Do you want to know what’s overrated? Holiday stress. Rushing around. A month full of feeling too busy, stressed, unhealthy, and disconnected. If December feels like a whirlwind to you, it’s time to reset and replace it with 4 weeks of Health, Peace, and Bliss.

Sound impossible?

It can be a challenge. The world around us uses Christmas as a marketing scheme. It’s all about money, gifts, and more, more, more.

But, you can be the one to change it. You can feel healthy, peaceful, and blissful this month. Here’s how:

4 Weeks of Health, Bliss & Peace

1. First, Focus on Health:

Keep a Health-Focused Mindset: Even during December, you can enjoy 4 weeks of health through a great diet and lifestyle. How? Realize that the “Holiday Season” is really only a few Holiday days. So, on those days, when getting together with friends and family, go ahead and live a little.

On the other days, keep practicing your healthy habits. You’ll feel so much better about any “cheat” days if your day-in day-out healthy habits are intact and consistent.

Healthy Holiday Eating: On non-Holiday days, eat according to the Beyond Keto plan. Eat plenty of vegetables, healthy fats, and lean proteins. Focus on seafood, extra virgin olive oil, greens, avocados, and other anti-inflammatory high-antioxidant foods. You can find the whole plan here.

Get Outside and Stay Active: Even in cold weather, it feels great to get outside! Make walking a habit. Or, find other outdoor activities you enjoy. Outdoor activity, even when brief, promotes improved moods and psychological well-being (1).

Don’t Quit on Health: It’s easy to think of December as a month to quit on your goals. To let yourself slide because New Year’s is just around the corner and you’ll refocus then. There are two major things about this mindset that really hurt you:

• One, you can completely sabotage all the amazing work you’ve done all year to lose pounds or get healthy in just a few weeks of “letting go.”
• Two, people who go into the New Year with strong healthy habits in place are much more likely to meet New Year’s goals than those who “quit” during December and then try to re-engage in January.

Finish the year strong with a healthy December!

2. Next, Embody a Peaceful Spirit:

Practice Gratitude: To start, look back at the year and think about all you have for which to be grateful. Think about any loved ones, family and friends, experiences, lessons, love, and God. Meditate on the good gifts from God you’ve received.

Then, write them down. Maybe you’re keeping a gratitude journal. Or, maybe you just like to think of things for which you’re grateful. Either way, focusing on gratitude is one of the best ways to end a year, celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, and move forward. Not only does it improve mental health, decrease stress and cortisol(2), it can also reduce the risk of depression, chronic diseases like metabolic syndrome and more (3). Gratitude brings peace to our minds and bodies!

Get Extra Sleep:  Adequate sleep also promotes peace in our minds and bodies. In fact, many studies now show that sleep is crucial for immune function, fighting chronic disease, and brain health (4). Most experts agree that you need at least 6 hours of high-quality sleep per night, and preferably 8-9 hours. Make sleep a priority this month.

Stress Less: Next, there’s Divine Health Stress Less Drops. This amazing formulation from Divine Health uses your body’s natural “stress-reduction” parasympathetic system to encourage calm moods, clarity, healthy energy pathways, better sleep, and balance. In fact, it’s made of liquid ionic trace minerals in distilled water that include 85 trace minerals harvested with care from Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

Lastly, Enjoy the Bliss:

Choose Optimism: Even if it’s not your natural tendency, choose to practice optimism and increase your bliss. Amazingly, God has given us a simple solution to longevity, health, and joy. It’s optimism. Believe it or not, studies show increased optimism practices actually equate to longer life, in both men and women. In addition, optimistic people tend to be healthier and happier during their lives with less depression and levels of stress.

If you are a naturally more pessimistic person, don’t worry….you can be optimistic that you can at least partly learn optimism. Studies have concluded that approximately  25% of optimism is genetic (9), leaving 75% to attitude and our choices. These same studies show we can create habits of optimism in just 2 weeks of intervention with prayer, meditation, journaling, and gratitude(10). Take joy in a positive outlook this month!

Focus on People: Despite the overwhelming focus on material things this time of year, you can choose to focus on relationships and people. Slow down long enough to find joy in the present moment. Don’t rush though. Don’t focus on materials. Instead, let those around you, rather than gifts, bring joy!

Remember that Jesus is the Reason for the Season: The best way to experience joy in December? Focus on Jesus. His birth, His life, His sacrifice, His forgiveness, and His promises. There is nothing this world offers that compares to Him. No matter what’s happening in your life, you can find forgiveness, new life, and joy in Him.

Pray: Want more joy and bliss in your life? Pray. Connect with God. No matter what you are facing, the practice of daily prayer, and prayer throughout the day, can change everything. Prayer is a wonderful gift for spiritual health. Prayer is thought to increase the secretion of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine. These compounds decrease cortisol while promoting relaxation, joy, focus, and motivation.

Bottom Line

Let’s turn December from a whirlwind into a peaceful, joyous, and healthy month. Let’s start a trend of finishing the year in calm bliss rather than frantic stress. Use December to continue healthy habits and catapult you into next year. Don’t give up on health and peace this year. Instead, slow down and enjoy the most peaceful time of the year.