Not Curing the Winter Blues

The parties may be over, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy the season. Photo via Ann He. Beautiful photographer.

Finding our days draped in a gray, biting cold; nights pre-emptively pulling the shades down for what can feel like days unending, it’s no wonder we seem barely able to drag ourselves through January. The sludge and muck builds up outside our doors and somehow it’s an excuse to let the same happen inside. Even if you’re generally imperceptible to winter’s harsh ways, it’s not unlikely you’ll find yourself in various stages of disarray – overindulging in the quick comforts of certain things while ignoring the sort of self-care you could actually use for your seasonal blues. Time to think. To rest, really, without the distractions of beeping messages or flashing screens.

But to seek some written guidance in your mild melancholia is to be burned by a scouring set of tips and tricks for “beating“, “kicking”, or “fighting off“ the mid-winter blues. We must “escape” its icy grip before we become Ice Queens ourselves! From the words of our trusted dailies, you’d think we were facing a lethal army here, instead of some added sluggishness and a greater appetite for bad TV and chocolates. Of course, for those who have a more severe reaction to the season’s shortened darker days, the prescriptive plan for countering it might be necessary. But for the rest of us, there is some hope. And it doesn’t involve popping pills or tanning beds or shopping sprees to pep us up. Even though we might be watching it, we’re not out to become the latest goon on Jersey Shore.

Of course there are benefits to all of these commonly shared mood-busters. Buying flowers for yourself is a treat any time, and being active outdoors gives you a boost no matter what season it is. Playing upbeat music can help us feel cheerier on just about any occasion. Ditto for vacations, delicious and healthy food, and time with friends and loved ones. So doesn’t it seem like we’re the ones getting tricked, by overwhelming ourselves with advice no more catered to winter-time gloom than to post-breakup gloom or laid-off gloom?

There might be something to say for actually letting ourselves experience the quietude and deepening shades of these few months (three to five TOPS, that’s it!). Making it into a time in which to attend to the things lying indoors or in our heads, the sludge and clutter that we’ve let build up unknowingly or actively put off. Indulge the mini-energy crisis rather than taking the Joan Rivers approach of slathering on layers of products and quick injections in hopes of erasing it all. This doesn’t imply a permission to slack off or be listlessly cold in our relationships, but instead to take care of ourselves. Just that.

It may be with more trips to the yoga studio or the hiking trails. A schedule to write once a day or see a movie once a week. Pink of Perfection’s Sarah offers her simple story of making a big change. There are tons of ways to go about it, and it doesn’t matter which one you choose. Because marking the difference of seasons by heeding to its calls for adjustment is not only a better use of our extra time indoors, but a more solid way of readying ourselves for the buzzing profusion of spring and summertime action.

My favorite author Zadie Smith says it right in one of her novels,

“…I think this whole trend for round-the-clock bloom is actually very unhealthy for the garden and the gardener and particularly the soil…I think the winter should be a time of rest, subdued colours, you know – and then when the late spring does finally arrive the neighbours get a hell of a shock!…There it is, this wonderful explosion of growth. I think the deep winter is really a time for nurturing the soil, turning it over, allowing it a rest and plotting its future all the better to surprise the nosy people next door…and that’s really quite natural.”

Now go watch Portlandia and give your bangs a trim!

For some more smart inspiration from others making the most of winter’s slow crawl, click here and here.

Advertisement

Tagged: advice, January, lady mags, mood-boosters, motivation, winter, winter blues, Zadie Smith

Posted in: unconventional wisdom, Work/life Balance