It’s getting close to that time of year again. The days are short, the nights are long and the cold is taking over. This is the perfect recipe for seasonal depression, SAD or the winter blues. If you live in a part of the world where it’s hard to avoid a cold and dark winter, then learning to cope with the winter blues is crucial for your wellbeing.
Before diving into some tips and tricks for coping with winter blues, I want you to consider this: the key to beating seasonal depression is to be preventive where possible, instead of just reactive. What do I mean by that? Read on to find out!
Preventing the Winter Blues
Imagine a huge storm is being announced, with a high chance of damage. You have two options: you can prepare for that storm by fortifying your house, charging your electronics and stocking up on provisions. Or you can just brace yourself and hope for the best, expect the worst and wait out the storm with no preparation.
Coping with the winter blues is basically the same thing. You can decide to just white-knuckle your way through it and wait around for spring to make you feel better. Or you can be proactive and do things that may not totally stop the blues from seeping in but will definitely limit the damage and make your time spent in the storm more enjoyable.
If you prefer the idea of being proactive, you are in the right place! Here I will share with you some tips and strategies to help you get through the winter relatively unscathed. If any of these tips resonate, I invite you to start practising them as soon as possible to reap the most benefit!
Strategies to Beat the Winter Blues
Get Some Fresh Air and Natural Light Daily
The sun can be quite elusive come winter, which means we are missing out on a super important element for our wellbeing: vitamin D. To ensure we get enough of the sunshine vitamin during the winter months (as well as fresh air), we need to strategically soak up as much natural light as possible.
To cope with the winter blues, invest in some warm layers if you can. Then do your best to bundle up and get outside every day, even if it’s just to stand on your porch for 5 minutes. If that doesn’t always feel possible, consider cracking a window and investing in a SAD light to help you meet your fresh air and natural light quota.
Make Social Plans (and Stick to Them!)
The call to hibernate is strong during the winter months. But now is when it is most important to keep our social battery charged. This is going to look different for everyone, depending on your extroversion to introversion ratio. However, we all need SOME social engagement, so make sure you are scheduling some on a regular basis.
Pro tip: add social plans to your calendar as you would work commitments, so that you’re more likely to stick to them. This also helps you see which weeks might benefit from adding a social plan or two. Perhaps you plan a regular coffee date or dinner with a friend. Or my personal favourite way to stay social is to join sports’ leagues. Just make sure it’s something that keeps you accountable, because it can be especially difficult to convince yourself to go out on a cold winter’s night.
Get Out of the House (I’m Serious)
This kind of relates to the previous two suggestions, but I really want to highlight the importance of getting yourself out of the house and into civilization during the winter. Aim to do this almost every day if possible, even if that means getting creative with how you achieve this. You might consider doing your groceries on a day when you don’t have anything else planned, for example. Or maybe you go do some window shopping at a mall. I always find just being around other people helpful, even if I’m not interacting with them directly.
Form Routines and Habits Ahead of Time
Coming back to the idea of prevention vs response to cope with the winter blues, consider what kinds of habits and/or routines you would like to maintain throughout the winter. Then start forming these habits and routines NOW, rather than later. It can be super hard to motivate ourselves to get out and do something when it’s dark and cold outside. But this will be so much easier if the habit has already been formed. You might even consider getting yourself an accountability partner to make this even easier!
Engage in Regular Joyful Movement
Our bodies want to naturally slow down in the winter, and it’s important to let ourselves rest when our body needs it. But it’s also super important to move our bodies regularly to maintain good physical AND mental health. Enter gentle, joyful movement. This means moving your body in any way that feels good and even fun to you.
This might involve thinking outside the box, especially if your usual forms of joyful movement are off limits due to the weather. Chances are you’re not going to go for a long run or play some soccer in the snow (although that could be interesting). Here are some suggestions to consider:
- Find out which indoor facilities are available to you, such as indoor tracks or swimming pools
- Join an indoor recreational sports league, like dodgeball, volleyball or indoor soccer
- Sign up for group fitness classes, like Zumba or cycling
- Join your local yoga studio and try their warm or hot classes
- Explore some fun outdoor winter activities, like snowshoeing, skiing or skating
- Connect with your inner child through play by building a snowman, going sledding, making some snow angels or having a snowball fight
Indulge Your Senses
If there’s ever a time to treat yourself, it’s now. Make sure to build little sensory treats into your day as a way to cope with the winter blues. Cuddle up with that extra soft blanket, break off a piece of that chocolate bar you’ve been saving, light some scented candles – the possibilities are endless. This is a super easy and enjoyable way to practice mindfulness, which we know is fantastic for mental health.
Get Dressed Every Morning
Hear me out. Staying in your PJs all day might seem tempting. But I find it can make you feel like you’re stuck in a rut if this is something you do every day and not just as a treat. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but on the days that I wait too long to change into my “day” clothes, I really struggle to find motivation to be productive. Whereas, if I get dressed for the day, I feel more ready to actually do something.
Listen, I’m not saying you have to dress in business casual every day. But at least try having a set of daytime sweatpants that stay separate from your sleep wear, especially if you work from home. And notice if this makes a difference for you or not!
Start Small and Give Yourself a Break
We are probably never going to get to everything we want to get done in a day. This is especially true in the winter, when motivation and energy are lacking and the cold and snow add an additional barrier. So practice managing your expectations and start as small as possible with your to-do list.
CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) teaches us about graded-task assignments. This is a fancy way of saying start as small as possible, until the step in front of you feels achievable. If you want to go out for a walk that day, start by laying out your snow suit or putting on your thermals when you wake up. If hanging out with a friend feels like too much, consider making it a phone call instead. A can of soup or frozen meal is better than not eating because that cool recipe on Pinterest has way too many steps and left you feeling discouraged.
Create a Seasonal Bucket List
This is something I’ve started doing for each season, and not just the winter. There are often experiences that define each season for you. Maybe these are things that can only be done during a specific time of the year. To help you cope with the winter blues, make a list of what these things are for you this winter, and plan to tackle these experiences regularly. Consider adding them to your calendar ahead of time too! It’s always great to have something nice to look forward to.
Find Pockets of Joy and Be in the Moment
Sometimes we are so busy looking at the big picture that we forget to consider all the small details that create it. Make it your mission to find little moments of joy or gratitude every day and allow yourself to be fully present for them. Maybe it’s cold outside but the warmth of your favourite blanket feels so cozy! That first sip of hot chocolate is unparalleled. A slower schedule means more time to watch those shows that have been on your watchlist forever!
Take Regular Screen Breaks
It can be especially easy to fall down the social media rabbit hole when you feel stuck inside. And as we know, social media isn’t always great for our mental health. It can be especially damaging when our mood and mindset aren’t the greatest to begin with. Consider having regular times that you put the phone down. I like using an app that blocks certain apps and functions on my phone during specific time periods or even limits my usage to a certain amount of time. And consider using this new free time to discover a fun, screen-less hobby!
Looking for help with reducing your screen time? Check out How to Break Up with Your Phone by Catherine Price! (Ironically, I read this book for the first time on a tablet.)
Build a Support System
Knowing that winter tends to be tough for most people, consider putting supports in place before you need them. This could be a regular check-in with a friend or loved one. Better yet, you could schedule in some sessions with your therapist ahead of time. You might also consider creating a plan for yourself of what you can do if the winter blues feel especially bad one day. Are there places you could go? People you could reach out to? Things you could do to distract yourself? The boy scouts are definitely onto something with the whole “be prepared” thing.
Conclusion
It’s time to take back the season instead of letting seasonal depression decide how the next several months will go. Luckily, we can be proactive and cope with the winter blues ahead of time to set ourselves up for success this winter. How will you be taking care of your mental health this season?
PS – looking for some more ways to cope with difficult emotions? Check out these posts:
