How to beat the autumn/ winter blues
Hello
The days are getting colder and shorter, fast. Very fast. This is the time for a lot of people to get the winter blues.
I used to get them too but I learned to embrace my feelings and I learned to really love the winter. Last year, we had so much snow for such a long time and I was literally thriving. We already had some snow in the Belgian mountains this year as well so obviously I just had to go to the snow.
I kind of like the cold, short and cosy days though. I always did... but I still felt very low in energy during the fall. In todays post, I'll share with you everything I know & learned about this matter.
So, what are the winter blues? The winter blues are a not to be mistaken with seasonal depressions. Depression is a real thing and is very hard for patients. Well, the blues are the same feelings as depressive feelings, but not as strong and heavy as actual depressions. Winter blues are more often called 'sadness' and depression is an actual disorder. Disorder now sounds super heavy but I prefer to use this term here, to explain the difference to you.
Symptoms for the winter blues are:
feeling low and sad during the fall and winter months
having more trouble with sleeping
feeling less motivated
Symptoms for SAD or Seasonal Affected Depressions are:
feeling very sad and low during the fall and winter months
the sleeping issues are very frequent and some people als have troubles with eating
you can not function normally anymore (this is what makes it a disorder)
So you can tell that SAD is pretty much heavier than just "having the blues". This does not make it less important to work on or does not make it less "real". It's just less severe.
Well, now let's get onto the tips to help you cure or even better, to prevent these blues.
First of all: since sleeping is harder when feeling low, make sure to keep a good sleeping routine. Go to bed every night at the same time and try to wake up during the week at the same time. Your brain will need less adjustment and this is good for your brain.
Go outside, in nature and embrace the beauty of nature. During the fall and the winter time, there are less flowers. This makes people often love the spring or summer more. But in the fall, the colors of the leaves are so pretty and magical. Okay, there are not so much flowers and different happy colors, but the fall color palette can be pretty too. In the winter, the color palette is more black and white, but snow can be pretty too, right? And if you're not a fan of what our nature looks like this time of the year, maybe try some fun fall/winter activities out, to help you love these seasons more. Go for hikes with afterwards hot drinks. Collect leaves with your children to create art. Make DIY christmas ornaments etc.
Go outside, for some extra brain- oxygen. Your brain needs oxygen, we all know that. But the cold, rainy days can make us want to stay inside as much as possible. This is obviously not so good for your health so push yourself to go outside at least once a day. Taking some fresh air can also be a good way to take a break from work and to ease your mind.
Find new motivation for yourself, since the blues can make you feel less motivated. This is the hardest one for me. Once I'm feeling unmotivated, it's very very hard for me to find some inspiration and start working again. But you can find inspiration anywhere... So that's what I try to tell myself. When feeling uninspired, search for ideas out of the box. This is why sometimes, I like to scroll through instagram for minutes.... so that I can save some stuff to remember later and to start creating my own ideas again.
Eat healthy and maybe take some extra vitamins such as vitamin D. Vitamin D is a vitamin where us Belgians don't have enough of. We don't have enough sunlight here to have enough of vitamins in our bodies from it. Supplements can help. What also helps is to go out when you can and to go sunbathing during the summer (with sunscreen ofcourse). But to increase your vitamin D in a country with not much sunlight, you'll need to sunbathe in your bikini a lot actually.
Et voila :) these were my tips! Was this helpful?
X Steph
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