LIVING NATURALLY with Olwen Anderson

WELL, that pulled me up. The brightly coloured packages of fruit mince pies stacked as high as my supermarket trolley. What were these doing here, just after Easter? At first I thought they'd made a mistake; that these were the final leftovers from last Christmas, reduced to clear. But the calendar said otherwise. It's September. I knew what this meant.

Over the years I've become accustomed to seeing more of certain problems present in the clinic in different seasons. Spring brings hay fever; winter means more cold and flu cases. And Christmas has its own special category.

From about this time (when the Christmas goods begin appearing in stores) until the first week of January (when it's all over) I notice our collective stress levels rising. There's plenty of triggers: the financial stress of gift and entertaining expectations. Family tensions, particularly if you know you'll spend Christmas Day with people you don't much like to spend time with. Not the people you'd really rather be with. Negotiating custodial arrangements for children. Experiencing the discomfiting things other people do when they're stressed: like when they get angry over nothing much, or just plain grumpy. Then there's the dog-eat-dog shopping centre battlefield over car parking spaces.

No wonder we all start to get a little more overwhelmed and stressed than we'd like to be. But there are ways to help yourself cope. So, since the shop displays suggest that Santa event comes up again in just over 12 weeks, let's get some strategies in place.

The first is to be aware you can experience some pretty unpleasant feelings; but they're just that - feelings. Feelings are not facts, but if you let them, they can direct what you say and do in ways you might regret later. Switching off each day for meditation can help you regain your perspective and control. Some talking therapy through counselling could help you talk through what you're experiencing.

Another key strategy is exercise, because it burns off stress cortisol. No, you're not too busy to exercise, so please don't try to tell yourself this little fibby.

Finally, keep reminding yourself that many other people are feeling just as tense as you are - so why not cut them some slack for their sometimes odd behaviours? And if seeing the Christmas goods on sale becomes just too much, it might be time to switch to online shopping until January.

* Olwen Anderson is a naturopath and counsellor and a weekly columnist with the Tweed Daily News. Visit her website at www.olwenanderson.com.au