A Cornucopia of Strategies to Beat Holiday Stress

As the holiday season thunders on, the stress level rises. Necks tighten, shoulders hunch as phone calls fly back and forth about who’s cooking which meal.

Had enough?

We’ve found very different ways to relieve the holiday jitters. And we promise not one of them will demand you knock off the caffeine and get plenty of exercise.

*

Carolyn Cohen

acupuncturist, Oriental medicine instructor

It’s no wonder people find the winter holidays stressful, says Cohen.

“Winter is the yin time of year,” she says, when “animals hibernate, the days are shorter, we have less sunlight. We need to adapt our natures to be more yin.”

Based on the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang, the complementary sides of nature, yin is the softer, more reflective time. Yang is summer, when we really should be celebrating major holidays, Cohen says.

During yin, Cohen says, “we’re running through malls, buying tons of presents and working overtime to be able to afford them. . . . Then, on New Year’s, we make resolutions to exercise harder and make money.

“We should be home baking bread, sitting by the fire, ordering our gifts through catalogs,” she says.

Cohen teaches a class at Yo San University in Santa Monica on Shen disharmonies.

“Shen is simply the spirit of the person,” she says. The Chinese believe that many physical ailments start with Shen disharmonies. “We believe in genetics and accidents and germs. But you can do a lot of self-healing.”

Make it your goal to preserve your energy during the holiday season, Cohen says. “Be kind to yourself. Get a massage and eat really warm, nourishing kinds of foods.

“Certainly, it’s a time to be attending to the spiritual or meditative side of the holidays.”

She suggests giving small meaningful presents and phoning faraway family and friends. “Who wouldn’t rather stay home by their fireplace and be more quiet during that time of year?”

*

Elizabeth Miles

ethnomusicologist and author

You’re walking through the mall, being bombarded by sales and glitter. And then there’s that canned holiday music that may be stressing you out more than you think.

Which brings us to Miles, the L.A.-based writer of “Tune Your Brain: Using Music to Manage Your Mind, Body and Mood” (Berkley Books, 1997). Miles, who has a regular on-air spot on classical music station KKGO-FM, says people have been using music for more than entertainment since the beginning of humming.

Music is helpful in so many ways, from making smarter babies to helping adults focus, recent scientific findings have shown.

“The first thing music does is really get you at your emotional core,” she says. Because the holidays can be so intense, holiday music can uncover all sorts of ancient memories--good and bad.

When listening to Christmas music, Miles says, make sure it’s music “you really love.” “It’s taking you back in a mood and memory way on a very deep neurological and physiological level.”

For Miles, Handel’s “Messiah” always reminds her of a magical high school romance. For some people, “an album of Christmas music, if you’re far from home, can make you very unhappy,” she says.

During the holidays, Miles says, “you are, in fact, assaulted by music, especially canned music. Save your sanity. If you don’t like the music you’re being subjected to, wear earplugs. . . .”

Miles takes music that can help people and breaks it into several categories, including music to relax, energize, uplift or cleanse.

* To relax, she suggests soft, slow, soothing music such as Christmas jazz, Gregorian chants, the second movement of most classical pieces, and works by singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell.

* To energize, try loud, rhythmic music with a big beat. Her personal favorites are James Brown, the Ramones and the final movement in Mozart’s Piano Concerto.

* To uplift or to battle holiday depression, try Frank Sinatra, modern swing, hip-hop, gospel or Broadway musicals. Miles listens to Count Basie and Louis Jordan.

* To cleanse oneself of anger, try the blues, especially Mississippi Delta blues, or Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Miles says.

Fans of punk rock and heavy metal have always known that music can be an outlet. Bali has an ancient tradition in which a male choir yells, rather than sings, and the Spanish have flamenco, which purges the soul of pain, Miles says.

“Another thing not to neglect during the holiday time is the incredible power of silence,” she says. “Sometimes we forget that we need five minutes of quiet to clear the mind.”

*

Steven Angel

drum therapist

Angel knows a thing or two about stress. The drummer, now in his early 40s, has spent a good deal of his adulthood recovering from his years as a child prodigy playing at age 6 for Buddy Rich and at 15 for Jimi Hendrix.

“All the things you heard about child prodigies are true,” he says. His drums became a way of healing himself.

“As an adult, I decided to use drums as a way to heal other people.”

The Santa Monica man has taught workshops and classes at the Panic Assistance League, the Rand Corp., Boys and Girls Club in Venice and for various PTAs. The first step in drum therapy, he says, is to close your eyes and listen to your body. “There are different pulsations, and those pulsations are in different tempos.”

There are different drum exercises for anger, fear, joy, distress and stress.

Stress, he says, disconnects your voice and personality from your inner core.

His classes in drum therapy use natural pulsations to eliminate stress and rejuvenate the body. Many people participate in drum circles, he says, but usually the goal of a drum circle is to have a group, rather than individual, experience.

For individual drumming, he suggests taking a class first, but offers some ways to try this at home.

Take a 10-inch drum pad or a child’s tom-tom and drumsticks. Time yourself with a ticking clock. Warm up with one hit per second, using alternative hands. “Close your eyes and visualize an experience that happened last year during the holiday season that caused you stress. Hold onto that image and beat it out on the drum.”

As you beat, you will release the image and the emotions will fade, he says. “You hit until the stress disappears.”

If you feel any arm strain, stop, he says, and continue when it passes.

Another exercise uses a rhyming chant. “Come up with a phrase that works for you,” he says. Repeat it to the beat of your drumming. His example: “Nothing you can say is going to make me sway from feeling great, feeling great.”

“As you repeat it, it becomes a chant,” he says. “Once it becomes embedded in your body . . . it immediately takes you out of the stress you’re in.”