How to Fight the Mid-Winter Blues
Do you suffer from the mid-winter blues? We do, and have found that the list below helps us to refocus our energies and get going. We hope it helps you too. Here are a few ways to help brighten your mood: 1. Get Outside Pull out your long underwear, coats, hats, gloves, scanves, etc. and go walking, skiing, ice-skating, or build a snowman if you can. Do everything in your power to appreciate the very elements that seem to keep you inside and isolated. 2. Wear Bright Colors Being around bright colors can improve your mood and give you a glimpse of what is coming . . . Spring. There are all sorts of studies about how color can change your mood. Here's an interesting article that explains how colors make you feel. 3. Stock up on Vitamin D Since we get most of our vitamin D from the sun, it’s a good idea to take a vitamin D supplement during the winter months. So many diseases are correlated with low vitamin D levels, especially depression. 4. Make a Book and Movie List Winter is a great time to get to those books and movies you’ve been meaning to read and watch. There is plenty of research indicating that humor can relieve pain, so we like to focus on comedies. 5. Try Something New Trying something new essentially rewires our brain. Take advantage of your days indoors to learn a how to knit or crochet, try your hand at a new card game, or maybe cook up something different for dinner. 6. Start a Project There’s no time like winter to start a home project, like de-cluttering the house or purging all the old clothes in your kids’ closets. Projects like organizing bookshelves, shredding old tax returns, and cleaning out the garage are perfect activities for the dreary months of the year. 7. Sit by the Fire There's something so consoling about staring into the embers and warming your hands by their heat. But you need not go to the trouble of building a fire in your house: You can borrow someone else’s fire — even a coffee shop’s — or you can simply light a few candles and enjoy a primal moment to remind you that you belong to this world of human beings that have sat around fires for thousands of years to get warm and enjoy a moment of stillness. How do you fight off the winter blues? We'd love to hear from you. Share your ideas with us here.
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