winter blues
Alright ladies, I feel like I need to start this post off with a confession: I LOVE winter. It’s my second favorite time of year, right after fall of course, the undisputed champion of seasons. Maybe it’s my Canadian roots or having been denied a proper winter growing up in Southern California, but there’s something about fresh snow that still feels magical to me. I think the timing of winter is a big factor as well. Particularly in the U.S., we have a sequence of holidays that gently ushers us through the changing of seasons. It’s a fun few months of themed activities and celebrating with family and friends, where the shifting weather gives an ambiance to the whole season.
But then on January 2nd, reality hits: you’ve still got months left of freezing temps and impossibly short days before the sweet relief of spring. So what do you do? You bundle up, hunker down, and start counting down the days.
Historically, people are pretty good at adapting to colder temperatures; it’s a physical survival/human instinct thing. But when we click into that “winter endurance mode,” we can’t just turn up the heat and wait it out. What we forget is how to adapt our surroundings to help with our mental survival too. The best fix? Light.
No, seriously! It’s simple but true. Here’s a few ideas on how to best bring a little extra light into those dark and dreary winter months:
Daylight
Our bodies crave sunlight. Be intentional on getting some physical sunshine when the weather permits. It can be as simple as drinking your mid-morning coffee while standing at your sunniest window or perhaps even having it outside in a sunbeam on a more mild day. For me, walking my dogs is a regular (and necessary) part of my routine. Since the days are so short, the sun goes down before the end of my work day, and I end up walking in the dark. So during the winter, I switch my schedule and take my dogs out during my lunch break. My work day ends a little later, but it’s dark anyway, so who cares!
When the sun is out, make sure you’re letting in as much natural light as possible into your living space. Open up those curtains from dawn to dusk, and maybe even swap out that heavy, dark fabric with something a little lighter.
Indoor Lighting
There are numerous studies that show employees work better in a well lit environment (Forbes), so why not apply that same philosophy to your home! Especially with so many of us working from home these days, it’s important to have sufficient indoor lighting in areas where you need to be more productive.
But perhaps even more important than the amount of light in a space, is the temperature of the light. No, not the hot-and-cold kind. Basically, artificial lighting comes in many “shades,” or color temperatures, of white. The higher the color temperature, the cooler and more “blue” the light; the lower the color temperature, the warmer and more "orange" the light. Different color temperatures of light affect your mood in different ways (think bright sunlight on a summer day vs. a single tungsten bulb in a dark basement), so by manipulating the temperature of light in your home, you can trick your brain into feeling brighter and sunnier too! Here’s an article that explains it pretty well. And the best part is, it can be a simple fix of just swapping out a few bulbs.
Now, having artificial sunlight all the time isn’t healthy either, it’s important to still mimic a daytime/nighttime cycle. So for the evenings, having soft, decorative light can create a totally different feel in the same room. I love the delicate twinkle of Christmas lights, they’re one of my favorite parts of the holiday season, so I use them as my secret weapon to get through the rest of those dark winter nights. I’ve got a string along my headboard and another that I leave on my mantle for a few extra months each year to add a soft, calming glow to each room. I also have a few DIY centerpieces leftover from my sister’s wedding that basically consist of fairy lights in a mason jar, which make for lovely decorative lighting pieces on shelves and end tables.
These tricks might not turn you into a full on winter enthusiast, but hopefully they can make your next few months a little bit brighter. Shine on, friends!
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