Does the cold weather dampen your mood?
Do you struggle to remain happy during the winter season?
Well, you are not alone.
Fourteen percent of the adult US population, experience feelings of sadness and unhappiness during the cold and dark winter days.
Apart from the horrible cold, winter can significantly affect our mood and mental health making us feel gloomy, sad, overwhelmed, or irritated.
Additionally, winter blues can lead to Seasonal Affective Disorder. SAD is a type of a major depressive disorder that tends to affect many people during the winter season. Symptoms of SAD are similar to those of depression.
Regardless of what you usually go through during the winter, there are things you can do to brighten your mood. Having said that, this article will give you self-care tips on how to be happy during the winter.
10 Self-Care Tips to Be Happy During the Winter
1 – Expose Yourself to Sunlight
Lack of exposure to natural light can increase your chances of acquiring Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD. Therefore, it is advisable that you spare some time to bask in the sun.
Sunlight not only boosts your mood, but it also elevates your levels of Vitamin D.
If you tend to spend more time indoors, it is important that you keep your blinds open. This helps to ensure that natural light gets into your house, thus preventing the darkness associated with winter months.
2 – Exercise
Winter blues can make you feel like the bed is the best place to be. Nonetheless, keeping yourself active can cultivate happiness during the winter.
With that in mind, it is important that you take a walk around your neighborhood, visit the gym, or engage in your preferred exercise.
Exercising tends to boost the feel good hormone.
Additionally, exercising can ease depressive symptoms, keep you motivated and enhance your sleep patterns.
Here are more tips on how exercise can increase your feelings of happiness.
3 – Write in a Journal
Feelings of sadness or irritation can prevent you from focusing on what is going on in your life.
Therefore, it is important that you practice journaling. Journaling helps you identify and write down things you feel grateful for.
Additionally, you can jot down things that you like about yourself, which are also referred to as positive affirmations. What’s more, writing down things you look forward to is another great way of coping with negative thoughts and emotions.
Here are more tips on how journaling can increase your feelings of happiness.
4 – Meditate
If you are still wondering how to be happy during the winter, you can practice meditation. With that in mind, meditation helps to calm down your mind.
Meditation is a great tool for easing feelings of depression and anxiety associated with winter blues.
In essence, meditation enables you to refocus your attention and change negative thought patterns.
Here are more tips on how meditating can increase your feelings of happiness.
5 – Look for Company
During the winter we tend to stay indoors and isolate ourselves. Remember to engage in real life relationships.
Engage with people who:
- listen
- care
- help your self-esteem
- show empathy
- motivate you to be the best version of yourself
- distract you from your stressors
- have a sense of humor
- make you feel good
Limit the amount of time spent with people who criticize you or create conflict.
6 – Practice gratitude
Practicing gratitude can help minimize stress, depressive symptoms, and boost your energy levels during the winter.
Additionally, gratitude allows you to pay attention to the positives rather than the negatives.
With that in mind, it is important that you jot down things you are grateful about. This can have significant effects when done everyday of the winter season.
Here are more tips on how practicing gratitude can make you happy.
7 – Take Care of Yourself
How to be happy during the winter months includes avoid unhealthy habits such as overeating or alcoholic drinks.
Consuming healthy food and using alcohol in moderation, if you must, will certainly have significant positive effects on your mood.
Additionally, it is important that you get at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep.
Adequate sleep helps to ensure that you have enough energy to cope with the stress and demands of the cold weather.
Are there any winter accessories that would help you enjoy the winter? May be a new scarf, gloves, or a hat.
Spend some time in a sauna or steam room.
8 – Enjoy Winter Specific Activities
You can boost your happiness by engaging in activities that are more enjoyable in the winter such as:
- Cooking hearty soups and hot meals
- Baking cookies and bread
- Try new hot drinks such as herbal teas.
- Enjoy winter sports such as sledding, skiing, snowball fighting.
Make a list of your favorite winter activities that will cheer you up when you feet and hands are cold.
9 – Go on a Vacation
Winter months are a great time to explore the world.
Consequently, be sure to take advantage of the winter month by going on a vacation to a sunny destination.
Taking a vacation is a great way of fighting winter blues.
10 – Listen to Music
What is your best music genre? Well, regardless of whether you like soft or hard music, music can uplift your mood during the winter months. Music can help you fight symptoms of depression, or SAD.
So, be sure to listen to upbeat music the next time winter blues weigh you down.
Here are more tips on how listening to music can make you happy.
Now, it’s up to you to use any or all of these self-care tips to feel happy during the winter.
What do you do to feel happy during the winter?
Please let me know in the comments below.
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I love exercising in the winter. I feel sometimes its when my feels best and when I’m at my best, I am pretty happy. Thanks for this great article!
Exercise is the number one winter blues beater for me. Nothing else compares!
These are amazing tips for sure! Well especially because i live in Canada. Thanks a lot for the tips.
I get so depressed during the winter months. Listening to music as I write in my journal helps a lot! Thanks for these great tips!
I know of many people who get depressed during winter months. Great tips on how to overcome depression. As for me, I live a country that doesn’t have winter months.
I usually try to go away to somewhere warm for at least a month during the winter time, to get my dose of Vitamin D. I don’t like cold weather at all so I do suffer during winter time.
This is perfect.. Just what I needed to spark up my winter. This weather always gets me down.
Winter is always a struggle for me – I live in Canada where it’s very dark for the winter months. Thanks for these useful tips, I’m going to give them all a try in the coming months.
I’m not gonna lie, I feel that too and it’s good to exercise everyday.
I needed this post so much! I always have so hard time this time of the year.
Laura
I’ve heard news before that there’s a lot of people who suicide in colder countries. I hope that’s not true but you offered these very useful advices.
I SO AGREE WITH SUNLIGHT…AND ALL THE HIKES YOU CAN DO…JUST BUNDLE UP!
YES! This is a great list. We actually use an indoor ‘sun’ light to make sure we feel better.
These are great tips. It’s easy to suffer from the winter blues if you don’t take care of yourself. Going for long walks and getting some sunshine really helps.
thanks for a great article, it’s too easy to get too busy and forget all about self care, but now I feel motivated to look after myself and others.
Excellent article. Winter can be a very difficult time of year for lots of people, can’t it? I think music is one of the best therapies.
I like to meditate and do some exercises on winter. But to be honest… I’m a island girl… I hate winter. I’m always cold,my skin get super dry and I always have bone pain… But I LOVE the fashion tho.
These are fantastic tips! I know that I always get a little down during the winter months but going for a walk in the brisk air and chatting with people always helps me feel better!
I can understand the depression people have when they go through extreme cold weather. These are real good ways to cheer up.
I am very much one of those people who don’t enjoy winter and reliably hit the doldrums by the first week of February. These are all really great tips to help prevent that — I’m looking into light therapy for this year.
There are some really good tips here for sure. I like the sound of zoning out and meditating for sure xx
I like these tips. Going on a short vacation has always been my favourite way to practice Self-Care.