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Happiness, excitement and anticipation are cycles. In order to experience them again to their full, you must allow them to fade for awhile. Trying to hold onto them for too long is causing you more grief than the actual lack of them in the moment.
Take a moment to breathe, and appreciate where you are, what you have, and who you've shared it with, before you rush onward.
I just like sleeping until 10 every day.
V nice
Buddhism in essence
You could do what they do in colder places and buy brightly colored stuff for your place. It’ll still be dark outside but at least the inside will look cheerier.
You could also try planning some beginning of the year parties with friends. That would certainly give you events to look forward to.
It's not the best strategy, but if your holiday season is just a giant mess of chaos and stress the return to a normal schedule can be very welcome.
Yeah I was going to say, soulless drudgery sounds like a release at this point.
We’re past the winter solstice. Take note of the sun setting a bit earlier each day. That always gives me a boost because I can look at my phone and see that condition improving. Good luck!
You mean setting later each day?
It’s getting lighter in the evenings already!
Ha! Dumbass mistyping. Thanks, you're right.
Don't take down your Christmas lights (inside at least). Make hot chocolate at home, create rituals for yourself
I don't know where you're at, but I take a weekly trip to a greenhouse. I'm not a plant person unless they're plastic, but it really does give a nice vitamin D boost and the smells are usually amazing. Take a stroll, many of them have benches where you can sit and contemplate. Mine even does a Sunday yoga class that you can watch or join. It gets me through the doldrums.
I moved to Edmonton, AB from the US South and holy crap, the darkness is unreal. Even the locals struggle with this pitch-black 4pm nonsense.
That said, the city has a lot of focus on indoor spaces that really saves it. I used to go to West Ed mall just to walk around somewhere without a coat for free, you know?
The real gem of the city is the Muttart Conservatory though - and a year-long pass is like $30?? For an indoor rainforest??
Makes it worth living in the winter.
Trips to greenhouses and conservatories are a great idea for a good number of reasons. However, don't read the rest of this if you don't want any spoilers.
spoiler
Greenhouses, in general, may not be a very reliable way to get a nice vitamin D boost. I'll spare you the details, but most of the covering materials specifically developed for greenhouse use will significantly reduce or outright block UV light. You may still get some limited UV exposure, but you wouldn't want to go into that situation with the expectation of getting a nice boost in vitamin D from it.
ABP…. Means, Always Be Planning.
Plan for the next vacation, and do it before the end of the current one. I don’t mean just talk about it. Set some plans, put down deposits, whatever.
This method works well for me. Having something to look forward to is always a good thing. I try to schedule some kind of small trip or event every month.
Celebrating the quarter and cross quarter days can work for atheists, science fans and Pagans alike. You get a holiday every month and a half. You can simply celebrate the changing of seasons/Earth's relative position to the Sun or get all magick with it, as you like. The quarter days are the solstices and equinoxes, the cross quarter days are the points in between. Halloween (Samhain) and May Day (Beltane) are the famous cross quarter days, but they happen in winter (Imbolc, Feb 1- also known as Groundhog Day) and summer (Lammas/Lunasa, Aug1).
Re:depression/ing
Highly recommend bright light therapy the moment you wake up or at the desired wakeup time. I can't imagine what it must be like for those unaware of these things, the darkness would have me on the brink
Imma do a second "dose" right now, the alternative reality makes me shudder
Adding onto this, I recommend a sunrise alarm. I wake up at 5 am every morning and it makes the transition from sleep much jarring.
I wear a sleep mask so it never really helped me all that much even though I have one and experimented with it. I'll never dispose of it but it more or less collects dust
Interesting! Do you find the mask makes a big difference? I just read about them and was giving it some thought.
Hell ya. Can't sleep without it
The holidays are a drain and I'm grateful they're over with. We've got better things we could be doing.
This is me as well. The stress of the holidays brings me to the brink of collapse until I get to go back to normalcy again. I hate December.
Organize events with friends. Half or our weekends are books with 5 to 10 people coming home. We play boardgame and eat far to much cheese.
I double down and use it as a time for reflection and self improvement. There’s nothing else going on so I might as well work out a little bit more and focus on projects that I want to accomplish. My wife and I use it to plan things for ourselves that we normally wouldn’t have to time to do during the rest of the year because of friend/family obligations. We also tend to get really into documentaries and stuff around this time, especially unexplained mysteries/true crime. There’s something about the winter that seems more liminal to us than Halloween.
Started doing this 50% in 2022, really leaned into it in 2023, and am actually looking forward to it this year.
Go to Australia . Failing that, take Vitamin D
Thanks for reminder
Look up the cultural practice / philosophy of “hygge” it’s basically meant to answer this (but extends beyond just winter months too).
We often take a small vacation about January and go someplace warm.
I am not a morning person, but force myself to get up and go to work at 7 to maximize my daylight hours.
I have also found that bright lights help. The light bulbs in our house are bright. At work I have a lamp on my desk with three led bulbs (3 bulb adapter and slightly bigger shade). I got the idea from a podcaster that has 2 lamps on his desk for winter.
Can i interest you in rugby. The six nations starts on Feb 2nd. It's a godsend in an otherwise grim time of year.
Go blackout drunk for 347 days straight and voila, it's Christmas again!
Have you tried No Undies Mondays?
No, but I kind of wanna now.
Everybodys doin it
If you live somewhere with a good variety of different cultures, most of them probably have an association of some kind, which often host events that let them share their holidays and traditions with the larger population. Try to track down their local event calendars and show up whenever you can. I live in a medium sized city with decent sized Hispanic, Indian, Vietnamese, and Native American populations, and between the lot of them there's ALWAYS something going on - and for me personally, 99% of it is stuff I've never even heard of, so it's a completely new experience every time (vs trying to drag out the more familiar holiday feels by leaving the xmas lights up until March lol).
Lol you are absolutely right! Some Indians have a major holiday coming up in 15 days. It is based on rice harvest. Its a whole shebang for 3 days.
I look forward to this part of the year because it's when winter sports begin. I don't know if you're somewhere you can take advantage of the weather and ski/curl/skate. If you are, do it. It's a blast.
My friend's family throws a Groundhog Day party every year
Just don't invite Bill Murray
Make your own holiday, see a therapist, find a new hobby or something you enjoy watching other than sports, read a book? Just a few ideas.
Figure out a new hobby or skill to learn.
Besides everything else, Martin Luther King gave us a sorely-needed January holiday. If you want to do it right, make plans to do something selfless that day. It might even lead to you continuing to do that thing or work with that group, and exercise those human kindness muscles, developing the content of your character. Or it might just be the once, and that's okay. Or maybe the best you can muster is to raise a glass and thank Martin for the 3-day weekend. It's still something to get your head past this slump. By Groundhog Day you'll be seeing that little bit more daylight that brings hope.
Going on a trip in February/March somewhere warm and sunny helps a fuck ton. It's honestly worth the few grand to go to an all inclusive resort and have nothing to think about and have all your needs met while you take a dip in the sea.
That or cannabis. I've started taking CBD+THC oils before bed and it helps mellow me out and stabilize me.
