Thriving (Not Just Surviving) Through the Holidays with CBD
Some people can’t wait for the holiday season; others are counting for the days to be over and life to return to normal. Wherever you stand on this precarious balance, the holidays and the celebration can be demanding.
Mulled wine and tree decorating are wonderful things to do but many people in Britain juggle with shopping for gifts, preparing meals and caring for young children. The Christmas holidays are a great time to meet with friends and celebrate, but sometimes the effort associated with the festivities can be challenging. While the season promises warmth and celebration, it often delivers a complex cocktail of emotions, obligations, and expectations that can leave even the most organized person feeling overwhelmed.
The numbers speak for themselves. Two out of five Britons feel stressed during the holidays. Two thirds of people say that they find the holidays challenging, with almost 50% of the total saying that the expenses associated with the holidays stress them. From corporate parties to family gatherings, gift exchanges to year-end deadlines, we are expected to show up with bells on—sometimes literally.
All this comes with financial pressures and complicated family dynamics and can make many people count down the days until January, when normalcy finally returns.
Aiming at the right mindset
To manage the holiday season, you need mental well-being and the strength to do what you feel like is fun and fulfilling. With the right mindset, you will be better able to take on endless hours of shopping or making Christmas cookies with the kids. And it will give you enough space to spend quality time with loved ones, friends, and family and have meaningful moments with them.
The holiday season brings with it a paradox: it’s a time of joy that often becomes overwhelming with its implicit demand for perpetual cheer. While traditional advice might suggest simply “managing stress,” this is sometimes very hard to achieve. This isn’t about merely getting through December. It’s about finding authentic enjoyment while maintaining your well-being.
What stresses us during the holidays?
Let’s first take a look at what stresses people in Britain during the holidays.
The numbers behind holiday stress
A Yougov survey from the beginning of 2024 tells us a lot about how people experience holiday-related stress and what causes them the most anxiety.
Obviously, the most challenging aspect is cost: 40% find that holiday expenses challenge their well-being and give them anxiety. This is followed by choosing gifts, which ranks at 26%, and family-related issues that stress a whopping 24% of respondents.
Having the juggle too many tasks like shopping, cooking, and entertaining challenges 23% of respondents and eating too much food is stressful for 20% of them. The last three entries are too many social obligations, which pose a problem to 15% of people, followed by lack of sleep, which stresses 14% of respondents. Finally, consuming too much alcohol is a worry for 10% of people.
Looking at the demographics, those between the ages of 25 and 54 are the most stressed, with older people feeling more relaxed about the holidays.
The holiday season is packed
The holiday season is usually a time packed with events, gatherings, and good cheer. Or, at least, that’s what they are supposed to be.
However, when families get together things don’t always go as planned. Financial pressures mount with the expectation of gift-giving, decorating, and hosting. This can create a subtle but persistent anxiety that can overshadow the season’s joy. As for social obligations, they stack up fast, leaving even the most extroverted person feeling drained.
The change from daily routines and the presence of children who are not in school and want to be constantly entertained can easily disrupt sleep schedules. Add the seasonal changes themselves, with shorter days and colder weather, and it’s easy to see how the holiday season can affect our mood and energy levels.
Perhaps most insidious is the pressure for perfection: the magazine-worthy decorations, the flawless family photos, the Pinterest-perfect meals.
If all these feel too familiar, perhaps it’s time to try something new.
Can CBD help?
CBD may help you cope better with mental stress and anxiety. If the coming holidays fill you with dread, take a step back and experiment with some CBD. Start with a small dose and see how you feel. It could become a helpful compound in your holiday toolkit when you feel that people and events become overwhelming.
You will often hear about CBD and how you should “take CBD when stressed”. This is a simplistic approach that doesn’t do justice to CBD. CBD can be helpful as part of a proactive strategy to prevent holiday stress and manage what life throws at you, in a more relaxed way. It can even become a more permanent support when life events cause you anxiety and stress.
Quick recap on CBD’s potential
According to research CBD may help with stress, anxiety, and social anxiety. Thanks to its calming effect, it may also help people sleep better.
CBD may also help with inflammation and pain management. Preparing for the holidays can be taxing for the body as well as the mind. Many people feel tired as they get their holiday preparations going. Legs, arms, and joints can hurt, adding to the seasonal pains—literally.
Creating Your Holiday CBD Strategy
Just like most things in life, being proactive is more successful than taking a reactive approach to CBD. If you feel that the coming holiday season will be demanding and stressful, perhaps now is the right time to experiment with CBD and see whether it can help you manage your holiday stress.
Are you a morning person or an evening one?
Start with a morning routine that sets a positive tone. Many people find that a morning CBD product combined with a moment of quiet reflection can create a buffer against the day’s chaos.
Consider your dosing strategy for different scenarios: a faster-acting CBD option before entering crowded shopping centres and a longer-lasting format for extended family gatherings.
Also, remember that CBD is biphasic, which means that it acts differently when taken in small or large doses. Small doses awaken the mind and improve mental focus. Larger doses help the mind relax and unwind. Depending on the benefits you want to experience, balance the CBD dosage accordingly.
In the evening, as activities tend to run later and sleep becomes precarious, a consistent CBD wind-down ritual may help you transition from holiday excitement to restful sleep.
Remember bioavailability
CBD products don’t work the same way. Edible CBD goes through the stomach and is metabolized by the liver. It will thus take about two hours for the CBD to start acting.
If you want something that acts fast, you may be better off with CBD tinctures, as they reach the bloodstream directly through the tongue capillaries. As for CBD vapes, they act very quickly, usually within 30 minutes.
You can also mix and match your CBD products for maximum efficiency. If you want something to get you going through the day, try CBD edibles, pills, and capsules. You may also try microdosing—consuming small quantities of CBD throughout the day—for a sustained effect.
Feeling emotionally balanced during the holidays
If the holidays feel stressful, CBD alone can’t work miracles. But it may help you get in the right mind frame to manage things more efficiently.
Emotional balance during the holidays requires more than stress management. You want a clear mind to judge situations and work through complicated dynamics and still feel joyful and cheerful.
CBD may help create a mental buffer where you enjoy the festivities while still managing the drama and occasional mishaps that come along. CBD on its own doesn’t do the work but it may give you a more peaceful mind to be productive and more result-oriented. That’s how you can work with family expectations and social obligations without feeling exhausted.
Emotional balance requires good sleep. The holidays are anyway disruptive, with late nights, parties, and get-togethers that extend into the small hours. With some help from CBD, you may maintain reasonable sleep quality even when schedules shift. A good night’s sleep is often the best medicine for a clear mind in the morning and a positive outlook to life.
One thing that CBD can’t do is to help you manage the expenses of the holiday season. However, you may make choices that don’t frustrate you or your bank balance with a clear mind and less stress.
CBD for the holidays
While CBD is not a miracle cure, it may ease how stressful the holiday season can be by helping your mind work better and feel more relaxed. You then have the mental space to start and finish a full day, even if it’s packed with things to do, dishes to prepare, and people to meet.
The holidays are the time of the year when you meet up with friends and family, go out for dinner and have parties. It’s when you indulge yourself in cooking and sharing. And it’s when you enjoy gifts—both giving and taking.
It can get a bit too much, though—mainly due to high expectations and obligations piling up. CBD won’t make the obligations go away but it may help you handle them better. Instead of feeling dread towards the upcoming holidays, perhaps you can give yourself the mental calmness required to do things your way.
As CBD has no side effects and is not addictive, you can always try it and assess whether it works for you. If you feel the benefits, this season will feel more relaxed than the previous one and it will go smoother. The goal is not to reach perfection but to enjoy and have fun without overdoing yourself.
If a bit of CBD can help you take care of your well-being and look forward to the festivities ahead, even better. Just check out first our CBD oil reviews and our list of the best UK CBD stores to be sure that the CBD you purchase is as pure and effective as possible!
Nicholas Rossis, PhD is a specialized, NSF-trained writer who has written hundreds of posts on CBD and nutritional supplements. His work combines critical acclaim with the analysis of the latest news, studies, research, and legal developments in the world of CBD, providing readers with valuable data and insights.
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