SWM008: Dealing with Christmas in Marriage

Christmas is nearly here, and with it a lot of stress, anxiety and awkward living arrangements, whether family is coming to you or you are going to them. So this episode is about handling Christmas in a marriage. Check out the show notes here for more details and links. The season bundles its challenges together. Schedules go out the window, the children are excited and slightly feral, stress runs high, the living conditions are rarely ideal, and bad food and late nights leave you feeling generally off. Intimacy is the first thing to get pushed to the back burner, which is unfortunate, because it is precisely when you need it most. Sex raises oxytocin so you feel loved, and dopamine so you feel like you accomplished something. It increases endorphins, which lift your mood, cut stress, and give your immune system a hand at the exact point that late nights and junk food are undermining it. For women it raises estrogen, which is good for your skin in the week everyone you only see once a year is looking at you. So counteract the Christmas stress rather than surrendering to it.