As soon as the temperature drops, my husband undergoes a transformation. A Midwesterner, Tom starts reminiscing about the Great Blizzard of 1978. He shares chipper platitudes like, “There’s no bad weather, only bad clothing!” And on the first snowy day, he will crow about our car’s all-wheel drive. Like a bear in reverse, he comes alive in winter.
I am his opposite. When the leaves begin to fall, so does my mood. It’s still warm in the Northeast, but there have been some chilly nights lately. So I spent last weekend in a state of gloom, packing away my hummingbird feeders and pulling out our family’s collection of giant, shapeless coats.
Many people love winter, but if you’re not one of them, “you don’t have to just accept that you’ll be crankier at this time of year,” said Kari Leibowitz, a health psychologist and author of “How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark or Difficult Days.”
Having a more positive approach doesn’t mean denying the realities of dark mornings or icy roads, she said. But when you write off wintertime, she added, you’re writing off a quarter of your life.
She and other experts told me how to open yourself up to the delights of the season.
Embrace winter-friendly ‘slow hobbies.’
Instead of “wishing away winter and waiting for spring,” Dr. Leibowitz said, lean into the cooling weather by planning cozy activities and rituals. For example, Dr. Leibowitz just restocked her teas, thicker socks and candles (in winter, she likes to light candles at breakfast).
Make a list of books you want to read during the cozy season, she suggested. (For inspiration, look here.) I’m going to cue up this Spotify playlist of “relaxing winter music.”
And start planning some “slow hobbies” you can do indoors, she said, such as baking, knitting or painting (maybe with this kit that transforms a photo of a loved one or pet into a paint-by-numbers design). Dr. Leibowitz does pottery and goes to an evening yoga class: “It’s really slow and meditative and vibe-y,” she said.
Adapt summer activities for winter.
Kelly Rohan, a professor of psychological science and a clinical psychologist at the University of Vermont, studies seasonal affective disorder. She told me that she has been looking at summer’s “antidepressant activities” and figuring out ways to translate them during the off-season.
So if biking, hiking or walking on the beach brings you joy, she said, try it in winter. If you love gardening in summer, Dr. Rohan suggested, grow something inside, learn to coax bulbs or use winter to plan your garden for the spring.
As for Dr. Rohan herself, “I’m an avid brisk-walker-slash-recreational-jogger, and I will go out in the wintertime and do it,” she said. “I just dress differently, and I might have those crampons things on the bottoms of my feet so that I don’t slip on ice.”
Manage your post-holiday blues.
Winter officially begins on Dec. 21 this year, and my post-holiday letdown usually kicks in on New Year’s Day — by that metric, I have 11 “good” days of winter.
This year, Dr. Leibowitz suggested I carry what I like about the season into the months after. I told her that I felt a little blue after seeing people over the holidays, so she encouraged me to plan more cozy dinners with friends or a Valentine’s Day party. If you enjoy holiday décor, she suggested keeping up some twinkly lights.
And if the holidays tire you out, carve out time to rest and recover in January, she said.
Make a practice of noticing nature. (It’s not all cold and dead!)
Too often, we ignore the natural world in winter, said Holli-Anne Passmore, an associate professor of psychology at Concordia University of Edmonton.
But she has found in her research that when people actively pay attention to their natural surroundings and notice how it makes them feel, it significantly boosts their well-being.
One research subject wrote, “I felt awe that such a tiny bird can withstand the cold.” Another wrote: “I love trees, especially big ones. I feel humbled by their size, knowing just how much more lies beneath the surface, too.”
Take note of the birds and squirrels as you take a walk or wait for the bus, Dr. Passmore said, or look at the moon or the changing sky outside your window.
I’ve already begun to take the experts’ advice: I ordered some cozy winter socks and am assembling my cold-weather reading list.
Tom recommended “The Worst Journey in the World” by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. It’s a chronicle of Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition to the South Pole.
He read me this excerpt: “The temperature that night was -75.8°, and I will not pretend that it did not convince me that Dante was right when he placed the circles of ice below the circles of fire.”
After reading it, Tom helpfully pointed out, New Jersey won’t seem so bad.
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Read the article: When Chronic Diseases Come With Chronic Financial Pressure
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Read the article: Tired? Here’s How to Know if You’re Sleep Deprived.
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Let’s keep the conversation going. Follow Well on Instagram, or write to us at [email protected]. And check out last week’s newsletter about how to meet big goals.
The post Yes, There Are Things to Love About Winter appeared first on New York Times.
