How to Overcome the Winter Blues Without Medication

When the festivities are over, the lights go out, no more presents or parties, we naturally feel down. As we get back to our daily routine, it is dark and cold outside.

You are not alone if the cold weather and darker days cause you to experience the winter blues. It can get hard to go about the essential activities in your life. You may procrastinate getting your dental Implants In San Diego or even heading to the grocery store. You might have fatigue, difficulty concentrating, sadness, or disrupted sleep. So, how should you go about dealing with it?

Acknowledge the mental challenges of the winter season, so you can prepare yourself and plan ahead to ease the difficult times.

Take a look at the Northern European countries such as Denmark and Finland. They are the happiest countries despite the cold weather and long hours of no daylight.

Get ready to look ahead, keep track of your New Year resolutions, get cozy, and cook some great food. Change the things you are not satisfied with.

January and February are great months for planning. This could be in terms of career, personal life, or finances. It is the best time to do a skills self-assessment to know where you stand and to know what your options are when looking for a career step.

Introduce Hygge Into Your Home

Hygge is a word that only exists in Danish. The closest description is coziness, happiness, warmth, and homeliness. The state of well-being, when we are tucked up in the safety of our home, usually with friends or family.

The ethos embrace winter as an opportunity to slow down, enjoy being at home and spend quality time with others. As you spend more time inside during winter, it is key to organize your surroundings to your own taste, to create a little hideaway from the darkness. 

The essential props are candlelight, fluffy slippers, woolen socks, blankets, cake, and hot drinks. This is to make the experience even more special, spending time with loved ones.

Danish interior design mostly features simple clean surfaces with candles lit on every table and chest. Use the extra time in your home to do a big clearance and put candles in the newly free spaces.

Also, grab some fairy lights that have warm white lights to light up the dark corners of your home. You will get a welcoming atmosphere instantly. Choose the 2700-3000 Kelvin lights for maximum warmth.

The best results come from a good blend of aesthetics and comfort. Aim for the sweet spot considering natural textures and tones, beauty, and coziness.

Although there are many aspects of hygge, the other essential component is people. You are more likely to feel down or alone if you are by yourself.

So, invite friends and family over, bake an easy cake and bring out the old board games for a cozy night in.

Bake a Lemon Blueberry Cake

Nevertheless, it is crucial to eat the right healthy foods, but the occasional slice of cake is also feeding our souls.

Baking a cake yourself is always a satisfaction. The lingering sweet smell coming from the oven in your home makes you feel you have done something right.

And don’t worry, even if you are not a cake fairy, this recipe will not exceed your skills.

When you invite people over, it is nice to share a home-baked café alongside a cup of tea or coffee.

Ingredients:

1¼ cups flour

½ cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

190ml coconut milk

130ml margarine melted

1 pinch of salt

1 lemon (organic if possible)

¾ cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 180oC and place parchment paper into an 18cm wide round tin.

Take two medium bowls. In the first bowl, mix the dry ingredients, the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Rinse the blueberries and put them in the flour mix too.

In the other bowl, add the melted margarine, coconut milk, and juice of the lemon. Shave the lemon skin into the liquid with a grater. 

Mix the contents of the two bowls well, then pour the batter into the tin.

Bake it in the preheated oven for 45 minutes until the top is golden brown. Let it cool for 10 minutes, then remove the cake from the tin. Sprinkle it with icing sugar. 

Keep the cake in an airtight Tupperware for up to 3 days.

Surround Yourself with Others

Now that you have the cake, it is time to invite some friends over for a netter. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just gather around sharing some cake and coffee.

Social interaction is a well-known cure against depression. If you are in the circle of your loved ones, it lowers your blood pressure and the level of stress hormones.

If you are not able to see your close friends or family, you can still connect with them, give them a call.

Volunteering is another excellent way to be part of a community. Check the opportunities in your area. This is a great way to connect with others and give back.

Physical Activity

We took care of the home, baked a cake, and invited friends over for a cozy night in, it is time to get moving.

Physical activity has been a proven mood booster for a long time. During exercise, the body releases endorphins which then interact with receptors in the brain that reduce the perception of pain.

Start slowly, then build up to 30 to 60 minutes a day, four-five days a week. This can be yoga, Pilates, running, dancing, walking, or any fitness-related activities.

You might be lethargic and unmotivated to exercise when you feel depressed, in which case instead of committing to one long workout, break it up into smaller chunks.

For example, if you aim to do 30 minutes of workout a day, break it down into three smaller ones of 10 minutes. Whether it is walking or yoga, do it at your own pace but don’t put it off, you need to force yourself to stay active.

If you can exercise during the day, absorbing natural light within 2 hours of waking up is even more beneficial.

Plan Your Way Out of Darkness

You can improve your mood by using the extra time to plan things that you will look forward to later in the year.

Let this be birthday celebrations, excursions, or longer trips. Many people who love traveling get more excitement from anticipating and planning the holiday than from the trip itself.

When planning for a trip, you also need to set a budget for transport, accommodation, and money to spend at the destination. This is a good opportunity to go through your finances and see how you are doing after spending more than usual during the festive period.

Plan how much your income will be. Then set your monthly outgoings but be generous because it is better to count more now rather than ending up being short later. The leftover sum will show how much you can put aside for savings, which you will ultimately spend on things that bring you joy.

Take account of your New Year resolutions and personal goals and plan the steps of how you are going to achieve them. 

For example, if you are lost in your career and want to change jobs, plan for how much time you are willing to devote to job searches every week.