The Art of Slowing Down: Preparing for Winter’s Respite
Transitioning from summer to winter can be challenging, especially for your mental health. With the right tools, though, you can stay present, at peace, and warm through the cold months.
In this article, we’ll discuss:
Navigating Mixed Emotions: From Autumn’s Mellowness to Winter’s Depth
The wind gets chiller, the golden sun sets deeper, and evenings lend you more time. All of this points to a long slumber ahead, a period spent constricted after the expansiveness of summer.
Summer’s end is frequently met with mixed emotions. As much as we like the mellowness of autumn, we are also welcoming the depths of winter via the same door. Winter is cold and dark. You just want to curl up within.
Practical and Mindful Ways To Transition Between The Seasons
It is more vital than ever to be mindful and reflective in these times. The habits we form throughout transitions last longer and are more powerful. We may work with the season to prepare for the time ahead and the darker months if we use this time effectively.
This seasonal change slows you down. It encourages you to take a step back and prepare for some downtime. Let us embrace it by reflecting on a few things that will help you leave summer behind with appreciation and glide into the cold half-year with ease.
6 Practices to Get The Most Out of The Winter Transition
1. Don’t lose connection to nature
When the weather is nice and sunny, it’s easy to spend time outside. However, as the weather cools, we tend to retreat inside. The tree’s leaves fall, the animals hide, and the lush charm fades.
One of the primary causes of seasonal depression is a loss of connection to nature. Making time to appreciate even the frigid, stark landscapes can provide you with strength and boost your mental health.
Make daily walks a habit already now. That lowers the bar for later on, allowing you to keep going in the future as the weather changes.
2. Excercise
Staying active in the winter might help you combat the winter blues.
Winter sports are an excellent way to spend time outside while still getting some exercise. If that isn’t an option, any indoor sport that gets you moving is a good substitute.
Participate in a social physical activity to boost your well-being through community. Dancing, for example, is a social and low-impact approach to encourage movement when the outer world becomes stagnant.
3. Make plans and goals
Take out a journal and jot down the major events for the coming month, such as birthdays, holidays, vacations, exams, and so on. Write down what you hope to accomplish by the end of each of these.
It can be something tangible, like buying a gift or cooking a family meal, or something more cerebral, like improving in your singing lessons.
Reflecting on your goals before the start of winter will benefit you later on when you look back at the pages, reminding you of your vision when things get tougher. Not only that, but having milestones in front of you will help you look forward while also drawing your attention to the passage of time.
4. Get light
The reduction in light intake during darker months impacts your hypothalamus, which controls your circadian rhythm.
Let’s make use of that late-summer mind: Use the time now to visualize how you want your life to look in the winter months.
Investing in a specifically designed light source might help alleviate the exhaustion and drowsiness that autumn and winter can bring.
If you can’t get a sun lamp, try to get some sunshine exposure in the winter. Even a few minutes every day improves your circadian rhythm and enhances your D-vitamin intake.
5. Clean the house
It’s so incredibly refreshing to deep clean your house. It feels like a new reset. Then why should we only do a spring cleaning? If anything, that’s what we need before winter.
Put things away that you won’t need until next summer, such as clothes, hobby equipment, and textiles.
Then, set aside a week to deep clean the areas that are frequently ignored. Here is a great example of what that can look like.
It might be difficult to say goodbye to a season, but organizing your belongings and completing a thorough cleaning will help you mentally prepare for the winter.
6. Start a new project or hobby
If you even wanted to pick up the guitar, knitting, or chess, now is the time. The winter lends you plenitude of time to develop your skills.
Finding enjoyable things to do gets easier when you have a new pastime to totally immerse yourself in.
Having hobbies is one of the self-care strategies that can help you maintain a positive attitude.
7. Romantizice and embrace the period
Work with, not against. Welcome it, don’t resist it.
Try to soak up as much of this season as possible. Plan your days to accomplish more of the activities that this season reminds you of. Eat seasonal foods, design your home in fall or winter hues, wear warmly, read and watch your favorite movies, sip herbal teas and hot chocolate, go for walks in the woods, and gather chestnuts.
Focusing on the positive aspects of this time will make it simpler to enjoy it. More importantly, it will create great memories for the following year, making it simpler to enjoy the season again.
What tools do you use to ease the transition of seasons? Are there any you would like to add to the list? Comment down below! 🙂
