5 Holiday Health and Wellness Tips from EmpowHER

With all the shopping and socializing, the holiday season can take its toll on us emotionally and physically. Here are five helpful tips from EmpowHer, a leading health and wellness website for women, to help us de-stress and get in the holiday spirit:

Prioritize: Your company is throwing a really cool holiday party in mid-December, and so are two of your closest friends, three sets of neighbors and four relatives. While you may or may not wish to to attend them all, nothing can wear you out faster than too many social engagements. Give yourself permission to attend a certain number of holiday functions, and graciously bow out of the others.

Try something new this holiday season./Photo by Tracy E. Hopkins

Let go of tradition: We all enjoy receiving holiday cards, but we also completely understand not having the time or inclination to send them. Just like holiday parties, pick and choose a few traditions that you truly enjoy doing, and leave the rest behind, at least for this year.

Find time for yourself: It's okay to go to bed early, even if you have a pile of gifts to wrap. It's okay to soak in a hot bubble bath, even as the bare Christmas tree awaits its decorations and tinsel. And it's okay to go to lunch or enjoy a pedicure with a close girlfriend whose friendship invigorates you, even as your home waits to be cleaned for the company that will arrive tomorrow. These gifts of time and relaxation that we give ourselves this holiday season will pay off nicely.

Try something new: Sure, there are things that you and your family or friends enjoy doing, eating or seeing every year -- like the annual Christmas light drive with the family or eating the same holiday turkey with your Aunt's famous cornbread stuffing. But how about giving a new food, event or even store a try?

Keep your perspective: Try thinking of it this way. You can have the most stressful holiday season ever, and in a few short weeks it will be 2012. Or you can make every effort to relax and have a good time, and in a few short weeks it will also be 2012.

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