What the winter months in the Northern Hemisphere results in, are fewer hours of daylight and cold weather turning into chilly nights. Even the most brilliant of optimistic people feel the chills and the blues. This is a natural unavoidable phenomenon.
In clinical terms, it’s defined as seasonal affective disorder or SAD. It’s an actual mood disorder where those who enjoys normal mental health, begins to experience actual depressive symptoms, this during the cold winter months. Some symptoms include sleep issues, overeating, lethargy, difficulty concentrating.
There are ways however, on how to naturally lift ones spirits, which eases the doldrums.
9. Remain As Sociable As Possible
The biggest known pick me up to elevate mood during the bitter winter months, is to just have fun. Enjoy the brilliance that is snow, by enjoying all the winter activities this time of year with friends and family, as there are a variety of events that can fill your day.
The key is to remain connected with the outside world and keep active, which is guaranteed to melt away the chills. What’s known is that relationships and happiness are closely connected, so get together and fight off the winter blues together.
Socializing is the proven cure for bettering mental health, so make all efforts to connect and keep in touch with people that you care about. So accept all the invitations that you get for social events, and have fun.
8. Snack On Mood Boosting Food
What’s specifically recommended is consuming “dark” chocolate, which is a tasty yet excellent way to boost ones mood, this when feeling down because of the weather conditions out there.
What having a few chunks of specifically dark chocolate, can do is make you feel better because of its high antioxidant content. What antioxidants will do, is increase serotonin levels in the brain. Other beneficial foods and snacks include fresh fruit, leafy green vegetables, mushrooms, various nuts, and bananas.
The good news is that most of these natural mood boosting foods, are easily available and convenient. Make sure you avoid the easy sugary junk foods and soda drinks, and choose to eat natural healthy food instead, to beat the winter blahs.
7. Do Meditation Daily
What’s known is that meditation on a daily basis can fight off SAD. What it does is helps in reducing negative mood, while bringing calm into your life.
What even short spurts of meditation, such as just 10 minutes, does is activates positive emotions, while relaxing the mind and body. What it does is increases the area of the brain that’s associated with happiness.
There are a variety of meditation techniques that can be used. What it promotes is mindfulness, where one will deliberately begin to pay attention to the moment-by-moment unfolding of the immediate environment.
What just short sessions of deep breathing does is offers mood-boosting benefits, which also resets the brain into a contemplative, restful and peaceful state.
