Whether it’s money concerns, loneliness, or shouldering the responsibility of making your family’s Christmas magical, the holidays can bring as much stress as they do joy. And with a chorus of viruses conspiring to disrupt travel plans and family gatherings, there are fresh worries on our plates this year. A pre-pandemic survey from The American Psychological Association (APA) found that 38% of people are stressed about the holidays. And in a more recent poll from the APA, 27% of respondents say that most days they are so stressed they cannot function.
To help combat end-of-year anxiety, popular mindfulness company Calm has teamed up with U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy on a series of free wellness offerings designed to give people some mental health support. The “Mindfulness Tools” series is available starting Dec. 1 on Calm and YouTube and includes five sessions around relatable themes, including: easing holiday stress, combating loneliness, navigating hectic days, and dealing with uncertainty, change, and negativity in the world.
“We certainly have to increase access to mental health care,” Murthy tells Fortune. “We have to address some of the deeper drivers of unhealthy stress in our lives including in our workplaces. But we also need to create tools that help people manage stress when it does arise. I'm hoping that these sessions will give people some tools to care for their own mental health and that they'll help people find some peace and some respite during difficult and hectic times.”
Murthy has long been raising the alarm on the nation’s worsening mental health—and the role that work plays in particular. He issued a general advisory on healthcare worker burnout in May, and just last month he released a framework to help organizations promote policies and practices to support well-being in the workplace.
Even when mental health services are available, Murthy says many workers won’t take time out of their stressful days to utilize them. “If the culture is such that people worry that they're going to be looked down upon or punished in some way come promotion time if they avail themselves of those services, people aren't going to use them,” he says.
This concern is one of the reasons these mindfulness tools were structured to provide brief "moments of peace." Even short mindfulness techniques can add up to big mental-health benefits, reducing stress and anxiety. A regular meditation practice can also help improve sleep and mood, which contribute to stress and anxiety.
Murthy knows firsthand how difficult it is to balance work and self-care. "When I was Surgeon General, during the Obama administration, for example, I will admit that I did a rather poor job of making sure that I was investing in my own mental health and well-being and that took a toll on my work, but it also took a toll on my life outside of work," he says.
But this time around, Murthy has set up some practices to head off burnout, including regular exercise. "I have also worked hard to better maintain social connection in my life, whether that's picking up the phone when a friend calls, even if it's just to talk to them for a minute or two, reaching out to friends proactively, or making it a priority to be home with my family for dinner time."
Additionally, he has a nighttime routine that helps him end the day with on a positive note. "I look for small doses of inspiration in the form of inspiring speeches, inspiring videos. I have a list of these actually and I often will look at them before I go to sleep at night just to give me a boost of inspiration before the day is out," he says.
Reaching for practices that lift him up in small amount of time has been helpful for him and was the impetus behind designing these short, manageable meditations for others.
“Sometimes just a couple of minutes spent in silence or guided meditation or in reflection can help us access [peace]," he says. "They are simple tools that help people relax and reflect and center themselves.”
