Ergonomic Tips To Get You Through the Holiday Season
There’s a lot to love during the holiday season, from twinkling lights to family celebrations. However, the extra chores, party preparation, and lengthy travel can take a toll on your body. Whether you’re wrapping gifts or lugging around a heavy suitcase, your muscles and joints are working overtime this season.
One way to combat this strain is with proper ergonomics. A few simple ergonomic tips from the Therapy Solutions team can help keep your body happy and your holidays bright.
Seven Strategies To Have a Great Holiday Season
Be Smart About Lifting
Whether you’re hauling luggage, shopping bags, or the holiday ham, how you lift matters:
- Bend at your hips and knees, not your waist. Keep your back straight and engage your core muscles.
- Hold items close to your body for better balance and control.
- Avoid twisting while lifting. Turn your whole body instead.
Make Gift Wrapping Easier on Your Body
Gift wrapping can stress the small joints in your shoulder, wrists, and hands. Try these tips:
- Wrap gifts at a table or countertop, rather than on the floor. It keeps your spine upright and reduces strain on your knees and hips.
- Take frequent breaks to roll your shoulders and stretch your fingers.
Protect Your Posture During Long Drives and Flights
Travel is stressful enough. The last thing you want is for your neck or back to start hurting, too! Protect your spine with these tips:
- Whether flying or driving, sit tall and keep your hips fully against the seat back. Adjust your seat so your knees are level with your hips.
- Use a rolled-up towel or small pillow to support your lower back.
- Work in movement breaks to stand, stretch, and walk around. This eases stiffness and boosts circulation.
Watch Your Step While Decorating
Reaching for high places or standing on tiptoes can strain your shoulders and legs. Try these strategies instead:
- Use a sturdy ladder to access high points rather than overstretching overhead.
- Keep decorations within easy reach as you work.
- When decorating outdoors (especially on the roof), wear supportive, non-slip shoes.
Give Your Hands and Wrists a Break
From decorating cookies to mashing potatoes, holiday meal prep often requires repetitive motion, which can irritate your hands and wrists. These tips can keep them safe:
- Alternate tasks to give your hands time to rest.
- Use ergonomic tools, such as lightweight pans, easy-grip utensils, and handles with cushioned grips, to minimize strain and discomfort.
- Gently stretch your hands by flexing and extending your fingers every hour.
Keep Moving, Even When It’s Cold
Cold weather can tighten muscles and joints, making you more prone to aches and strains. Avoid issues with these tips:
- Warm up before any activity (including chores like shoveling snow or holiday fun like ice skating) with 5-10 minutes of brisk movement.
- Layer clothing to keep muscles warm and flexible.
- Choose low-impact indoor options, such as walking in place, gentle yoga, or light stretching.
Listen to What Your Body’s Telling You
Pain and fatigue are signals your body needs a little extra attention, not challenges to push through:
- If you feel discomfort, pause, stretch, or switch positions.
- Hydrate well and rest. Recovery matters as much as activity.
- Don’t ignore lingering pain. Early attention can prevent bigger issues later.
Therapy Solutions’ multidisciplinary team includes physical, occupational, and mental health therapists who can help you understand your body’s warning signs and teach simple techniques to reduce strain and promote healing. We can work with you to find the right solutions to move better, feel stronger, and make the most of the holiday season.
Happy Holidays from the Therapy Solutions Team!
If pain, stiffness, or fatigue are keeping you from fully enjoying the holidays, we’re here to help. Remember, small ergonomic habits can prevent pain and protect your body all year round.
To learn more about how our team can help you move better, schedule an appointment to start your personalized care plan.
Let’s make this holiday season one of comfort, strength, and joy!
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Staff Spotlight:
Meet Our Ergo Team
Therapy Solutions would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to our Ergo Team:
- Eric Halverson, Occupational Health Manager/Occupational Therapist
- Terry Halverson, Occupational Therapist
- Jared Erie, Owner/Occupational Therapist
- Doug Jilek, Systems Manager
We are proud to serve Dickinson and the surrounding communities!
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“Be Still” this Christmas Season
What keeps you from being still this Christmas Season? How do you feel when you sit in nonactivity and silence? Is it awkward and uncomfortable? Are you seduced by the endless distractions? What if this Christmas Season you choose to “Be Still”? What if you incorporated quiet time into your daily life? What would that look like? How would your Christmas Season be different than last year?
You may ask, “How can I “Be Still” when I have so much to do? How could being still benefit me?” For one, quiet time allows you to check in with yourself daily. This is something we do not do often enough. Most of us are on autopilot throughout our days, never taking the time to check in with ourselves. Quiet time allows you to reflect on the interactions of the day, the state of mind you’re in, and the state your body is in. Is my body in fight, flight or freeze? Are my muscles tight? Is my body relaxed? What am I feeling? What are the thoughts racing in my head? Creating quiet time allows you to ask yourself these questions, which help you be present in the moment and help you re-activate your nervous system into a more calm state. Making the time to reflect allows you to ask yourself, am I honoring my Christmas priorities, am I focusing on what is essential or am I being carried away by the superficiality of the world? Asking these questions helps you slow down and ground yourself in what is important.
This Christmas season, intentionally reflect and notice the peace it brings you. Learn to relax. Establish quiet time as part of your day and you will discover your quiet time is anything but nothing. Teach your mind to foster the capacity to receive the reality of the world. Being busy keeps us from being present in the moment, which not being in the moment promotes getting lost in what is not important, which takes us out of a joyful state.
The difficulty with this challenge to “Be Still” can be technology. So many of us are glued to our phones, social media, and other technology that distracts us. Is your technology bringing you joy or sapping your joy? What if you had a technology-free Christmas? What if when you talked to your spouse he or she looked you in the eyes instead of looking at their phone? What if there were no interruptions by the ding and ring of your loved one’s phone? What if there was silence and no one had their phone to grab to cover up the awkward silence? I wonder what would transpire as a result? I am guessing connection! Being seen! Quiet time is not taking away from getting things done. In fact being able to intentionally choose what is important to do, can be more time-saving than distracted busyness. Quiet time and silence are so much more. Don’t fall for the lies and feelings in your body that say you have to be busy! Be Still! Reflect on all the benefits you receive! Choose to incorporate quiet time into your daily life and see the fruits it will produce!
Wishing you a “Be Still” Christmas Season!
To talk to a mental health counselor at Therapy Solutions for help learning to relax, call us at 701-483-1000 and
Take Your Life Back!
Don’t Let Your Benefits Go to Waste: Use Your Deductible Before the Year Ends!
Did you know your therapy sessions could be free or reduced if your insurance deductible has already been met? Now’s the perfect time to schedule those sessions you’ve been putting off!
Call us today to check your benefits and book your appointment before the year ends!
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December Word Scramble
vegnreree
wannsmo
rewtah
ircfapeel
eslhgi
ilodyha
Answer Key
evergreen
snowman
wreath
fireplace
sleigh
holiday
Lori’s Recipe:
Monster Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 1/2 c. butter
- 1 c. sugar
- 1 c. brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 t. vanilla
- 1 1/2 c. peanut butter
- 2 t. baking soda
- 4 1/2 c. oatmeal
- 2 c. chocolate chips
- 2 c. m&ms
Directions:
Cream butter & sugars together. Add eggs, vanilla, and peanut butter. Mix in baking soda & oatmeal. Stir in chocolate chips and m&ms by hand. Grease jelly roll pan, pat dough down into pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until slightly browned on top. Do Not Over Bake! Bars will set as they cool.
Enjoy these chewy, chocolatey Monster Cookie Bars — packed with oats, peanut butter, and colorful candy for the perfect sweet treat. They’re fun to make, delicious to share, and guaranteed to satisfy every cookie craving!
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Staff Book Club: “Shelf Care”
Non-Fiction Book Recommendation
The Train Arrives on Schedule: Stories of People and Railways
By Marichka Poplauskayte
5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Collection of stories on railway operation and purpose in current day Ukraine”
—Sasha, Physical Therapist
Fiction Book Recommendation
The Turtle House
By Amanda Churchill
5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“A multigenerational family saga set in World War II Japan and contemporary rural Texas. The story unfolds in parallel stories of an immigrant Japanese woman and her American granddaughter. Mineko’s story begins in Kadoma, a district of Osaka, in the summer of 1936, when the little girl discovers a beautiful abandoned estate on a hill, its entrance presided over by a stone turtle, with a pond full of live turtles out back. Over the years, this becomes her special place, a refuge for the athletic, bright young woman who’s gotten none of the beauty her mother and sister share. When she meets an upper-class boy named Akio, it’s at this “turtle house” where she teaches him to swim, and where they fall in love, though his future holds an arranged marriage and, even more threatening, the wartime draft. In parallel chapters set in Curtain, Texas, in 1999, we see Mineko as “Grandminnie,” relating her stories into a tape recorder for her 25-year-old granddaughter, Lia, who’s back home after abruptly quitting her first job out of architecture school under mysterious circumstances. This is a great heart warming story!”
—Brenda, Mental Health Therapist
Service Spotlight: Ergonomic Grant Program
We are pleased to announce that Phase IV of the WSI’s Ergonomic Grant Program is set to begin in 2026. This program is designed to help employers address ergonomic issues in the workplace.
The Ergonomic Grant Program offers financial assistance to employers for the purchase of ergonomic equipment recommended as part of an assessment conducted by one of our members from our Occupational Therapist Team.
To be eligible for the Ergonomic Grant Program, employers must hold an active WSI policy or optional coverage for at least one year.
Eligibility for financial assistance varies based on your standard premium, as detailed in the chart below.
For additional information, please contact Doug Jilek, Systems Manager, at Therapy Solutions at:
483-1000 or djilek@therapy-solutions.net. You can also visit our website to view the many options of ergonomic equipment available, or click the button below.
Meet Our Team
Jessie Binstock
DPT, Athletic Trainer
Terry Halverson
MOTR/L
Adrienne Belland
MS, OTR/L
Jared Erie
OTR/L
Eric Halverson
OTR/L, Occupational Health Manager
Terry Halverson
MOTR/L
Doug Jilek
Systems Manager
Jeanne Kilzer
MS CCC-SLP
Miranda Kuhn
MS, OTR/L
Heidi Schmidt
PTA, Athletic Trainer
Emily Carda
Athletic Trainer
