You may not be in charge (yet) with all the Christmas preparation fuss in your family, but the overall hectic atmosphere surely gets to you too. Listen to our advice: this time of year, choose to bring more of the calming ingredients of the season to your daily life. Yes, food is included.

INHALING THE CALMNESS

You’re in luck! The Christmas cultural repertoire is filled with scents that will temper down the inherent nervousness of the holiday season when – again, we don’t know why – it seems that everything should be picture-perfect (in red & green, of course…).

• The tangerine scent relieves stress and brings you joy – which you should really experience during Christmas, right? And we all know there’s a lot of tangerine scent (and juice drops) all over the place every time we peel one down…
• Cinnamon will calm you down and keep you grounded at the same time. And, frankly, it’s all over the place during Christmas! Have it in your pudding for breakfast, get it from the popular gingerbread or enjoy it as hot infusion.
• Add some ginger to your winter teas and enjoy inhaling mental and emotional balance from the steaming cup. (By the way, this will also help with an upset stomach if the Christmas dinner might be a little too much for you.)

CHEWING ON BALANCE

Step away from the `comfort food consumption` behavior – which, usually, involves a lot of junk products – and start choosing consciously the ingredients that will really make a difference in your mood these days.

• Walnuts – to be found in most of the desserts of the season, especially in cozonac – contain a substance that triggers the release of the `happiness` hormone serotonin in the body, thus inducing a calming and mood-boosting effect.
• Dark chocolate – a good break from all the sugary treats of the season – carries a high content of magnesium, a mineral well known for its calming effect on the brain and muscles, thus the overall body.
• Meat & eggs. Obviously, you get cranky when you’re tired and hungry, but the incredibly appealing over-processed food in supermarkets will alleviate your state only for a little time. There’s a lot of good cooking involving meat and eggs going around for Christmas in your family, right? Well, turn to that for a better mood (and relationship with your mother, grandmother or whoever so lovingly took their time and energy to prepare all the delicious dishes). Meat and eggs contain a lot of protein, iron, and vitamin D and all of these will put you in a better functioning state and mood.

`HUGGING THE HAPPINESS` is a good piece of advice to follow disregarding the season, but Christmas it’s a good moment to start, when family and friends come together, and a lot of social occasions filled with hugging opportunities present themselves more frequently than usual. Enjoy the “cuddle hormone”, oxytocin! It helps reduce stress and strengthens bonds between people.

Happy balanced holidays from the Stradale team!

Credit Photo: freepik.com