How To Beat the Winter Blues

By Alison Keim on January 6, 2014

It’s that time of the year again. The gingerbread cookies are officially stale; you’ve reached the last drops of the eggnog, and the Christmas tree is nestled nicely back in storage until next year. Now that the holiday season has reached it’s end, it leaves a sense of ‘now what’ when taking on the dreary rest of the winter. Each day it seems harder to get out of bed, and when you do, you find yourself feeling groggy, cold, and miserable, resembling much like the weather outside. Here are a few tips I always follow that help me beat the winter blues.

1. No more hitting snooze

It’s almost impossible to hit the snooze button just once, and after you start…well, you find yourself laying in bed until you realize you have to sprint out of the house flustered, smelly, and looking a wreck (causing you to feel like a wreck). Instead, take your phone and place it on the other side of the room for when your alarm goes off. This way you’ll have to physically get out of your bed to turn it off. You will be less likely to go back into your bed and fall back asleep than you would be while lying in your bed. With more time in the morning you can clean yourself up appropriately, have a nice healthy breakfast, and you’ll find yourself feeling happier, healthier, and more prepared for each day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.  Brighten up your living environment 

And I’m not talking about turning up the brightness on your laptop. Waking up to darkness instead of to light is something that instantly sends us throwing the covers over our heads and falling right into a winter slump. The simple solution of opening your blinds throughout your room and receiving as much natural light as possible will stop you from feeling so gloomy from the darkness.

3. Staying Active

We all know it’s important to exercise for staying fit and healthy, but it’s also very important for stress relieving. The effects from a workout last hours throughout the day, leaving you to feel more energized and more likely to make overall healthier and positive choices. However during this time of the year, the hard part isn’t exercising. With the weather being below zero, it makes it more difficult to stay motivated, to want to battle the frigid cold, brush the three inches of snow off our cars, bundle up in four or five layers, and make it to the gym. The simple solution for this is workout at home. There are plenty of online workouts that are just as good (if not better) than machines at the gym. If you’re not into home workouts, once you make it a habit to go to the gym in the miserable weather, you’re more likely to continue, so force yourself the first couple of times and eventually it’ll become routine without a second thought despite the tundra outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Set Goals

Mindlessly re-watching “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” on Netflix can feel very calming and stress relieving, but whether we want to admit it or not, it’s not doing us any good. It’s fine every once and a while to have all day movie marathons, in fact those days are very necessary in life, but on a daily basis it’s important to remember to turn off the television, and get what you need to get done. A great way to be productive is making goals. As you begin to accomplish these goals, you start to feel better about yourself.  You are able to take pride in these achievements and build self confidence, making you feel happier with who you are and the life you live. Working towards goals is great motivation to want to get out of bed on a frigid morning.

5. Be Positive

Being positive is incredibly important in any season, but it is vital in the winter. It’s easy to let the negatives outweigh the positives when your car won’t start, you constantly need to shovel your driveway, or your flight gets delayed from crummy weather. There are countless negatives that come along with winter if you chose to think this way. It’s important to choose to think positively through these situations and think of how great it will feel to slip on a pair of shorts and walk out the door in a few months, to see the flowers blossom, and to experience a new beginning. Remembering to stay positive through the hard times will make all the difference when fighting the winter blues.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format