holidays

This can be a strange time of year. There are songs, commercials, shows on the television, movies and articles in the paper about the spirit of giving, loving, blessings, and the joy of family and friends. You see visions of couples holding hands, snuggling into each other on a cold winter's night or buying the perfect present for the love of their life. But what if you are single? What if you are used to spending Christmas with a certain someone and that isn't happening this year? What if you are feeling lonely? Sad? Lost? How do you hold your head up and enjoy the holiday season without feeling like losing yourself in a bottle of wine or a large box of chocolates? Holidays can be tough if you are single. If it's a recent situation, old memories can come to surface. You remember the wa...

With the flurry of shopping, spending money and traveling to see family, stress can feel inevitable during the holidays. You might already know stress can affect your own health, but what you may not realize is that your stress – and how you manage it – is catching. Your stress can spread around, particularly to your loved ones. As a social-health psychologist, I have developed a model on how partners and their stress influence each other’s psychological and biological health. Through that and my other research, I’ve learned that the quality of intimate relationships is crucial to people’s health. Here’s just a sample: Relationship stress can alter the immune, endocrine and cardiovascular systems. A study of newlyweds found levels of stress hormones were higher when couples were hostile d...

Tag: holidays

Get Through The Holidays As A Single Person

Relationship Stress Is Contagious – During The Holidays And Beyond Here’s What You Can Do To Support Your Partner And Boost Your Own Health