management planner and fill in the hours with your scheduled activities, being realistic and including driving time and down time, you will be able to see if you’re trying to pack in too much. Start with your highest priorities, so you will be able to eliminate the less important activities. Be sure to schedule in some time to take a walk in nature each day if at all possible, as exercise and exposure to daylight can drastically reduce or even eliminate the symptoms of SAD. (If climate or other factors prohibit this, try to find some time to sit by a window and look out; several minutes of exposure to natural light, even if through a window pane, can help.) If you just do a little each day an schedule time for you if will help your outlook at this time of year.

Breathe!
This sounds like a no-brainer, but sometimes we forget to take deep breaths and really give our bodies the oxygen we need. It's great if you can take just ten minutes by yourself to do a breathing meditation, but merely stopping to take a few deep, cleansing breaths can reduce your level of negative stress in a matter of minutes, too. If you visualize that you are breathing in serenity and breathing out stress, you will find the positive effects of this exercise to be even more pronounced.

With a little planning and a few minor but significant changes, this holiday season can bring the love and joy it was meant to bring, and leave you feeling fulfilled rather than drained.

Stress is one of the biggest factors with MS. It can make you weak and sick in no time. I will have more on this subject later . This is a big subject to write about because STRESS is in our dayliy lives weather you are healthy or have a sickness that can not be cured. So when you are down just look up because HE is all ways with you.

If you would like there is a site that you ca go to for Holiday Stress it is from the Cleveland Clinic Convenient Online Program , Try Free. Take a look at it, it just might help you through the holiday seasson.

Managing The Seemingly Inevitable Holiday Season of Stress:

Managing The Seemingly Inevitable Holiday Season of Stress:

In the next couple of weeks the holidays will be starting and that is when STRESS BECOMES A FACTOR. WE welcome the holiday season with the whirlwind of going to markets, shopping for gifts, and do not for get the holiday parties and all the activates that they bring along. It seams that people and stores can not wait to get Halloween over with before they start putting up Christmas decorations up. Years before it started with Thanksgiving. The BIG PARDE on TV from New York was the start of holiday shopping. But now it starts before Halloween and goes to the end of the year.

While this season is meant to bring feelings of love and cheer, it’s also the harbinger of holiday stress for many. In fact, according to a poll conducted on this site, more than 80% of us find the holiday season to be ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ stressful.

You may ask yourself: What Causes Holiday Stress?? There are a lot of things to look at. The Holiday Season is to be a season that brings feelings of Love and Cheer. It can also bring a lot of holiday stress for a lot of people. Like doing too much of a certain thing for the family. The big problem with the holiday season is that we often experience too much of a good thing. If people could learn to doo things in moderation, as they say it might go better for the person and family. While stress it self is necessary for our survival and zest for the good life, they say too much stress has a negative impact on your health and the people around you, both mental and your physical health. Sometimes people plan too many activities, that even the fun activities, may lead to a very stress and a person feeling frazzled, and can culminate in not having a good time, too much holiday stress can take a toll on you and leave you feeling frazzled rather tired and not fulfilled so you can enjoy the family gatherings and parties.

I will give you some examples below:

A. Like when you Eat, Drink, and Over Spend;

Like an overabundance of parties and gift-giving occasions lead many people to eat, drink, and be merry -- often to excess. The temptation to overindulge in spending, rich desserts or alcohol can cause many people the lasting stress of dealing with consequences (debt, weight gain, memories of embarrassing behavior) that can linger long after the season is over. When you are with the family, you sometimes do things that you wished you did not do after the fact. Stress sometimes will make think that drinking alcohol is the right thing to do but it just makes stress that much more.

B. Another stressor would be Too Much Togetherness:

The holidays are to be a time when families and the extended families tend to gather. While this can be a wonderful thing, even the most close-knit families can overdose on togetherness, making it hard for family members to maintain a healthy balance between bonding and alone time. Many families also have ‘roles’ that each member falls into that have more to do with who individuals used to be rather than who they are today, which can sometimes bring more dread than love to these gatherings.

C. Another part that would bring on stress is Not Enough Togetherness.

That could have a lot of different meanings. Like a person who has lost a love one during the present year or past can feel loneliness. This could be a big problem in its self. Some families might have to travel great distances to get with the family, they might not be able to make the trip. So as the world seems to be gathering with family, those who rely more on friends for support can feel deserted and alone. They don’t get out for a social gathering of some sort could feel very lonely and stress that no one cares about them. So then that leads me to another stress called Seasonal Affective Disorder or (SAD).

D. Seasonal Affective Disorder or (SAD).

This is often unrecognized problem that comes with the holiday season. That is actually a by-product of the seasons changing form fall to winter. As daylight diminishes and the weather causes many of us to spend more time indoors, many people are affected to some degree by a type of depression known as seasonal affective disorder. It’s a subtle, but very real condition that can cast a pall over the whole season and be a source of stress and unhappiness during a time that people expect to feel just the opposite. This can also be a problem for the person that has a disability and is unable to walk by one self or needs a wheelchair.

The New Treatment for MS

I have great news. I have made my goal of getting fit. I have lost over 102 lbs. and my waist is 39 inches. I think that is good news because at one time I was 300 lbs. and had a waist of 55 inches. That was as of April of 2007 and boy I look back at pictures of my self and boy how I have changed. For a person that spends his day in a wheelchair all day from the time I get up in the mornig till Igo to bed. I have MS and that is a bummer. You know it is rough on you but also on your family has a lot to deal with.

My wife and I go to a support group that helps us to fellowship with other people and couples with MS.

My MS support group last Saturday had a guest speaker come and give us an up date on what is new for the treatment of MS. He was Dr. Daniel Wynn and his nurse Kathy. He gave a great talk.

Dr. Daniel Wynn is the Director of Clinical research for Consultants in Neurology in Northbrook, Illinois and Co-Director of the MS Center.

He said by this coming Spring that there might be a pill to take instead of getting those shots or IVs.For the person that just been told they have MS. It can be used for the early treatment.

He talked about two studies that have been done with good results in both studies.

The one was coladribine is a tablet treatment MS Orally (clarity) trail was released last week by Merk Serono.

The other drug that shows good promis is Fingolimod (FTY720) oral medication for the treatment of MS.

Since all the major treatment options for MS are currently injection or infusion based, a safe, effective oral medication for MS would be a breakthrough. Merck is not the only pharmaceutical company in the race to be first-to-market with an oral treatment for Multiple Sclerosis. Novartis AG is giving Merck a run for their money. They are actively pursuing approval for their own version of an oral MS medication, FTY720 (Fingolimod). Formal requests for approval are expected to be submitted later this year in both the US and Europe. Boy would that be great to have a treatment for MS in an oral form that would mean no more SHOTS and sore places on your body.

He dose not talk very good about Tysabri. There have been an increase in cases with PML. But he said it is up to the person to decide to take or not to take. This is just a little bit of the talk that he gave. I will have more about these two treatments in later post.