A Simple Idea for a Happier Christmas

Dear Natural Health Solutions Reader,

Christmas is two days away.

You are — wild guess! — stressed out.

So I will keep this brief.

Christmas is stressful largely because the members of the extended family, crammed into overheated houses and having gorged on cinnamon-and-nutmeg-infused carbs, tend to get ramped up and drive each other nuts.

And this year, the rancor of the family’s political arguments is likely to trump previous Christmas conflicts, if you get my drift.

So let’s borrow a solution from Tromsø, Norway, population 72,000, one of the three northernmost large cities on Earth, where they know a thing or two about handling winter stress:

Take a long walk outside.

I know. It seems so insanely basic that you’d be forgiven for thinking it couldn’t possibly make much difference.

Walk Away From Winter Blues

But the people of Tromsø have learned through the centuries that in midwinter, it is far more vital to mental health to walk outdoors than at any other time.

They are outdoors and active every day without fail through their dark, bleak winters, and seasonal affective disorder is rare there.¹

The Christmas-season walk tradition is also respected in my family, because it accomplishes four things:

1. The extended family group splits into walkers and not-walkers, giving both groups some physical and psychic breathing room.

2. Solar exposure and exercise are the two best natural solutions for depression.^2,3 Walking outdoors gives you both at once.

3. Walking is the most inclusive kind of group exercise, so young and old can share it.

4. In some places, it can also have a practical application, as in walking to the post office or store.

So walk, not just on Christmas, but also on the days surrounding it, and don’t feel you must take just one walk a day.

When we lived in Maine, each day, we took one “utility walk,” to grab some necessary item at the market (roughly half a mile away) or drop off mail, and one purely recreational walk around the neighborhood after dinner all through December and January. It was the main reason we enjoyed, rather than dreaded, the season.

Bottom Line

If this all seems too trivial to you, you are likely to be precisely the sort of person/family who needs it.

The truth is that there’s a great power in walking. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I believe that it literally saves not just family harmony but lives.

In the immortal words of Dr. Paul Dudley White (1886–1973), now universally regarded as the father of preventive cardiology, “A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.”

So off you go! Merry Christmas!

To your robust health,

Brad Lemley
Editor, Natural Health Solutions

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Citations

¹ Kari Leibowitz, A Small Norwegian City Might Hold the Answer to Beating Winter Blues, New Republic, Ja. 6, 2016
² Penckofer S, Kouba J, Byrn M, Estwing ferrans C. Vitamin D and depression: where is all the sunshine?. Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2010
³ Heesch, Kristiann C. et al., Physical Activity, Walking, and Quality of Life in Women with Depressive Symptoms, March 2015