3 Ways to Battle the Winter Blues
Winter blues are a very real thing. The days are shorter, darker and grayer. As you look across the landscape in where I live in the North East, it's dormant and bare. It can be quite depressing.
The internal landscape can be challenging as well.
Winter blues are a very real thing. The days are shorter, darker and grayer. As you look across the landscape in where I live in the North East, it's dormant and bare. It can be quite depressing.
The internal landscape can be challenging as well. For me when things are quiet, and there's seemingly a lack of opportunity, that all makes for a discouraging outlook. Being an artist, who feels deeply, makes this worse. These feelings of despair grab a hold and won't let go. It's like being trapped in quicksand (or at least from what i've seen in movies). The more you struggle, the more it pulls you down.
If you weren't depressed at the beginning of reading this post, you might be now. Aside from clinical depression, which is another matter entirely, how can we shake off these winter blues? Is there any hope?
Here's a 3 things that I've found helpful in my own battle with the blues.
1. Dress for success
Get up. Shower. Shave. Do your hair & makeup (If you're a lady... or if you're in an 80's glam metal band). Put on nice clothes even if you don't have to. As someone who works from home, pursuing my art and entrepreneurial endeavors, it's way to easy to just stay in pajama's or comfy clothes. But pushing yourself to get dressed up forces you to look different, feel different and eventually act different. What does that look like for you in your context? Do you already work in an office where you have to dress up? Take it up a notch. Dress up even nicer. But be warned. You might have to field some “Nice outfit. Job interview today?” Comments.
2. Lean into the hustle
Start moving. All you might feel like doing is sitting on the couch and binge watching Netflix shows, but this is a slippery spiral down. And you never actually feel any better (probably worse, truth fully). Instead, as hard as it might seem to get motivated, get moving. Pick the smallest item on your do list and conquer it. (And don't start with something you already did, adding it to the list just to feel the satisfaction of crossing something out. Yup, busted.) Once you've done that first small task, do another small thing. Let the power of momentum carry you. Work you're way up to something you might have been avoiding for a long while. When you conquer that, you will probably have a pretty good feeling. Like you slayed a dragon. Or watched too much Game of Thrones.
3. Surround yourself with the stories
Again, I'm not talking about stories in the form of Netflix episodes where we're looking escape or be entertained. I'm talking about stories that can inspire us. Stories about others who have endured great hardship and came through victorious. A funny thing happens when we encounter someone who has, or is facing unbelievable circumstances. Suddenly our own woes seem small. The feelings lose their power. We just might find some points of identification that can inspire us. Maybe your own story can then go on to inspire someone else. But it can't do that while you're got your face in that gallon of ice cream, while your hiding under the blanket. In the dark. Listening to Johnny Cash sing "Hurt". There's only one story there, and it's sad. Pick up a book. Talk to a friend. The stories are out there. Go get them!
Bonus round: Travel
This has always fallen into the "must be nice" category for me. Seeing other people pick up and travel to sunny, warm places while I'm stuck in the cold elicits other not so nice feelings. Bust try to that aside for a minute. Focus on what you CAN do. Where you CAN go. Even if it's local. Get out of your surroundings & the monotony of your routine. Go to a park. Take a "mental health day" and go to a nearby city, a museum, or theater to see a play. Take that day trip to that place you've been talking about for years. Go exploring. It's not so important where. It's more putting yourself in a place that's new or different and letting your surroundings speak to you. It can do wonders to change your outlook.
That's by no means a complete list but just a few ideas that have and do help me when I'm battling the winter blues.
What about you? How do you battle the winter blues or times of discouragement & depression? Leave a comment below. It might be just the thing someone else needs today!
When You Need Thanksgiving to Keep Giving
Thanksgiving was last week. Most of us have moved on to thinking about Christmas / Hanukkah / the New Year. But I have a confession to make. I need Thanksgiving to hang around.
I'm not talking about the holiday traditions - the incredible food, extended time with family, watching the NBC Thanksgiving Day Parade and the National Dog Show (along with sneaking in some March of the Wooden Soldiers). Those are all wonderful, and I love them. But what I need to hang around is actually the THANKS in Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving was last week. Most of us have moved on to thinking about Christmas / Hanukkah / the New Year. But I have a confession to make. I need Thanksgiving to hang around.
I'm not talking about the holiday traditions - the incredible food, extended time with family, watching the NBC Thanksgiving Day Parade and the National Dog Show (along with sneaking in some March of the Wooden Soldiers). Those are all wonderful, and I love them. But what I need to hang around is actually the THANKS in Thanksgiving.
Another confession: it's easy to go through the motions of Thanksgiving and not really be thankful. That happens with things you get too familiar with. After all, Thanksgiving is every year.
I found myself struggling with thinking about all the lack in my life lately. (And yes, I know that I am incredibly blessed compared to most of the world.) But it's difficult to shake a perspective that locks you in on what you don't have, the needs that are pressing in all around you despite your best efforts. The more you focus on the lack, the bigger it becomes.
I was reading a book the other day with daily readings called "Jesus Calling". That days reading had to do with giving thanks, most challenging to let "thankfulness rule in your heart..."
“Let thankfulness rule in your heart. As you thank Me for blessings in your life, a marvelous thing happens. It is as if scales fall off your eyes, enabling you to see more and more of My glorious riches. With your eyes thus opened, you can help yourself to whatever you need from My treasure house. Each time you receive one of My golden gifts, let your thankfulness sing out praises to My Name. “Hallelujahs” are the language of heaven, and they can become the language of your heart. A life of praise and thankfulness becomes a life filled with miracles. Instead of trying to be in control, you focus on Me and what I am doing. This is the power of praise: centering your entire being in Me. This is how I created you to live, for I made you in My own image. Enjoy abundant life by overflowing with praise and thankfulness.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. . . . And be thankful.”
The truth is, trying to create your own business is extremely hard when it comes to striving. There's always more to do. More to create. Lack stares you in the face. And the whisper that if you hit things that much harder, get more ambitious and HUSTLE more, then you'll be on track. But it's a vicious cycle void of any thanksgiving, or celebration.
So prompted by my reading, I decided to write in my daily journal all the things I was thankful for. At first it felt forced and clumsy, but that soon broke way to actual thanks. I poured out as much as I could, thanking God for who He is in my life, all He has and is doing, and all He has blessed me with - even the LACK. The lack actually is more opportunity to trust Him, His provision and leading in my life. I thanked him for my wonderful wife and children, the opportunity to pursue my art, a home, my dogs, clean water, food... four pages later, I had to stop because I had to move on to an appointment. But it fixed my attention and perspective. At least for a little while. That's why I want to keep Thanksgiving close by.