Christmas, New Year’s, and the holiday season in general have a reputation for being almost as stressful as they are enjoyable. If you need help staying calm this year, the Harvard Health Blog has some advice: Take a breath.

When your emotions run high, breathing speeds up, too. Deliberately slowing your breathing relaxes tense muscles, bringing shoulders down from ears, calms roiling emotions, and helps disarm the hormonal cascade within the body that feeds anxiety.

Try this: close your eyes and breathe in deeply through your nose while counting upward. Hold for a few seconds. Breathe out slowly through your nose while counting downward. Make each out-breath a few counts longer than each in-breath. Repeat for five minutes.

The blog notes that mindfulness apps and exercise may also help manage anxiety – during the holidays and the rest of the year as well. Stay calm and merry out there!