The Hormone Your Body Is Craving This Holiday Season
Mascari, Brooke - December 16, 2025
As the holidays approach, many women feel a familiar mix of excitement and overwhelm. Gift lists grow long, calendars fill quickly, family dynamics surface, and the pressure to make everything perfect quietly hums in the background. Even joyful moments can feel rushed, tense, or emotionally draining.
What if the key to a calmer, more meaningful holiday season isn’t better time management, stricter boundaries, or another productivity hack—but a hormone?
Enter oxytocin.
Often called the love hormone or the bonding hormone, oxytocin plays a powerful and often underestimated role in a woman’s hormonal balance, emotional resilience, nervous system regulation, and overall well-being. And during the holidays, it may be one of the most supportive tools we can intentionally cultivate.
What Is Oxytocin, Really?
Oxytocin is a neurohormone produced in the hypothalamus and released by the pituitary gland. While it’s most commonly associated with childbirth and breastfeeding, oxytocin is active throughout a woman’s life and deeply intertwined with her emotional and hormonal health.
Oxytocin is released during moments of:
Physical affection and safe touch
Emotional connection and trust
Deep conversation and eye contact
Pleasure, intimacy, and orgasm
Nurturing, caregiving, and being cared for
Feeling seen, supported, and appreciated
In simple terms, oxytocin is the hormone of safety and connection.
When oxytocin is flowing, the body receives a signal that it is safe to soften, open, digest, heal, and restore.
Why Oxytocin Is Essential for Women’s Hormonal Balance
Women’s hormones do not operate in isolation. They are deeply responsive to stress, emotional load, and nervous system state. This is where oxytocin becomes essential.
1. Oxytocin Helps Lower Cortisol
Oxytocin has a direct calming effect on the stress response. When oxytocin rises, cortisol (the stress hormone) naturally decreases.
This matters because chronically elevated cortisol can:
Disrupt ovulation
Lower progesterone
Worsen PMS and painful periods
Aggravate PCOS symptoms
Contribute to insulin resistance
Impact thyroid function
Oxytocin acts as a buffer—helping the body move out of fight-or-flight and into rest-and-repair.
2. Oxytocin Supports Progesterone and Cycle Health
Progesterone is often called the calming hormone, and oxytocin works synergistically with it.
When a woman feels emotionally safe, supported, and connected, her body is more likely to:
Ovulate regularly
Produce adequate progesterone
Experience smoother luteal phases
Have fewer mood swings and less irritability
In contrast, high stress and emotional overload—common during the holidays—can suppress ovulation and progesterone production.
3. Oxytocin Improves Insulin Sensitivity and Blood Sugar Balance
Oxytocin has been shown to support metabolic health by:
Improving insulin sensitivity
Reducing stress-driven sugar cravings
Supporting healthy appetite regulation
This is especially important during a season when blood sugar swings are more common due to irregular meals, sugar intake, alcohol, and disrupted routines.
Oxytocin doesn’t demand restriction—it encourages regulation through nervous system safety.
4. Oxytocin Supports Gut Health and Digestion
Digestion thrives in a relaxed nervous system state. Oxytocin helps shift the body into parasympathetic mode—the state where digestion, absorption, and gut repair can occur.
This means oxytocin can indirectly support:
Reduced bloating
Better digestion
Improved nutrient absorption
Healthier gut-brain communication
A tense, rushed holiday meal isn’t just emotionally unsatisfying—it’s physiologically harder to digest.
Why Oxytocin Matters Especially During the Holidays
The holiday season often places women in a role of holding everything together—emotionally, logistically, and energetically.
Women are often:
Managing schedules
Buying gifts
Hosting or preparing meals
Navigating family dynamics
Supporting others emotionally
Pushing through exhaustion to “keep the magic alive.”
This mental and emotional labor can quietly drain oxytocin and elevate cortisol.
Oxytocin reminds us that the nervous system doesn’t need more doing—it needs more connecting.
A truly nourishing holiday is not defined by perfection, but by presence.
Simple, Intentional Ways to Boost Oxytocin This Season
The beautiful thing about oxytocin is that it responds to simple, human experiences. No supplements required—just intention.
1. Safe, Nourishing Touch
Hug for at least 20 seconds
Hold hands with a loved one
Receive or give a massage
Wrap yourself in a warm blanket
Pet an animal
Touch tells the body: You are safe.
2. Meaningful Connection
Have deep, unhurried conversations
Make eye contact when listening
Express gratitude out loud
Share memories and stories
Quality matters far more than quantity.
3. Slow, Enjoyable Meals
Eat seated and unrushed
Share meals with others when possible
Savor flavors without multitasking
Light a candle at the table
Pleasure enhances oxytocin and digestion.
4. Laughter and Play
Watch something that makes you laugh
Play games
Be silly with people you trust
Laughter is a powerful oxytocin release.
5. Intimacy and Sensuality
Emotional intimacy
Sexual connection
Self-pleasure
Gentle self-touch or body oiling
Oxytocin is deeply connected to feminine vitality and pleasure.
6. Acts of Giving—Without Overgiving
Thoughtful gifts
Kind words
Small gestures of care
Giving releases oxytocin—but only when it’s not rooted in obligation or depletion.
7. Presence Over Perfection
Let some things be imperfect
Say no when needed
Choose moments over outcomes
Oxytocin flows when we feel relaxed enough to be, not perform.
The Best Way to Have a Beautiful Holiday
The most nourishing holiday is not the most elaborate one.
It’s the one where:
You feel connected
Your nervous system feels safe
Your body feels supported
Your heart feels full
And that is oxytocin.
This season, instead of asking, How can I do more? try asking:
“How can I create more moments of connection, safety, and softness?”
Your hormones, your nervous system, and your overall well-being will thank you.
Have a happy holiday!
With love,
Brooke