- Alexa Doman
Winter blues?
Updated: Jan 3, 2020
Winter has kicked in. The leaves and the rain are falling thick and fast. And this (for some) is mirrored in how they are feeling at the moment. A bit down.
You're NOT alone. Winter is tough. It's been a LONG year. You and everyone around you has been busy. You are tired. That spring in your step might not quite have the same bounce in it and that's OK.
Accepting that your motivation, productivity and levels of concentration are fluid just like the weather is something that needs to be recognised. We are humans NOT robots. Just like the weather we have overcast days, raining, sunny and all the weather in one day days.
The clocks have turned back. The darker days combined with the sometimes relentless rain and the cold makes me and you think that we want to stay inside. On our sofa, in our “home wear”, blanket and cup of something warm. So we do. We stay inside. We close down. We become less proactive. We stay in our physical and sometimes mental “caves”. And this isn’t all bad. The winter weather forces us to rest. Take things slow. Take stock.
The weather is like our mood. Changeable. Temperamental. We just like the weather cannot be sunny every day. We can’t work at 100% all day every day. Some days we need to slow down. If we have too much of one, just like if it’s too sunny the land becomes dry and things can’t grow. We need the rain. We need to be able to recuperate and grow.
And while we are recuperating we can remind ourselves every now and again that the rain and the grey won’t last forever. The sun will come out. Just like our current mood or situation. We have to trust that the sun will one day come out. That the negative feelings won’t last forever. And that we will not only have a change in weather, but when it does change we will notice it and appreciate it. Just like a sunny day (finally!) after the rain finally moves away.
Proactive ways to beat the winter blues:
Try and get in an hour of SUNlight a day. Leave the desk and take a walk on your lunch break. At weekends, even in in the rain venture outside with your best waterproof gear on!
Keep up that social calendar. In December this might not be a problem. But come January, try and keep up with meeting friends and arranging events that give you something to look forward to once the holidays have ended.
Exercise! It is hard. You've worked all day and it's cold and the last thing you want to do is go to that exercise class/gym or pound the pavement. But you KNOW that after you've exercised that feeling of accomplishment and "I'm glad I did that" will make you feel better in the moment, tomorrow and for the rest of the week.
Winter is tough. But you are tough too. And by recognising that some days will be a little brighter than others AND taking active steps to look after your physical and mental well-being, we can make it through to Spring!
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These posts are written to provide support, advice and a little motivation to those that need it. So if you have a friend, colleague or family member who might benefit from this post please forward this on. THANK YOU!
And finally, if this article resonated with you and you’d like to give yourself the gift of clarity and reflection on how your year’s been and how you would like to your 2020 then send me an email to get more information my one off special price for a 1:1 Coaching (phone or online) session with me before the 21st December 2019.