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The holidays can be such a noisy time of year for a number of reasons. The obligations, the shopping, the parties, and the kids can be a lot for someone to handle. But my perspective was flipped this past Thanksgiving. While sharing what we were thankful for, one of our guests said she was thankful for her happy, healthy, and noisy children. She embraced the noise. She embraced the stressful, noisy aspects of the holidays because she knew how lucky she was to only have those worries. On this week’s podcast we talk about how to practice embracing the noise: from meditation and gratitude to making sleep a priority and enjoying the silence when you have it.
The Importance of Physical Embrace
Penn and I also touch (see what I did there?) on the idea of physical embracing to combat stress in the form of kissing. One of our listeners sent us the 15-Second Challenge to kiss your partner daily. The idea is that you kiss them for 15-seconds every day with the expectation of nothing more. No ice cream if you know what we mean – wink, wink. Kissing releases a lot of ‘happy hormones’ like oxytocin and dopamine, which is probably why when you were dating your partner you were head over heels for them. Kissing can also release serotonin and lower cortisol levels which make you feel more relaxed.
Penn and I tried this for the first time the other day. After we got past the awkwardness of two grown adults making out in a parking lot like a bunch of teenagers, I have to admit I was less stressed. We are going to try this every day for the next week and we challenge you and your partner to do the same! Post your experience in the podcast group. Let’s pucker up and make this noisy time of year a little less stressful, shall we? We will provide an update on our little experiment and your experiences on next week’s show!
