In this segment Breakfast with Bridgett on WKMG channel 6 news, Dr. Brooke Stuart, a holistic and functional medicine doctor, talks about different ways to prepare for the holidays and have more joy during the season. For the full segment, you can check out the video above or visit the link here! Dr. Brooke starts at 20:05.
Throughout the segment we discussed the importance of self-awareness and communication in dealing with stress especially Holidays season is knocking on our doors, including being aware of stress triggers, setting boundaries, focusing on what is important to you and your family, outsourcing tasks to reduce stress, and managing difficult conversations by focusing on common ground or listening to different opinions! Overall, the goal is to help individuals find more joy and less stress during the holidays and here are the key takeaways:
- Generating Awareness: Recognizing the factors that truly cause us stress enables us to create a strategy to change that situation
- Creating Awareness of People’s Patterns: Identifying sources of stress and its triggers to develop a plan to address and alleviate them
- Choosing to connect that creates expansion: Choosing to engage in activities that broaden experiences, such as preparing a specific dish, or stepping slightly beyond one’s comfort zone, which can be incredibly beneficial in reshaping how we respond to stress and enhancing our overall well-being
- Core Memories: Knowing what is most important to you and your family during the holiday season and what creates connected experience such as sending a holiday cards, taking family photos, cooking dishes, etc.
- Outsourcing: Focusing on the growth and what brings a sense of relief to you and creating expansion vs contraction
Book A Free Holistic Consultation
If you have questions or are unsure of where to begin, feel free to book a free consultation, where Dr. Brooke Stuart can guide you to the best of her ability inside or outside the practice and programs!
Full Transcript Here
Bridgett: Welcome back. This morning we’re talking about holiday stress. You know, this time next week a lot of people will be getting all that Thanksgiving meal ready. A lot of work goes into that. Also, traveling and coordinating with family and friends on where you’re gonna be, what you’re gonna do, who’s bringing what. And, you know, lots of topics to talk about or try not to talk about. It can be stressful sometimes, but we want to enjoy the holidays.
That’s the main goal. So this morning we wanna talk to Dr. Brook Stuart, founder of Let Go and Grow, and she’s here to help us break down those ways to get ready for the holidays and have more joy. Good morning.
Brooke: Good morning. How are you, Bridgett?
Bridgett: Good. How are you?
Brooke: Good. Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to talk about this topic. I feel like in America, we’ve been through so much with the election. Still, when it comes to the holidays, reconnecting with family and friends that we were talking about before, we have these deep histories with, and it can be difficult to see how we can enjoy this season.
Bridgett: And lean into the bright side and there are many things that come up when we get into the holiday season. So it’s a bit bittersweet. You know, the older you get, it can be bittersweet. So what are some of those main things that stress people out, when it comes to your clients that you talk to this time of year?
Brooke: I think just is certainly, and I think a big part of shifting the dynamic is being aware of what actually stresses us out so that we can put a plan in place to actually shift that dynamic. And whether it’s a certain conversation with a family member that we are dreading or whether it’s a past experience that we still have pent up emotion about. Or whether you have food allergies and it’s difficult to actually set that boundary and stay on the path that you’ve been on for healing all year round.
Financial stresses are a big deal. And so becoming aware of these so that we can put a plan in place in the present moment can be used, so intentionally helpful. Almost just actually using our awareness to think through what we can do differently.
And I think a big part of stress, a lot of stress is unseen and unhidden even to ourselves. And so if we’re aware of what can create stress in terms of foundations, health foundations when it comes to lack of sleep or sugary excess, sugary foods or toxins or different things that we’re putting into our systems or consuming even through social media, there are so many ways that we can actually drive down stress and give ourselves more capacity to meet the challenges at hand when it comes to different family members or friends. So that we can actually almost come into a space of how good can I stand it, how good can the holidays be? And how can I participate in a way that’s new and bright and different to where I can actually appreciate the people around me and the experiences we’re having? And sometimes that certainly can start with an apology or a thank you or just being curious about how to participate, whether it’s cooking a certain meal or looking up the live events locally, or just sort of just extending the cell just enough to get outside the traditional box and rework that stress response can be extraordinarily helpful.
Bridgett: And we talked about that, the weight of tradition and honor as well as trying to be flexible, so how do you balance that? Because it’s like maybe one person wants to have a very, very big gathering and maybe somebody else wants to do something smaller or maybe there’ve been some deaths in the family or changes in family dynamics, how do we manage that with each other in respect to wanting to make them happy, but also making sure that we’re honoring our own comfort, happiness and managing that stress?
Brooke: I think two things come to mind. I think it’s helpful to have both end mentality when it comes to this. So if you’ve lost someone this holiday season and you’re going through that grief cycle, I think it’s okay to have a way to answer questions that connect with both ends so besides grieving, I’m great and you can extend into that conversation, but you’re still bringing light to what’s actually in the room.
And with a lot of my patients, I talk about core memories, what is most important to you during the holiday season, and your family. And so if you take a moment to close your eyes and think minimally, what is most important to you for Thanksgiving, for Christmas, for anything that you may be celebrating this year?
Maybe it’s getting photos done with your family, or sending a holiday card. Maybe it’s a specific dish that you wanna make, but certain unique things will be important for you and your family. And some may be traditional and others may be new but I think getting clear on the minimum that would create a joyful holiday season for us. We can then begin to see everything else as bonus points, which I think can be helpful when it comes to working with the season so really knowing what is important specifically to you and your family and then moving from that space as bonus points, just so we can sort of have fulfillment along with that never ending to-do list when it comes to this so often.
Bridgett: Sometimes it’s all the cooking that can really get stressful. And I, I think about like that I love Lucy episode where it’s like everything’s trying to do all this stuff and then it just gets crazy and messy. And so I talked to a chef last week about getting a little bit of catering and, and she said, “if it stresses you out, don’t do it.”
And so sometimes it’s like we stress ourselves out maybe making things that maybe people don’t, that’s not even their favorite thing that you make. Like make the favorite thing, make the thing that everybody loves, but then maybe get a store-bought is fine, right? Who says that? Yes I mean, it comes down to sometimes making some of those compromises. Like if you’re maybe putting yourself into sort of a self-imposed prison of thinking what you have to do, then do all these things that maybe don’t matter as much.
Brooke: 100%. I mean, I know if I am cooking, which is never really that great of an idea. I would spend way less money buying it from the store with premium ingredients than if I ruin like three pies in a row.
So in general, I think it’s a great idea to outsource. If you see that if you love cooking, then paying attention to that expansion and what creates an exhale in your system is so key and so important and so different for each and every one of us.
Bridgett: What about those stressful topics? ‘Cause like you said, sometimes you know, you can love someone or you can be friends with someone, you don’t have to agree with every single thing that they believe. They don’t have to agree with everything that you believe. How do you manage those conversations that come up after everyone’s sitting around the table, maybe drinks are flowing. What do you do to manage the touchy topics or the difficult like you said, maybe it’s an apology or how do you put a pause on some of those things that can trigger arguments or take the air out of the room?
Brooke: Yeah. I think that depends on the topic. If it’s something that’s weighing on your heart and mind and you would love to apologize for, I think it’s really helpful to consider that and think about how you can clear the air in advance. Or if you know a certain family member is on the other side of the aisle when it comes to politics, maybe it’s deciding to focus on topics that you have common ground on. Or if you have a deep enough relationship where that connection where you can actually explore the range of opinions, that could be really interesting. Just to commit to staying in the room and actually listening, which doesn’t mean you have to take it in and internalize it and bring it into your own belief system, but just having that courage to stay in the room and hear another side can be almost like working a spiritual muscle for so, so many of us.
Bridgett: That’s so important, to just to listen. Where can we go for some more information, Dr. Stuart, before we let you go?
Brooke: Absolutely. Thank you so much for asking. So my website is drbrookestuart.com and we have a ton of free information on that. We talk a lot about the holidays and stress management, certainly.
Bridgett: All right, wonderful. Well, hope to see you again soon. Thanks so much this morning, for the expert advice. We hope it helps everyone have more, more joy, [and] less stress.
Brooke: Absolutely. Happy holidays everyone!
Bridgett: You too. Thank you.
More Resources
- 5 Ways To Address & Move Through Holiday Stress
- Distress, Eustress, Contraction And Expansion
- Fall Wellness Tips | WKMG Channel 6 News
- The Holistic Approach: Clearing Stress
- Sign up for our Fullscript dispensary here to receive 15% off all physician-grade supplements + protocols
More From Dr. Brooke
Dr. Brooke Stuart is the Founder of Let Go & Grow®, Co-Founder of Lead Lab, and a holistic doctor in private practice, where she works with a unique combination of holistic counseling and functional medicine to personalize treatment plans for her patients as she partners with them to unlock their own, intrinsic ability to heal! She works with patients locally in Orlando, FL, and virtually worldwide. She also works with groups, families, couples and children upon request to address the root cause of a wide range of health issues including but not limited to: stress-related disorders, thyroid and hormonal imbalances, blood sugar dysregulation, compromised detoxification, gastrointestinal and cardiometabolic issues, and more.
- For more on her private practice, check here.
- To book Dr. Brooke to speak or work with your team or organization, check here.
- To read more about Dr. Brooke Stuart’s journey into holistic medicine, professional and functional medicine training, affiliations, and credentials, check here.