I’ve gotten about 5 e-mails this month, alone, about how to deal with the winter blues. For some reason, I’ve never personally had this problem. Maybe it’s because I associate so many things that I love with winter: Christmas, snow, hot chocolate, chili, UK basketball, Denver Broncos (next year…even without the world’s coolest coach), sweaters, homemade soup, apple cider, my family being home more often, and coffee 24/7 as opposed to 12/7. Maybe that’s why when I hear the words “Winter Blues,” my first thoughts are “Why? What? It’s winter!” I know I’m probably in a very exclusive club – people who don’t feel blue whatsoever during the winter months. You can easily recognize us odd ducks. We’re the ones running around with our Starbucks cups, all bundled up and smiling when someone says there’s snow in the forecast. However, dealing with the “Winter Blues” is a very real problem for many people. So what follows are 3 suggestions that I think can help take the blues and blahs and turn them into smiles and laughs.
- Fall in love with the season! Okay, if you’re feeling blue, this may seem like a stretch – but your happiness depends upon your openmindedness. Remind yourself of the things that only come around when God turns down the thermostat: NFL, hockey, homemade soup, bread, chili, Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, college football, college basketball, primetime premieres, skiing, snow cream, snowmen, sledding, apple cider, hot chocolate, no yardwork, your family’s home more often (depending upon the family, I guess that could go
either way!), etc. Watch dvds, play Scrabble, Uno, Life, Trivia Pursuit, or Monopoly. Grab the most difficult looking jigsaw puzzle in town and set up a special table just for it. My mom would do that every winter. I’d watch our Siamese cat, Solo. He’d keep his crossed eyes trained on the puzzle, waiting for her to get about halfway through with it.. then he’d take a running dive on the table and pieces would go everywhere. My dad would laugh, my mom would pretend to care, and Solo would watch as we tried to pick up the pieces before our toy poodle ate them. Such were winter evenings in our home! - Talk it out. Grab someone’s ears and talk through your feelings, even if it’s your cat’s ears. Sometimes, when we let our emotions have their say, we’ll find out what’s at the heart of the matter. The root of the blues may be a case of grief. Winter often brings a longing for people who have passed away – especially around Christmas. People make the mistake of thinking that talking about these loved ones makes the feelings worse. Au contraire! Talking about loved ones we miss keeps them alive in our minds and hearts. We come to realize that they aren’t gone… they’re just a thought away.
- Get out of the house and, most definitely, get out of the office. Try to keep things as normal as possible. If you enjoyed a daily walk in the park during the warm months, bundle up and waddle around the trail in the cold months. The sunshine, such as it is, will do you as much good as the activity will. Getting regular doses of both act upon a human the way catnip does a cat. One of the many things I love about winter is the eagerness of the birds. I’m a world class bird feeder/bird watcher, so I love to prepare special wintry meals for them – lots of sunflower seeds, nuts, berries, popcorn, and assorted bread crumbs. I also love to leave food out for our raccoons and possums. The occasional skunk will saunter up and feed and we all hold our breath, but man are they cute. These guys always give me evening entertainment that’s hard to beat. Fortunately, our cats don’t mind them and they don’t mind the cats.
What are three surefire ways to make sure the blues stick around?
- Stay cooped up inside. Pull the curtains and close the blinds don’t get out of the house unless it’s an emergency.
- Dwell on warmer climates and warmer months. Set beach scenes as your wallpaper and get kind misty eyed each time you look at it.
- Complain until your lungs give out! This one’s especially powerful. It can make the blues turn into something far worse. You see, each time you complain about the wind gusts, the snow, the cold nose, chapped lips, and so on – you make the situation grow a little larger. Now I’m not talking about the little “Brrrr, it’s colder than death’s fingers out there.” type of statement. That’s just giving credit where credit is due. I’m talking about bellyaching and nagging and yelling and feeling sorry for yourself. Yeah! That’s the stuff that’ll keep the blues around.
Fall in love with the season, talk out your feelings, and get the heck out of the house! Also, change the way you look at things, if possible. For example – it’s not cold, it’s brisk! You aren’t freezing your kneecaps off, you’re being rejuvenated! You don’t hate the frigid conditions, you embrace the wintriness! Okay, I hear your icy laughter and detect a frosty attitude. I just went outside to rescue one of my cats who thought he could take on two larger cats (male ego, anyone?) and I saw that it’s starting to snow. This calls for a celebratory cup of hot chocolate! Now get out there and have fun with winter.
*** Just a reminder, if you have any blankets, winter coats, sweaters, gloves, hats, etc. you aren’t using – take them to your local Good Will or Salvation Army today.
