I had a restless sleep last night filled with Thanksgiving cooking anxiety dreams–the oven became a fiery cave of incineration, the mountain of mashed potatoes kept shrinking as I stirred until there was but a single serving left for the crowd, and all of the food kept turning into crumbly powder as I tried to serve it. The kicker is, I’m not having Thanksgiving this year–in fact, I’m not even cooking a single dish! It’s as if some internal clock kicked in and started chiming, “stress, stress, stress.”

So for those of you elbow deep in 12 different recipes and counters covered in the chaos of cooking, I really feel your pain. Add in a dash of cleaning the house and a pinch of family drama, and, uhg! I know it is all really lovely, but it can be just as exhausting and exasperating.

The secret is to carve out a few extra minutes and take care of yourself sometime during the weekend. (Easy for me to say, as I’m not cooking, I know.) But I’ve had my share of holiday weekends where I was so slammed with making everybody else comforted and nourished that I was left limp and bedraggled when all was said and done–happy, but b-e-a-t. I’ve learned that taking even the tiniest break, if focused, can help hugely: Here are three great ways to take five and rejuvenate amidst the holiday hullabaloo.

1. See how to use bergamot essential oil for a quick infusion of uplifting calm and nonchalance. As in, “I dropped the turkey, burnt the yams, turned the potatoes into wallpaper paste, and didn’t get the grit out of the spinach–oh well, let’s party!”

2. Get your Calgon moments in with these two holiday bath soaks: A stimulating herb bath to perk you up, or a flower and spice stress-reducing bath to calm frazzled nerves.

3. Try this super quick kitchen-cupboard bath that promises to both soothe and rejuvenate.

Of course, you can also choose to go gonzo extreme like I have this year, which goes something like “Hello, dim sum,” and “Can I fit two movies into the day?” But that’s decidedly not so festive, and honestly, apparently, as evidenced by my kitchen nightmares, doesn’t even do much for the stress. I think I’ll take a bath.