I do my best to keep up with the latest wellness trends, not because I’m a huge fan of “trends,” but if framed in a new way, they can be great to experiment with. That’s what I hope you do with these six old-fashioned health tips this season. Let them become an experiment that helps amplify the way you live out health.
Honestly, I think we could all see our health more through the lens of experimentation.
There is no black-and-white when it comes to health. There are frameworks, understandings, and ideas that span the masses, like our need for sleep, water, and the other basics. But what “works” or doesn’t “work” is personal. That means we have to know ourselves enough to know what works. We have to have a sense of self. Even deeper, we need self-love.
Love is the foundation of it all.
In light of the holidays, I think it’s worth noting that the reason we celebrate is founded on love. Which is why love is at the top of my list, even though I haven’t always been good at showing, giving, or receiving love towards myself and others. I have found that focusing on love – seeing it in all things – has changed how I move through the holidays.
Love may not be a trending health tip, but maybe it should be. To use this season to embrace love in all things and all ways.
And love is not new. It’s the single most important thread running through humanity since the beginning of creation. History has a lot to teach us, and it might just show us the best tips that will help you live your best holiday season yet.
6 Old-Fashioned Health Tips for a Joyful and Stress-Free Holiday
01: Choose Joy On Purpose
Joy is the oldest wellness practice in the book. Joy isn’t just an emotion you feel. It’s a physiological state your body responds to. That’s why joy can be considered a nutrient. It has significant biological effects, changing the way each of your trillion cells responds to life.
While science has only recently begun to understand how powerful joy is for our health, our ancestors intuitively recognized its benefits. They didn’t need data. They felt the healing, steadying force of joy woven into their everyday rhythms. And the research now confirms it: when you experience joy (even in small, ordinary moments), your biology shifts almost instantly.
Joy lifts your mood, softens stress, and reminds your body that life is still good, even when it’s hard.
This holiday season, choose joy with intention. Look for it everywhere you can: in the big moments, the tiny ones, the quiet ones, and the unexpected ones. Let joy be the thing that steadies you, nourishes you, and pulls you back to what actually matters.
Joy isn’t a luxury. It’s a practice. It becomes what you make of it by how you choose to show up and how you choose to see your life. A little joy every day shifts your biology. A lot of joy over time can shift your entire life.
02: Eat More Meals Gathered With Friends
Food has always been more than nourishment. Long before we counted macros or worried about ingredients, people healed through shared meals. A table full of familiar faces laughing, talking, passing, and plates creates a physiological shift your body recognizes as safety. And safety is the soil where good health grows.
Meals with friends slow you down. They calm your nervous system. They improve digestion, soften loneliness, and satisfy cravings that food alone never could. Community regulates the body in ways modern nutrition often forgets because people need people.
In a world telling you to prioritize your time alone, what if you prioritized time with those you loved and those who filled your cup? This holiday season, prioritize the people at your table as much as the food on it. Linger longer. Listen deeper. Let the connection be the nutrient. A shared meal can do what no diet plan ever will—feed your soul while it nourishes your body.
03: Embrace The Slowness of Darker Days
Winter invites us into a rhythm our ancestors honored instinctively: more rest, slower evenings, quieter nights. While it is common to gripe and moan about the darker days, I don’t think they are to fear as we have. Darkness can be healing. But that comes from learning to nourish yourself through the darkness, not from battling through it.
Your body was created to live based on the signals of light and dark, don’t overpower it by trying to eliminate the darkness but learn to lean into it. When you dim the lights, light candles, or simply allow the early sunset to guide your evening, your body drops into a calmer, more grounded state. Melatonin rises. Stress eases and your internal clock realigns.
This holiday season, embrace the darkness. Let it remind you that slowing down is part of being well. And then create pockets of softness through warm lights, early evenings, and quieter spaces. Let darkness be healing this season by leaning into what it offers. Don’t try to override it.
04: Get Outside, Even When It’s Cold
Similar to fearing darkness, I think we’ve also come to fear the cold. Some even loathe it. We long for summer, wish away winter, and treat cold air like something to avoid. I get it. I’ve this too. But I’ve also learned that my resistance to the cold makes me suffer more. Just like darkness carries its own form of medicine, so do the temperatures.
Fresh air has been medicine for centuries. Before wellness routines and supplements, people simply went outside. Fresh air helped you breathe, helped you heal, and reset. That’s because nature regulates your nervous system like nothing else can.
Stepping outside, even for a few minutes, lowers stress, brightens your mood, and gives your body a quick reset. You don’t need a long walk or a full outdoor adventure. Just a couple of minutes of fresh air can change how you feel.
This holiday season, make it a habit to step out the door once a day. Breathe in the cold. Let it wake you up. Let it clear your head. It’s simple, it’s free, and it works.
05: Create More Than You Consume
Our ancestors were makers. They created elegant meals made of simple ingredients. They birthed stories that others were eager to hear and created gifts and music, crafts, and traditions. Creation was the heart of the holidays. It’s where love was lived out, and that nourished them. It gave meaning, connection, and a sense of contribution.
Today, we often get stuck consuming, scrolling, watching, and absorbing information we never needed. And the body feels the difference.
Creating shifts your chemistry. It sparks joy, presence, and imagination. It reduces anxiety and brings your mind into the here and now. Whether it’s cooking, writing, decorating, crafting, or simply arranging something beautifully, creation feeds parts of you that consumption never will.
This holiday season, create more. Make something with your hands. Bring beauty into your space. Let your creativity remind you that you’re not just a consumer of life, you’re a participant in it.
06. Move Your Body Daily
Movement is one of the oldest forms of medicine, and not because it burns calories or “earns” your food. Movement works because the body was designed for gentle, natural, consistent motion. Our ancestors walked, gathered, carried, stretched, danced, and worked with their hands. Movement wasn’t a task. It was life.
Daily movement clears your mind, opens your lungs, steadies your emotions, and keeps your energy from becoming stagnant. It helps you process stress instead of storing it. And it reminds your body that you are alive, capable, and adaptable.
This holiday season, choose simple movement like a walk after dinner, stretching on the floor, dancing in the kitchen, or stepping outside for fresh air. Let it be enjoyable. Let it be natural. I’m not asking for a workout, just motion. Your body doesn’t need perfection. It needs consistency. Show up every day and do something pleasurable to move your body.
Join The Holiday Walking Club
And if you want to take your movement one step further this season, I’d love for you to join me in The Holiday Walking Challenge. It’s simple, fun, and made to fit into your life.
Whether you walk alone, with friends, or with family, it’s about showing up for yourself every day. Plus, it’s a great way to create a little joy, breathe fresh air, and move your body all while celebrating the holidays in a healthy, grounded way.
Sign up today, and let’s walk through the season together. Your body—and your sanity—will thank you.
It’s more than just living a Stress-Free Holiday. It’s creating real holiday magic!
The holidays are often painted as a destination. It has become something we need to “get right,” a season we have to survive or master. But the truth is, health and joy aren’t about arriving anywhere. They aren’t checklists or perfect Instagram moments. They are lived experiences, choices we make every single day, in small ways that add up over time.
Choosing a healthy, joy-filled holiday doesn’t mean strict rules or denying yourself the treats and traditions you love. It means showing up for yourself, noticing what nourishes you, and leaning into practices that lift your energy, calm your mind, and fill your heart. It’s about creating rhythms that support you, rather than trying to control every detail.
It’s in the simple, everyday actions — taking a brisk walk outside, sitting down for a meal with friends without rushing, laughing until your cheeks hurt, lighting a candle, and slowing down — that your health and joy really live. These moments are the real holiday magic. They remind you that wellness isn’t a destination. It’s a way of being, a choice you make over and over.
This season, give yourself permission to live the holidays fully. Let the focus be on presence, connection, and movement, rather than perfection. When you do, you’ll find that the holidays aren’t something to survive. They’re something to truly savor.
