Soothing the body during the holidays: a culturally safe guide for a calmer season

Revisiting why body awareness matters. Types of culturally grounded soothing practices. Inclusive soothing techniques.

The holiday season carries a mixture of joy, pressure and emotional weight. For many Black and African diaspora communities, it also brings layered expectations such as cultural obligations, family responsibilities, financial commitments and the emotional toll of navigating racialised spaces during a period that is not equally restful for everyone.

This guide offers body-based, culturally safe and evidence-supported techniques that honour our lived realities. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, or simply the hope of surviving December, these tools can help you regulate your body, lower stress and anxiety and reconnect with yourself in ways that align with our heritage, values, and stories.

Revisiting why body awareness matters

Body awareness or interoception is our ability to notice what the body is telling us such as tension, breath, warmth, fatigue, tightness, hunger, or calm. Research shows that many African communities naturally hold a stronger connection to bodily signals as part of cultural and spiritual identity.

A cross-cultural study found that West African adults displayed higher interoceptive awareness than European-American adults, highlighting how African cultural norms already orient us toward “listening to the body.” This means body-based soothing practices are not foreign, they belong to us.

At the same time, repeated exposure to racial stress, discrimination and systemic pressure can dysregulate the body’s stress response. A 2025 scoping review found that racial trauma has measurable physiological impacts on Black bodies, affecting heart rate, cortisol, inflammation, and emotional regulation. This makes body-awareness techniques not only helpful but necessary.

During the holidays, when expectations rise and emotional load increases, returning to the body is one of the safest and more culturally familiar ways to protect our mental health.

Holiday stress hits us differently

Holiday stress does not mean you are weak. Your body is responding to load, history, culture, and pressures that have been placed on you.

You are not alone. Many people feel heavier during this season for reasons that are real, valid, and often unspoken.

Even the most joyful season can activate bodily tension because:

• Financial expectations such as sending money home or buying gifts can induce anxiety and create a sense of internal pressure.
• Cultural responsibilities such as hosting, cooking, or community obligations may lead to burnout.
• Loneliness, grief, or migration-based isolation can surface during family-centred holidays.
• Work demands in health, essential services, or shift-based jobs may prevent people from taking time off.
• Or maybe your body is simply tired after another year of pushing.

Whatever your experience, joyful, heavy, lonely, or hopeful, you are still deserving of care. Your body deserves rest, even if your circumstances do not allow a full break.

You are allowed to soothe your body.

You are allowed to rest.

You are allowed to choose practices that honour who you are.

Evidence-based soothing practices that honour culture and lived experience

These strategies draw on various body awareness and culturally grounded practices that honour the holistic ways Black and African communities understand wellbeing.

Diaphragmatic breathing to calm the nervous system

Breathing low and slow activates the parasympathetic nervous system which is the body’s “calm” system. Diaphragmatic breathing reduces cortisol (stress hormone) and improves emotional regulation. For Black communities, grounding through breath also resonates with ancestral practices such as singing, chanting, prayer, hums, and communal breathwork in spiritual spaces.

Try:

4 seconds inhale, 2 second hold and 6 seconds exhale. Repeat several times.

Movement as medicine

Movement is central to Black/ African identity. Dance, drumming, walking, communal labour, and embodied worship are somatic-based ways our cultures regulate distress. A meta-analysis found dance and rhythmic movement strongly improved mood and psychological wellbeing. Research with African Americans also shares how faith-based mind-body programs that combined movement, breath, and spirituality were feasible and culturally acceptable among participants.

Try:

• Put on mbira, Afrobeats, kwaito, highlife, or songs from home.
• Gentle sways or shoulder rolls to the music
• Go for a walk with your favourite Zimbabwean, Congolese, Ghanaian, or Afro-jazz playlist
• Move slowly or freely – let the body lead. Let rhythm carry tension out of your muscles.

Compassion-based soothing

Many of us carry internal self-criticism shaped by various drivers such as migration stress, racial trauma, and pressure to “survive with strength.”

A study with African American adults showed that compassion meditation reduced depression by reducing self-criticism, especially in people with past suicidal distress.

A major holiday stressor for ethnically diverse communities is the pressure to show up as capable, generous, and emotionally strong. So give yourself permission to say things like:

• “I’m resting today.”
• “I can’t afford that this year.”
• “I need a quiet holiday.”

Self-preservation is not selfishness, it is survival turning into thriving.

Try:

Place your hand on your chest and repeat:

• I deserve rest.
• I deserve gentleness.
• My body is allowed to be at ease.

Micro-breaks: small acts that reset the body

Micro-breaks like 2 to 10 minute pauses can significantly reduce stress and increase clarity. This can also help improve performance and emotional stability. For Black people who often overwork, over-care, or operate under unspoken pressure to “prove” themselves, micro-breaks help counter chronic tension stored in the body.

Try:

• Close your eyes and breathe for 30 seconds.
• Stepping outside for fresh air.
• Stretching your shoulders and neck.

Body awareness for people living with disability: inclusive soothing techniques and why culturally safe mental health tools are a human right

For Black and African people living with disability, the holiday season can be even more challenging. Environments may not be accessible, social expectations can feel overwhelming, and disability is too often misunderstood in our communities.

Why culturally safe disability support matters:

• Black people with disabilities experience compounded medical trauma, stigma, and exclusion.
• Racial trauma and ableism both activate the body’s threat system.
• Accessible soothing practices help restore dignity and autonomy.

Inclusive soothing techniques could include:

• Seated grounding: feel the support of your chair and let your breath drop naturally.
• Warm-compress relaxation: a warm cloth or microwavable pad on the shoulders, chest, or abdomen helps calm the vagus nerve.
• Guided cultural music regulation: listening to African drumming, mbira, amapiano, Afro-soul, worship can help regulate heart rate and provide grounding.
• Adaptive movement: arm circles, torso twists, head tilts when moving your body.
• Self-compassion cues: gentle statements like “my body is worthy” help counter internalised stigma.

Culturally safe tools are not optional. They are a human right especially for people with varying abilities in our communities.

Take the next step

Your body is your first home

Before the to-do lists, before the cultural obligations, before the family gatherings, there is you. Your body has carried you through another year. It deserves kindness, time, softness and safety. This holiday season, honour your body by listening to it. Slow down where you can. Move gently where you must. And remember: calming the body is not only for crises, it is a lifelong practice of staying connected to yourself.

For extra help, subscribe to the Tabvuma Mental Health Getting Started Mental Health Care Package for guided exercises and journaling templates you can use immediately.

Follow us on our social platforms – Instagram, YouTube and Facebook @tabvumamentalhealth and subscribe to our mental health care packages for tips, resources and culturally safe mental health support designed for you.

Until next time,

Tabvuma Mental Health