With the holidays fast approaching many of us are looking forward to spending time with family and friends. Yet, some of us also feel the excitement of the holidays turn to stress. It’s easy to experience mood changes because of the stress the holiday seasons can often bring.

Tips to Help You Avoid Stress This Holiday Season

The holidays season demands so much from us: cooking, cleaning, traveling, guests, gatherings, shopping, wrapping gifts, financial problems, and the list goes on. Here are a few tips that can help you avoid stress this holiday season.

Start planning early

Set some time aside to start planning now, try and include as many details as possible and possibly a friend or family member to check your plans to be sure you didn’t miss anything.

Take care of yourself

Don’t start slacking when it comes to taking care of yourself. Make sure you wake up each day and get ready for the day.

Plan time for yourself

Don’t forget to set aside a little time each day for yourself. You can spend time doing whatever it is you like: taking a nap, reading a book, going for a walk, etc. Anything to help calm your nerves and give you a second to breathe away from everything.

Sleep

It’s easy to fall behind on sleep during the holidays but you’ll definitely feel better if you can enough sleep.

Get some exercise

You may not fit in going to the gym but a short walk will help improve sleep, decrease anxiety and help with stress.

Do your best to avoid any conflict

One of the quickest ways to feel the stress from the holidays is to get in the middle of any family conflict. Do your best to avoid family conflict, if you’re worried about it having a neutral response ready or you can just simply suggest that everyone talk about it another time.

Meditate

I’m all about meditation, it definitely helps me keep my stress levels down. I use it all year and I’m sure it can help your stress during the holiday season. If you are not sure how to meditate properly they have some great apps that guide you through the process.

Don’t stress perfection

It’s easy to get caught up in what everyone else will think and wanting everything to look and feel perfect. However, don’t stress on perfection the holidays are not about perfection focus on happy time with your friends and family.

Let the kids help

Whether you are baking cookies or setting up decorations get little hands involved. Kids have a way of making things fun and helping us forget about the work and stress involved in the project.

Turn off your phone

Try and turn off your phone The last thing you want to hear is your phone ringing, emails coming in, and text messages hitting your phone while you are trying to get things figured out for the holidays. Plus you don’t want to be tempted to bail on your plans because someone is texting you. It’s easy to get sidetracked and fall behind so turn your phone off.

Ask for help

Don’t let the holidays run you down, I’m sure you have family and friends who would be more than happy to help. Don’t be shy, ask for help.

Get some sun

Go for a little walk during the day, spend a bit of time outdoors or near a window when it is sunny out. Even though it’s not warm, the sun helps stimulate the production of the feel-good serotonin.

Don’t forget deodorant

Really, the holidays are stressful and with stress comes stinky sweat, especially because you’ll be out and about purchasing gifts, cooking, cleaning, and so on and even the most level-headed hostess is likely going to work up a little stress-induced sweat during the holiday season. So be sure and grab Secret Clinical Strength from Sam’s Club.

Save money

Look for deals when you are shopping, like right until November 26^th when you shop at Sam’s Club you can score an additional $5 in instant savings when you purchase any combination of two body and chair care products from your favorite brands such as Secret, Olay, and Old Spice. Secret Clinical Strength anitperspirants/deodorants in the 3 packs are the perfect product for holiday stress and it’s only $12 everyday savings, PLUS you are eligible for the $5 Instant Savings deal! Yes, so you can save big this holiday season and get stocked up too! Secret Clinical Strength is formulated with four times the stress-sweat protection of ordinary deodorant, offering prescription-strength protection against the smelliest sweat of all. You can also score this great deal on Old Spice Deodorants, Old Spice Body Washes, Secret Antiperspirants, Olay body washes, Olay bar soaps, Head & Shoulders Shampoos, and conditioners. You can learn more about this great offer here.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Secret at Sam’s Club. The opinions and text are all mine.