My history of the winter blues…
As the northern hemisphere approaches shorter days and cooler temperatures, many people will be struggling with the dreaded “winter blues”. I myself have struggled with this for years…
Feeling less than enthusiastic, tired, unmotivated, and just plain blah… which leads to doing less, stressing more, and generally feeling overwhelmed and thinking thoughts along the lines of, “ugh… why can’t I just get it together? I should be doing X, Y, and Z. What is wrong with me? This is so frustrating!”
Oh, the guilt!
Does that sound familiar?
How I changed my thoughts to naturally cure my winter blues…
This all changed for me a couple years ago when I was in a yoga class and the teacher started talking about the importance of winter in our natural rhythm of life. Take a look around at nature… winter is a time for rejuvenation and recovery. The plants know it… the animals know it, but somehow we missed the memo… most likely because we HAVE memos. Ha!
We should listen to our bodies when they tell us that they need more rest or more nourishing foods.
We must also be kind to our minds… Once I took this concept in and added it to one of my personal philosophies, I gave myself a break… removing the “should be as productive” reduced my levels of stress… which reduced my levels of anxiety… which reduced my levels of feeling overwhelmed… which reduced my level of depression.
I am not telling you to avoid seeing a doctor or to stop taking your prescribed medications. I am simply just sharing my experience of how I was able to change my thought patterns and change my life.
How will you use your winter months to prepare for a fabulous year?
If you are just getting started on your health
and fitness journey, take these next few weeks to start to make small changes in your choices so that you don’t back slide or pack on the extra “holiday pounds” (I am not talking about the few extra that our bodies naturally hold onto… I am referring to the extra 12-15 that are the result of the, “ahhhh… I will just start in the New Year… yeah, THIS will be my year…”
Top 5 things you can do RIGHT NOW to set yourself up for a successful and happy winter:
- Start eating clean 80% of the time.
- MOVE. Finding the many ways of fitting activity into your life… ice skating, snow shoeing, even just parking as far away from the mall as you can. Find an exercise program you can do from the comfort of your own home for those days it is just toooooo nasty.
- Get more sleep. Add an extra hour onto your night. Ditch the bedtime distractions such as the news and opt for more zzzzzzzzzzs.
- Start working on your vision board. Don’t wait for the New Year to start adding things that you want to accomplish to your life. Remember, where our focus goes, our energy flows… would you rather have it flowing to something you WANT or something you DON’T want?
- Find supporters who will help you in your lifestyle changes. It is a tough road by yourself if everyone else is on the “ahhhh… I will just start in the New Year… yeah, THIS will be my year…,” plan.
