How to: Beat the winter blues

We’ve all been there: when the weather gets dreary, you look out your window to the dullest, greyest sky known to man, and all you want to do is curl back under your duvet and fall into a long hibernation. The weather in winter is cold, boring, and awful. It really ramps up those ‘winter blues’ you hear about – it honestly feels like it isn’t worth leaving your house to trek all the way to university for a recorded lecture. However, we cannot let these winter blues get to us, because these feelings snowball and, before you know it, you’ve become a social and academic hermit (I may have fallen victim to this before!).

I find that sometimes a simple walk can really help to clear the mind when it’s been left to fester in drabness for far too long

So, what can we do to fend off that seasonal dreariness? The most important thing to remember is to focus on what you can do. Don’t beat yourself up over the occasional off day and remind yourself that each little victory is just as significant as each big victory. That being said, all of that typical well-being advice certainly applies when you feel the grey clouds start to weigh on you. Rather than sitting in a low-lit, moody room, make your room feel brighter – even just turning your bedside lamp on, stringing up some extra fairy lights or investing in a sunrise lamp! A little bit more brightness in your day will stop the clouds from fogging up your brain, because that darkness outside feeds into that feeling of stasis and glumness, and pretty quickly you’ll find yourself back in a more content headspace! My personal favourite way to manage the light in these times is to light a candle, turn on all my fairy lights, and whack on my disco sphere (perhaps the coolest light ball I will ever own in my life).

Another tactic to fight the winter worries is annoying but helpful, and it is, in fact, getting outside of the house (especially if you haven’t left it in a while!). It’s boring, it’s cliché, and it helps. I find that sometimes a simple walk can really help to clear the mind when it’s been left to fester in drabness for far too long. But if the weather won’t let you, and let’s be real, it probably won’t, just moving to a new space can do wonders for your headspace and kickstart you out of that motionlessness. Taking your work from your desk to your kitchen, or moving from your room to a friend’s room, changes up your environment without putting you into a distressing, rainy one, and that change could be exactly the thing that you need to feel back with it again.

Even better, find a cosy activity you can do with friends that will not only keep you from the isolating feeling of the gross winter weather, but also make your day feel so much warmer and sweeter

You don’t even necessarily have to move rooms, though. Sometimes, just a little bit of movement itself can jog us back into a good mood. If you’re not one for a full-on at-home workout (and I do not blame you), you can have a little dance party, move some furniture in your room, tidy out some shelves of junk whilst blasting music! Anything that you can do that makes you feel that little bit better – and maybe for those lucky people with a Wii, you could even dust off the old Just Dance and load up a real dance party!

Finding things to do when you’re feeling down with the weather can certainly be difficult, so call up a friend, if that suits, and make some plans to hang out! Whether you want to do something (bowling is a wonderful indoor activity), run errands together, or simply be in each other’s company whilst doing separate activities, the companionship and social aspect are fierce weapons against the winter weather. Even better, find a cosy activity you can do with friends that will not only keep you from the isolating feeling of the gross winter weather, but also make your day feel so much warmer and sweeter.

Hopefully, you’re reading this in some lovely weather, wondering what possible greyness I could even be complaining about. But if you’re unfortunately not, get some light in your life, get up, out and about, and give yourself something to do that will make you feel like you’re already in spring!