The stretch from Thanksgiving to the New Year often fills our calendars with travel, events, and endless to-do lists, leading many of us to neglect our own health and well-being. In fact, stress has become as much a holiday tradition as mistletoe and eggnog. Join us in this episode as she provides practical strategies to move beyond feeling frazzled and fatigued, helping you feel more like Santa’s helper than the Grinch.

Learn how to give yourself the ultimate gift this season: peace of mind and a healthy body.

In this episode, you will discover:

• Rethinking Your Holiday Mindset: Strategies for simplifying and prioritizing your schedule. Find out why saying “no” is essential and how choosing experiences (like a yoga class or cooking lesson) often means more than material excess.
• The Power of Consistency: Why protecting your routine—including your usual sleep, hydration, and movement habits—is crucial for keeping your stress levels and cortisol balanced. Making your well-being non-negotiable is the greatest gift.
• Restoring Balance Through Breathwork: How chronic stress disrupts the HPA axis (the body’s stress-control center) and leads to issues like irritability and poor sleep. We discuss how mindfulness practices, including meditation, yoga, and particularly breathwork, can calm the nervous system. A Stanford study highlighted that just 5 minutes of deep breathing with prolonged exhales significantly improved mood and lowered cortisol levels.
• Targeted Support for the Season: Discover supportive supplements recommended for when stress and holiday indulgence are at their peak. Dr. Palermo outlines options for stress balance (including Cortisol Calm and L-Theanine), digestive balance (such as GI Repair and Daily Probiotics), and immune protection. These supplements are available through Thrive, a collaborative platform of conventional, integrative, & functional medicine practitioners.

With mindful choices and consistency, you can stock your cabinet with tools that support your stress response and ensure you stay healthy, happy, and jolly through January.

This podcast uses an AI scribe to convert Thrive's website content into conversational dialogue you can listen to wherever you are!