Tylar Brannon, CEO of Charleston, SC based Optimal Bio shares tips on managing stress during the holiday season

As the holidays approach, what is advertised as the most joyous time of year can often be the most stressful. As the CEO of Optimal Bio, a Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy center focused on optimizing your health and hormones, Tylar Brannon knows firsthand how stress can affect our wellbeing. Stress causes inflammation, and can manifest physically from headaches to gut issues. Her passion, as seen through her work leading Optimal Bio’s seven locations across the Southeast and working with thousands of patients, is helping people function at their optimal level and their healthiest selves.

Below Brannon shares her informed tips on managing stress around the holiday season!

• Avoid constant stimulation from phones. Especially in busy times, we feel like we should always be available on our phones, and, alternatively, the escape is constant scrolling to distract. This negatively affects how our brains process emotions. Setting boundaries like turning off notifications in the evening and finding device-less activities, like a walk to appreciate the outdoors, helps start your day on a calmer, more stable foundation. 
• Use stress to your advantage. Short term versus chronic stress are very different, and it’s important to recognize that life is full of seasons (literally and metaphorically). As busy and stressful as the holidays can get, it can be helpful to find some discipline in a routine (whatever that may look like) to keep yourself from prolonging a stressful season into a lifestyle. 
• Focus on balance. Too much of anything can affect your mental state. Lean into the joy of the holidays and savor the events, refreshments and company that are so positive during this time, and balance that with incorporating movement for endorphins and non-processed foods to nourish your body and mind. 
• Practice mental and physical health practices consistently. Our minds are muscles, and in order to process stress effectively, we have to train it to do so. For me, this looks like ensuring that my BHRT placement is up to date and at the right dosage, so my hormones are at the optimal level to avoid any brain fog, headaches, anxiety and anything else that can make this season more stressful. We can’t affect how others handle situations, but we can set ourselves up for success.