Happy Holiday Season! As we enter the time of the year where people of all backgrounds come together to celebrate all manner of holidays and festivities, it also is the time of year where a person’s wellbeing can suffer from things like stress and illnesses. Acupuncture is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practice that prioritizes overall wellbeing, both in treating existing conditions and preventing others from arising by maintaining wellness. The benefits of acupuncture are varied, but can be a great fit for the holiday season, ensuring that you can celebrate with your loved ones without worry! Here are five ways acupuncture can improve YOUR holiday season:
Stress Relief
The holidays tend to be a period where people can relax and enjoy themselves; however, the stresses of travel, gifts, planning, and other factors can be a silent negative influence on a person’s wellbeing. Acupuncture is an incredible way to gain short-term stress relief and long-term stress management. Acupuncture, by inserting needles into specific points on the body, your short-term cortisol (aka the stress hormone) levels decrease. In addition to the short-term, continuous acupuncture treatments have shown to decrease long-term overall cortisol production in the body as well! Whether you need acute relief or want long-term stress maintenance, acupuncture can help so that you can enjoy your holiday season stress free!
Pain Relief
The holidays bring their share of joy, but also a share of pain too! Pains related to environmental changes due to travel, changes in the weather, increased activity, and more can flare up during the holiday season. Here at Essence Acupuncture Wellness of San Antonio, our highly trained staff have had incredible success in providing pain relief to our patients. Acupuncture itself has been reliably tested and found to reduce muscle pain and body aches by targeting areas with a lot of tension and restoring energy flow throughout the body. If you deal with chronic pain or maybe the weather is causing some seasonal flare-ups, consider trying acupuncture so you can enjoy all of the activities that are associated with the holidays!
Fortifying Immune System
While the holiday season brings a cheery, festive mood, it also brings a host of illnesses that can catch you by surprise. Whether due to stress, contact with people, or the weather, the holiday season can become an illness season as well! Acupuncture can fortify the immune system by promoting immune cell activity and improving overall circulation. This way, your body’s immune system is on alert and can deal with any illnesses before they negatively impact your holiday season. If you are frequently ill during the holidays or just want to make sure you’re not sick while celebrating, acupuncture is a terrific method to strengthen your immune system.
Improve Sleep
The holidays, while fun, can also be very energy-demanding as there is plenty to do and celebrate. Whether it be having many tasks to check off, jet lag from travel, or holiday-related stress, sleep can easily be neglected during the holidays. Acupuncture is a tried and tested practice that can improve sleep quality and quantity, which is especially useful during the holidays when those two things can be neglected. Specifically, acupuncture can improve the production of sleep-specific neurotransmitters (or brain chemicals) while also improving overall energy flow. Additionally, it can regulate sleep by pushing you from a sympathetic state (your “fight or flight” mode) to a parasympathetic state (your “rest and digest” mode), allowing your body to relax and get more high-quality sleep. Here, at Essence Acupuncture Wellness of San Antonio, our practitioners have seen a lot of success in helping people improve their sleep, so if you are struggling with it, definitely consider reaching out to schedule an appointment!
Emotion Regulation/Boost
While the holidays are supposed to be a time of cheer, there are circumstances where people just can’t feel happy. Whether due to one’s mood being poorly regulated or an inability to celebrate the holidays due to work or being away from family, we understand that life can be difficult to see the good in. However, acupuncture has been found to be effective at emotional regulation and it can even help boost your mood so you can still celebrate regardless of your circumstances. Scientifically, acupuncture has been found to release endorphins, a brain hormone that calms and relaxes a person. It also releases serotonin, a mood-regulating brain hormone, and endogenous opioids, chemicals that the body produces to help maintain mood. By releasing these three brain hormones and chemicals, you naturally feel more uplifted and even happy, making the hardest days of the holidays seem a little bit brighter. If you are dealing with any mental health issues, struggle to see the joy of the holidays, or maybe you don’t have many people to celebrate with, we want to let you know that here at Essence Acupuncture, we are here for you and, should you schedule an appointment, we will do our best to help you celebrate the holidays.
While acupuncture can treat/prevent a range of conditions and improve your wellbeing in ways not in this list, these are the five that tend to affect people around the holiday season. If you are concerned about one or more of these five, or if you are unsure if acupuncture would suit you, give us a call at 210-236-5862 for any questions or to schedule an appointment! Here at Essence Acupuncture Wellness San Antonio, we strongly recommend considering acupuncture as a method of treating or preventing the conditions that tend to plague the holidays.
Happy Holidays everyone!!!
References:
OC Wellness. “Boost Holiday Resilience: 5 Effective Acupuncture Tips.” OC Wellness Physicians Medical Group, Dec. 2024, ocwellnessphysicians.com/5-effective-ways-acupuncture-can-help-stress-proof-your-holidays/.
Studio, L+A Healing. “Stress during the Holidays: How Acupuncture Can Help.” Edited by Andretti Montalvo, L+A HEALING STUDIO, 18 Nov. 2024, lahealingstudio.com/blog/stress-during-the-holidays-how-acupuncture-can-help/.
Wolf, Amy. “Thanksgiving without Tension: Acupuncture for Holiday Stress.” Herb + Ohm Luxury Integrative Medicine Practice in Chicago, 4 Nov. 2024, www.herbandohm.com/thanksgiving-without-tension-acupuncture-for-holiday-stress.
