Easing Stress During The Holidays In Unique Ways

This time of year can be full of candy canes and gifts and fun, but it can also be a time of stress in every corner of your world, but there may be simple ways to ease that stress.

Now there is nothing I like less than than hollow advice from experts. Tips like "if you have too much shopping to do, do less shopping." What? Or "if you're tired, sleep more". Really?? So you don't have enough hours in the day as it is, but you should magically find some hours to sleep more. I'm stressed just listening to the advice.

But this list of things from health.com and reported at msn.com gives some simple, real advice that's easy to do and might actually help.Things like taking a whiff of citrus (some experts say it may "boost feelings of well-being").

The experts also say it's ok to not be perfect this time of year. It's obviously an unattainable goal, and nobody expects you to be perfect anyway...except of course, you. The experts say don't sweat the small stuff. The problem is, it seems like nothing is the "small stuff".

And this is a tough one. The experts want you to go text free. See, this is one of those tips that just doesn't work for me. I'd be more stressed without my phone than with it. But they say constant use of the phone keeps us "in a perpetual fight-or-flight mode due to bursts of adrenaline. Not only is this exhausting, but it contributes to mounting stress levels". Ok.

So whatever method you use to ease the holiday stress, we hope it works, and maybe these will help this year. Check out all the advice at msn.com.