Welcome to How To Beat The Winter Blues!
Over the coming weeks, you will receive an instalment each week, full of top tips and insider secrets, to help you feel happier, warmer and more vitalised, whatever the winter weather throws at us.
Week One
Today we’re talking about making choices.
I’m sharing with you a little-known secret about the winter blues – and how knowing this secret can make the vital difference between hating winter and feeling miserable, or setting yourself free to feel differently about it this year.
And you’ll get to discover two simple questions you can ask yourself, to break free from the winter blues – fast.
Interested?
It’s a cold, hard fact that over 90% of our experience of the winter blues is down to how we choose to feel about it!
It’s not the cold that makes us miserable, it’s our response to it.
I’m going to say something that might get you throwing rotten tomatoes at me now, but it’s important, so I’m happy to take the risk: 🙂
The winter blues aren’t something you ‘have’ or ‘suffer from’.
They’re something you ‘do’.
Yes, a certain amount of it is “hard-wired” as our brain receives less sunshine and phsyiological chemical reactions change, but the rest of it is still down to our perception and reactions.
This is great news!
It’s great news because it means we can do something about it. And that “something” can be fast and effective, too.
So here is this week’s strategy for banishing the winter blues:
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- Figure out “where you’re at”
- Figure out “where you want to be instead”
It doesn’t make sense to try to force ourselves to feel as vibrant and energised in winter as we did in summer. Why? Because the body, like Mother Nature, has a natural rhythm – a cycle that runs through the seasons and the year. We have a natural tendency to want to hibernate (or at least snuggle up warm) in the winter.
But that doesn’t mean we have to put up with feeling exhausted and miserable.
So let’s start with the first step of today’s strategy:
Where are you?
How about grabbing a piece of paper and scribbling down the answers to this question:
How do you “do” the “winter blues”?
If you had to teach an alien visitor how to “do” your version of the winter blues, how would they do it?
- Which thoughts would they have to think?
- What would they have to feel?
- What would they have to see?
- What would they have to hear?
Really allow yourself to pour a stream of conscious-style guide onto the paper, capturing “where you are now” with your winter blues behaviours.
Moving on to part two:
Taking a clean sheet of paper, write down the answer to this question:
“What do you want instead?”
- Which thoughts do you want to think, instead, about winter?
- Which feelings do you want to feel?
- Which physical sensations do you want? What do you want to see? To hear?
Make your answers positive – so instead of writing, “I don’t want to feel cold”, write something like, “I want to feel cosy”.
How about sharing your answers to this section with us, over at the forum? I’d love to hear how you ‘do’ the winter blues – and what you want instead! And you might find it interesting to discover how similar we all are – and how different – by see what others have shared:
How do you ‘do’ the winter blues? And what do you want instead?
How Do You Apply This Stuff?
Simple!
Each time you catch yourself having a winter thought that drags you down, simply choose another thought that makes you feel slightly better.
Look at your list of “what do I want instead” answers and, if you’re feeling cold, low, lethargic or winter-blues-laden, pick one of your “insteads” and play with it.
Pick baby-step-sized actions to move you towards your “instead”.
Winter isn’t going to go away until it’s good and ready. And we have a choice – we can either spend the next few months grumbling and shivering, or we can do something about our response.
I know which option I’m choosing today!
Here’s this week’s positive affirmation:
I know how I ‘do’ the winter blues – and I know what I want instead.
This gives me the power to choose whether or not I want to do the winter blues, moment to moment.
See you next week for Week Two – we’ll be sharing top strategies for revitalising a sluggish winter body – and keeping your energy levels where they need to be.
I’d love to hear how you get on with this week’s techniques. Please make sure you share, via the Forum. It’s so much more fun, if we share this journey!
Thanks!
Namaste,
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