Easy Tips for a Better Winter

January and February are usually rough spots for me during the year. When the darkness of the cold weather + the very short days combine, they make a truly lethal combination for my spirit. It’s a real thing, y’all. Depression comes over me year after year during these months and I feel like I'm walking in a perpetual spirit of gloominess.

It actually IS a thing… SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Since I went to school for interior design (did y’all know that?), I studied it in school. And I know other people that experience the same thing - maybe you do too - but I’ve recently recognized that I go through this every single year.

So every year, I gear myself up in the cheerful month of December for the next January, knowing I’m headed into a little dark period. But this year it hasn’t hit me NEARLY as hard as it usually does, even with the hard of a traveling husband and the hard of three kids (and a toddler that is going to make me lose my ever-loving mind eventually). I've implemented a few strategies this go around that have helped me tremendously, and I hope will do the same thing if you struggle with this same sense of winter gloom.

SUNSHINE

This momma loves herself some sunshine. I mean, hello, I live in Texas where the sun is hot and the kids are always barefoot. We do have a few GORGEOUS days in January and February, followed by ice storms that leave us stuck inside for 3 days, but the gorgeous days DO come. So this year I’ve decided to stop W H A T E V E R my plans are for those days and spend a significant time outside soaking up the sunshine.

We’ll walk to the park, ride bikes in the cul-de-sac, meet up with friends to play in their driveway or simply pull out sidewalk chalk and play in the backyard. This Vitamin D has played a significant role in carrying my mood from a gorgeous day into a gloomy one.

Side note for those of you who don't get Texas winter weather :: these gorgeous days aren’t all good, because it makes me forget about homework, throw caution to the wind and declare that it’s almost summertime, so forget about nightly reading… oops. I may be a rule follower, but I do get a little adventurous like that sometimes. 

EXERCISE

Alright, so this one might be a no-brainer for y’all, but for me it is a freakin' beat-down. Of course, I know it's good for me physically but I just haven't ever been able to wrap my mind around consistently sacrificing time to do it. But a wise woman one stated that “exercise produces endorphins. Endorphins make people happy... and happy people don’t just kill people.” Thank you, Elle Woods.

Unfortunately for me, though, she’s right. Let's boil it down to this : People who exercise don't kill people. And there are a lot of people in my life who might be a lot happier if I exercised. Happy people don’t just kill people. PTL.

Over the past month and a half I’m gone from exercising occasionally - think, once or twice a MONTH - to exercising 4-6 times a week. You might be sitting there with a baby in your lap reading this and thinking - OUT. But if I can do it - you can do it too. I am a total exerciseophobic (totally not a word, y'all). I hate it all. Everything about it. I have found, though, that it is totally doable for a stay at home mom and it doesn’t require you getting up at the crack of dawn either. As much as I want to have those excuses, I just can't anymore.

This is a HUGE mood-booster. I hate to admit it, but now as much as I hate the time it takes for me to workout, I look forward to the feeling afterward. And when I get to run outside, it’s the BEST, because I'm killing two birds with one stone.

INFUSING GREEN

So this might be the biggest secret for me, a home-maker, this year. I've spent about $25 and bought myself several small-ish houseplants. They'll probably end up in the trash can, sad and lonely in a month or two, but for now, they bring our house so much joy and LIFE in the dead of winter. 

I look outside our big windows and even on a beautiful sunny day, it's brown and dead outside. I see twigs and brown grass. But inside? That's another story. My eyes can hit on plant after plant... green grass. New leaves. Beautiful life happening right inside this little coffee cup. It is the best $25 I've ever spent. Now every room has at least one plant... maybe two. This will be a game changer for those of you who need a little life-giving jolt this winter!

Do you struggle with feeling SAD in the dead of winter?? (See what I did there?) I think it's completely normal, scientifically proven and probably easier to deal with if we acknowledge it! I hope you find these simple and easy tips to be helpful mood boosters!! Let me know if you try them and how they work out for you!!!