The Holidays are the most stressful time of the year.  You may experience one or more to the following: holiday anxiety and stress, seasonal depression, colds and flu, and financial stress. My suggestion: let’s hug!

Are you a hugging person? Actually it doesn’t matter, because if hugging is a challenge for you, it may be even better – we all need challenges from time to time, am I right?

So give hugs to people you love and people you know, and maybe even people you don’t.

I would like to share with you an excerpt from an article about hug therapy stress relief by Michael Clutton.

Hugs are good for any occasion: birthdays, holidays, greetings, good byes or sometimes just because you want to. When you get a hug, you feel warm, fuzzy and complete.  The hug of another person expresses a certain feeling of union and caring.  They’re a friendly way to express appreciation of another person.

There are group hugs, tender lover hugs, around the waist hugs, kissing hugs, sweet and tender hugs and yes, even the grab-ass hug.  There is the awkward “lean in” for the timid and the breathtaking squeeze-you-till-your-eyes-pop hug.

As a stress relief tool, hugging can help us boost our immune system, fight  colds and flu, increase our energy level and avoid seasonal depression.

Let us hug, breathe, smile and be happy.

Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health and Nutrition Counselor and Coach