9 Holiday Stress Tips & Tools for Women Entrepreneurs

The holidays can be full of festivities, cherished memories, and magic. They can also be full of - you guessed it - holiday stress. 

The holidays increase stress for most of us because they demand more from us on every level - social, mental, emotional, financial, and physical.

Stress quickly balloons when these additional demands layer over those of a business. This is especially true considering the intense psychological charge some of us experience around the holidays.

Simply put, the holidays are an incredibly vulnerable time.  

This is why proactively managing holiday stress is essential. It can mean the difference between a peaceful and positive holiday season and a holiday you can't wait to forget. 

Let's focus on making a stress-relief plan for the holidays. I'll briefly discuss stress’s potential impacts when left unchecked. I'll also provide a list of practical holiday stress tips and tools to help women entrepreneurs like you thrive this holiday season. 

5 Impacts of Chronic Stress

Stress is a multi-dimensional experience that's important to understand. 

Your stress response cycle is a normal part of human functioning, so it's normal to experience situational stress. However, it's not normal to experience extreme or chronic stress. Chronic stress is an enduring feeling or experience of overwhelm or emotional distress. 

Chronic stress isn’t just a “feeling.” It’s a systemic problem. Your body is “trapped” in its stress response cycle, which leads to all kinds of malfunctions, some of which are debilitating.

Chronic stress has serious short and long-term symptoms and consequences:

• Stress can lead to physical symptoms such as headaches, muscle tension, fatigue, and digestive problems. It can also weaken your immune system, making you more susceptible to illnesses.  
• Stress often triggers emotional and mood distress like anxiety, irritability, mood swings, and feelings of sadness. It also leads to increased levels of stress hormones like cortisol, which further exacerbates emotional distress.
• Stress impacts your brain and cognitive functioning. This leads to fog-brain and difficulty concentrating, memory issues, and decision-making. It can also be expressed as racing thoughts or an inability to focus.
• Behavioral changes can include heightened aggression, unhealthy levels of social withdrawal, changes in eating or sleeping patterns, or negative coping mechanisms like excessive smoking or drinking.
• Prolonged stress is also associated with a higher risk of developing new diseases and chronic health conditions like cardiovascular problems, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. It also likes to worsen existing health issues you may already have.

Holiday demands can create the perfect storm for chronic stress. This is why proactively managing your potential stress is so important.

Managing Holiday Stress Starts Now

You're doing well if you find ways to manage stress before it happens. Here are three examples of what front-end management could look like:

• Mentally preparing for stressful situations
• Staging a self-care intervention at the first appearance of stress symptoms
• Equipping yourself with tools or resources to help you cope with stress as it arises

All of these require forward-thinking and strategy. 

In that spirit, think of the following nine tools as your holiday pre-game. The list will help you get into a stress-relief strategy mindset. I hope you find something on it that resonates and helps put the right tool in your hand exactly when you need it. 

This list contains affiliate links. You have the option of using these or your own links :)

A List of Holiday Stress Tips and Tools for Women Entrepreneurs

1. Take a breather. This fun Buddha is a visual breath meditation tool that guides your breath and helps you relax. Breathwork has been widely shown to ease anxious or depressive feelings and improve mood.
2. Use self-care prompts to motivate and inspire. Self-care can feel . . . well, daunting. We can actually get stressed out just thinking about choosing a self-care activity and adding it to our to-do list. This stress-relief and self-care card deck can help. It's also a super-fun and simple way to integrate stress management into a busy holiday schedule.
3. Find creative outlets for your most challenging emotions. Anger, frustration, and other icky emotions are part of life and the holidays. Why not release your inner bitch with this irreverent stress-relief coloring book? This coloring book harnesses the power of swearing to reduce stress. You can let it all out safely and privately while ensuring you don’t unload on others. It may not be for everyone, but the stress-relief power of swearing actually has health benefits. 
4. Soothe yourself with a nourishing eye mask. This cooling eye mask can be a simple yet powerful tool to invite nourishing rest into your holidays. 
5. Find easy ways to incorporate positive movement into your life. The benefits of movement extend beyond physical health. They also boost mental clarity, energy, and productivity for your life and teacher business. This under-desk treadmill is a seamless way to relieve stress and improve overall well-being.
6. Provide yourself with options and opportunities to find movement tools that work for you. Maybe an under-desk treadmill isn't right for you, but this exercise bike desk could be.
7. Manage holiday burnout with compassion and mindfulness. Created for therapists, this anti-burnout card deck is full of effective prompts that stimulate mindfulness, empathy, and self-love. 
8. Soothe tension and headaches. This cooling ice head cap helps alleviate discomfort associated with headaches and migraines while reducing stress and tension. 
9. Empower yourself with positive affirmation. These affirmation cards bolster mental resilience and uplift your intentions, offering a shield against stress spirals. The uplifting phrases can help reframe negative thoughts and cultivate an empowered mindset, fostering a sense of calm and confidence in the face of pressure.

The Holidays Are For Peace . . . Including Your Own

The holidays are a whirlwind, especially for women entrepreneurs who are running a teacher business. My list of holiday stress tips and tools offers nine lifelines for managing holiday stress. Remember, stress-relief starts with you. So, give yourself the resources you need to thrive.   

If you're unsure where to start, my free stress-relief toolkit for teacher entrepreneurs helps you think through stress-relief strategies specific to your needs and preferences. It's a wonderful compliment to this list!