5 Ways to Beat the Winter Blues

Just two weeks ago, the legendary groundhog sent news of an extended winter. The shadow was cast, and many of us sank deeper into our covers. With dark evenings and cold winds accompanying our every day, the winter can be a daunting beast. February, in particular, is a tough month to get through with little warmth in sight.

Despite this, there are ways to shake aside our blues and find some light in the fog. As a post-grad freshly lectured on the importance of taking control of one’s life, I have accrued a few tips on keeping the winter blues at bay.

1. Find a new adventure.

Just because it’s not beautiful outside doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun. Research local events, grab a Groupon, and venture outside of your town on the weekends. Finding a new place to explore or an exciting opportunity to try can bring excitement to your weekend and give you something to look forward to.

Budget for an edible experience such as a brewery tour or a night at a fondue restaurant. Reserve a spot for a paint night and tap into your artistic side. Visit your favorite lunch spot at night for karaoke or trivia! My recent Friday paint night with my boyfriend left me feeling relaxed and accomplished. It was only made better by the promise of the following week’s trip to The Melting Pot. Putting these activities on my calendar keeps me going and energizes me during the week.

2. Load up on your vitamins and minerals.

Our bodies may become deficient in vitamins when we lack sunlight and exercise during the winter months. Some important supplements for the winter include vitamin D3, typically absorbed through sunlight, vitamin C, an antioxidant found in citrus fruits and berries, zinc, a mineral to maintain a healthy immune system, and vitamin E, which protects your skin from the cooler temperatures. Being conscious of these particular intakes can mean the difference between a lethargic, sick winter and a healthy one. I swear by Zicam whenever I am feeling a cold coming on. Something as simple as taking an extra dose of a vitamin can save me from another sick day and getting behind.

3. Indulge in sweater weather.

The only thing worse than being cold is being cold and uncomfortable. Invest in warmer clothes that are comfortable and fit well. Avoid itchy materials and restrictive clothing. It is important to feel happy in the clothes you wear, particularly in the cold weather. I love laying out a favorite sweater for the next day, knowing that work will go a little more smoothly when I am feeling cozy.

4. Read!

Inspired by the recent book club unit I am teaching in my sixth grade classroom, I ordered two copies of a book recommended on NPR for my boyfriend and me to read. The winter is a great time to pick up a book in lieu of another Netflix binge.

Reading engages different areas of the brain and has been said to increase your vocabulary, decrease stress, and teach readers better empathy. Reading a book alongside a friend gives you a new opportunity to discuss interpretations and ideas brought on by the experience. Keeping up with a reading schedule can keep you committed to the book and increase your chances of adding reading into your normal routine.

5. Podcast Pasttimes

Whether it be in the car, in bed, at the dinner table, or working out, podcasts can provide great entertainment and education. A friend of mine told me about his fascination with true crime and how his car rides are now occupied with a true crime podcast. Similarly, my boyfriend often listens to interviews with successful actors and actresses to prep him for auditions. Podcasts can also help keep you company when the house is empty, and bring some entertainment to boring chores. Consider finding a companion in fun podcasts!

Don’t forget to find your own remedies to the winter doldrums and pass them on to those who may need them!

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Featured

Why did you move?

A cardstock print sits propped against the lamp on my desk: a taupe watercolor swipe outlining a peakside Saguaro, the sun a tiny ring above. Beneath this minimalist illustration are these words in typeface: “I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

I happened upon this notecard-sized print on the way out of a shop last weekend, after already having completed another purchase. It was the last print of its kind in the pile. I had to have it. I returned to the cashier: “This one, too.”

You see, this verse has been a thread weaving through my story, simple words spoken by a prophet long dead, a passage of comfort I’ve returned to again and again since my pilgrimage to the desert four years ago, when I inked a cactus on my wrist.

The Good Old Days

Last week was National Margarita Day.

I did not, however, celebrate the holiday. Truthfully, I’ve yet to find THE Mexican place here in Phoenix. You know the one: gaudy decorations, cheap food, even cheaper margaritas.

But there’s a Mexican restaurant at the corner of Charlotte and Whitebridge in Nashville, TN.

You may have heard of it.

10 Life Lessons This Cross-Country Move is Attempting to Teach Me

There are a few lessons life has attempted to teach me since my move — all things that I haven’t yet spiced up into a full essay, but deserve to be memorialized by my metaphorical pen nonetheless.

So I present a collection of lessons I’ve learned — and am still learning — in the last 3 months.

When The Hardest Thing & The Right Thing Are the Same

“Nuh uh!” I had protested.

The best thing about being 15 years old is that you know absolutely everything there is to know about life.

I certainly did.

I was arguing with my friends over the line in a song from The Fray (#tbt to moody middle school days): “Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”

Doing the right thing should never be hard, I confidently claimed. Anytime you have the choice to do the right thing, the healthy thing, the thing that builds up rather than tears down, it should never, ever be difficult to choose that.

Like I said, I knew everything.

Of course, 13 years later, I know that I don’t actually know much at all. And I also know that the hardest thing and the right thing are just about ALWAYS the same. It’s madness, really.

A Holy Yes to the Real Things: On Setting Social Media Boundaries

Two and a half hours.

That’s how long I had spent on my phone that day. Reading emails, sure. Responding to texts, some. Catching up on news, a bit. But mostly: scrolling through Instagram.

I had spent an hour of my day clicking through clips of someone else’s life. The sad truth? Some days, I’ve spent way more than just one hour lost to Instagram.

This is where the High School Musical cast flash mobs my brain with “we’re all in this together”—because my educated guess is that you can relate to this daily scroll-fest, too.

You Are Worth It: A Journey to Discovering Your Voice & Worth

In November of 2019, two weeks before my wedding, I called it off.

It was the hardest conversation I have ever had, and it created a domino effect of more difficult conversations with practically everyone in my inner circle. And those conversations created a ripple effect of embarrassing moments with acquaintances and co-workers.

The most difficult part of all of it was that no one saw it coming. Not even me.

Who You Are Now: On Outgrowing Earlier Versions of Yourself

In the last few months, I’ve realized, much to my dismay, that I look older. That I am aging. This sounds dramatic coming from an able-bodied twenty-seven-year old, but it’s true. I didn’t know I found so much worth and security in the way that I looked until I started to notice a difference.

As humans, we note the passing of time in the changes around us. The tree that was once green is now orange, now yellow, now brown and bare. The crack on the stoop starts to grow weeds and crumble. The basil plant gets bigger, the dust on the shelf gets thicker, and the water stain on the ceiling expands to look like a dinosaur. We note these changes with surprise, as if they’ve happened all of a sudden instead of one day at a time.

How One Writer is Learning to Navigate Her New Normal

2020: a new year but NOT a normal year. The world really took a turn when it was late winter. The news and social media were giving a lot of updates on the virus that took over the world. At the time, I didn’t know if I should take a break from social media and avoid the news.

Everywhere was closing and shutting down; it felt like 2020 was canceled.

On Navigating Grief During the Isolation of Quarantine

I read about the third suicide that had happened while we were in quarantine via email from my supervisor.

“I apologize for my absence. As some of you may have heard, my brother committed suicide over the weekend, and my family and I have been grieving this loss.”

I wrote back to the mass email individually saying how sorry I was for her loss, and that I, too, had suffered a loss at this time. Within the last month, I had lost my uncle to a surgery that left him paralyzed for weeks in the hospital. Alone. Without family. And that that had filled my heart with grief in a confusing time that didn’t allow people to gather and grieve the loss of a loved one. Let alone, let them say goodbye.

No Man Is An Island: An Ode to Our Neediness

The last few years of my life—so basically my Full Grown Adult Years—have been a reinforced lesson in this one simple yet slightly-jarring fact: we need each other. I mean, need-NEED each other.

“No man is an island,” says Thomas Merton, and my bae C.S. Lewis backs this up further by writing, “We need others physically, emotionally, intellectually; we need them if we are to know anything, even ourselves.”

We’re meant to be needy, but why is it so hard to acknowledge and accept this?

Say What You Need

Now maybe it wasn’t your family or your upbringing that made you neglect voicing your needs. Maybe it was a toxic relationship or a difficult work environment. Maybe it was someone who told you that your needs were selfish or that the desires of your heart didn’t matter.

Whatever it was, I urge you to identify those people or experiences or situations and start using that knowledge to change.

A Beginner's Guide to the Enneagram

Maybe you, like me, have become curious about the Enneagram because it is popping up everywhere in conversations and on your social media timeline. Maybe you know everything there is to know and have become quite fluent in Ennea-lingo (you even know that there are sub-types!).

Maybe this is the first time you’re ever hearing about this weird test and you’ve spent the last four paragraphs trying to figure out how to even pronounce the word “Enneagram” (In-ee-a-gram, for the record).

No matter where you’re at, we can all use some guidelines when it comes to personality tests, because none of us are immune to over-identifying, self-shaming, and becoming a walking personality-test-fulfilling prophesy. So, without further ado, here are my dos and don’ts of Enneagram-ing.

HealthC. CarrollFebruary 22, 2018FeaturedComment