7 Tips to a Healthy, Stress-Free Christmas

By Rita M. Hancock, MD

Holiday stress isn’t just uncomfortable, it’s sickening. It literally makes you physically ill if you let it—and many people do. I know that because I’m a pain management doctor and I counsel patients on how to minimize their Christmas-time stress to minimize their pain and other symptoms. Rather, I give you something better than an idealistic check list. I give you actual understanding for why you get stressed out at Christmas time. Probably, you believe lies about yourself at the subconscious level because of things the accuser told you in the past. Sadly, those lies trigger stress, especially during the holidays. That’s why you have to prayerfully reach into those innermost places where you hide the lies, grab hold of them and reject them, and ask God to replacing those false beliefs with His healing truth. You can’t reject a belief unless you first grab hold of it, right? That’s what I help you do in this article. I’m trying to find a polite way of saying that your holiday stress is all in your head. Keep in mind when a doctor says something like that, it’s more than just an opinion. It’s a diagnosis. The truth is holiday stress is a much a matter of your beliefs, perceptions, and your mind-set as it is about your jam-packed “to-do” list. That’s why I offer you seven stress-busting tips to help realign your mind set with godly truth.

For more information about how stress affects the physical body—and how to overcome this stress with biblical truth, read Dr. Rita’s book, Radical Well-being: A Biblical Guide to Overcoming Pain, Illness, and Addictions (Siloam, March 2013). Also, follow Dr. Rita on Twitter (@RitaHancockMD) and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RadicalWellBeing. And for Dr. Rita’s biblical weight loss advice, visit www.TheEdenDiet.com.