Winter blues.

[Woody girl]

Does anyone suffer from winter blues?
I usualy get a bit fed up around Xmas and new year, longing for the warmer weather to arrive.
This year has started early, I'm already feeling it. The weather has been dank dark and wet for days, I can't get on with things I want to in the garden as its so slippery being a clay slope. So the rest of the winterising will have to wait for a dry spell.
Feeling lethargic, and despite trying to go out more to various things, coffee mornings and knit and natter are not appealing to me. The new monthly open Mike night was full of pretentious t**ts all showcasing their new rather pretentious (boring) songs, or showing off about having played with David Bowie, or Elton John, which is "offhandedly" mentioned at the beginning of their set.
So what.!( I'm thinking,) I roadied with the Larry miller band in the late 70s, but I don't need to mention it.grrrr! Maybe I'm getting old,
I'm bored and grumpy!
Feeling stuck.
I do go out each day for a few hours, wander around the river bank etc, but I'm not feeling it somehow.
How do you buck yourself up when feeling low?

 

[Broch]

I know what you mean; I can find myself slipping into feeling low. I find planning helps rather than just letting the days go by without feeling you've achieved anything. What I mean by that is, plan to spend all day sitting by the fire, drinking tea, and reading a new book (a happy one, don't allow anyone else's melancholy into your life). Or plan tomorrow afternoon is watching old episodes of Morcombe and Wise (again, no sad or disturbing 'entertainment', all uplifting stuff that makes you laugh).

Keep getting out whenever it's not pouring, take delight in the little things like a wren telling you off. Keep it bright in the house, letting in as much light as possible and having lights on whenever it's dull.

And, however you feel about those idiots in the village, keep up the social intercourse and chuckle to yourself about their antics.

Above all, smile to yourself.

 

[Harold Godwinson]

Woody girl totally with you on this one, doesn't help the weather we are having down here either.

Look on the bright side, I work nights so this time of year I get up in the dark, come home in the dark and don't see daylight for days at a time

 

[Chris]

I certainly used to. I've found since getting out in the winter and enjoying the differences in the seasons more, I have found my mood drastically improve. No flying bitey things, less sweaty, fewer of the fair weather campers out leaving disposable BBQs and litter all about the place.

Spending time making areas of my home extra cosy with incense and nice lighting and warm jumpers/blankets. Lots of tea. Much less alcohol than I used to consume, though still enjoying a bit. 8 pints of Guinness lasting me a week rather than a day, or just an occasional dram with a book.

Changing my perspective on rain helped. Every time it rained I started going out in it deliberately in a waterproof jacket and taking a minute to sit there and really think about what I would miss about the sight/sound/feel/smell of rain if I was told this was the last time I'd ever get to experience it. What would I really choose to appreciate about it and which feelings would I try to absorb the most in that moment with this last opportunity?

Sometimes just acknowledging that it's a bad day and I feel pants and miserable and down. It's not the first time and it won't be the last, but every bad day I've had has always had a better day follow it eventually.

 

[Toddy]

Does anyone suffer from winter blues?
I usualy get a bit fed up around Xmas and new year, longing for the warmer weather to arrive.
This year has started early, I'm already feeling it. The weather has been dank dark and wet for days, I can't get on with things I want to in the garden as its so slippery being a clay slope. So the rest of the winterising will have to wait for a dry spell.
Feeling lethargic, and despite trying to go out more to various things, coffee mornings and knit and natter are not appealing to me. The new monthly open Mike night was full of pretentious t**ts all showcasing their new rather pretentious (boring) songs, or showing off about having played with David Bowie, or Elton John, which is "offhandedly" mentioned at the beginning of their set.
So what.!( I'm thinking,) I roadied with the Larry miller band in the late 70s, but I don't need to mention it.grrrr! Maybe I'm getting old,
I'm bored and grumpy!
Feeling stuck.
I do go out each day for a few hours, wander around the river bank etc, but I'm not feeling it somehow.
How do you buck yourself up when feeling low?

Boost your VitD. Seriously, it helps. Our govt encourages us all to take it up here. Everyone over the age of five.

I don't get down, I do get lethargic. Don't quite hibernate, but it'd be easy to curl up and do not a lot.

We used to be able to buy sunny yellow warm full spectrum daylight bulbs. Now they're horrid things, all blue /grey and dull. The old lights were horticultural ones, I think the nearest thing might be the ones meant for reptiles
I think low energy requirements for lighting, and that they might be used for growing unlicenced crops, put the kybosh on those lovely lights.

I hope you perk up soon, it's not like you to be down for long.

M

 

[Keith_Beef]

No flying bitey things, less sweaty, fewer of the fair weather campers out leaving disposable BBQs and litter all about the place.

These are very real benefits to getting outdoors in the autumn and winter.

 

[Maxsdad]

I agree with Harold. I find it very easy to sit in front of my phone for 'another 30 minutes' which then ends up half the morning. Gets to 4pm ?(darkness in my area) and get all annoyed with myself for wasting the day! Need to find a way of ignoring the phone for a few hours and getting on with stuff !!

 

[Keith_Beef]

I think low energy requirements for lighting, and that they might be used for growing unlicenced crops, put the kybosh on those lovely lights.

I'm sure that you can still get daylight simulation bulbs fairly really easily. I bought two a few years ago to use when I'm doing leatherwork, and I bought some grow-lights for propagating basil cuttings.

They are sold under a variety of names such as Full Spectrum Light Bulbs and 6000K Natural Sunlight Bulbs.

 

[Toddy]

The full spectrum bulbs sold for craftwork here are awful. They're anything but 'sunny'.
The natural sunlight bulbs sound right though. I know the ones I had were like sitting outside in a sunny morning, and they were warm. Really nice in the lamp at my desk.
I was told at the garden centre that they had had problems getting the bulbs because they were being used to grow cannabis in houses. but that some of the lights for vivariums for lizards and snakes might do.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Personally I don't suffer from the winter blues. When I had dogs, it was the best time of year & even now, it's the time I do all the things that need to be done in the house & garden................In the summer I tend to go into semi-estivation & try to avoid doing anything that raises a sweat, which is everything during the increasingly occuring heatwaves.
Being a little further south, there can be some nice days during winter & even the january sun can have a little warmth to it out of the wind & then spring gets into first gear in february, so winters don't, in general, seem that long.

 

[TLM]

No problem with winter but this soggy wet dark autumn gets to one's nerves. Though there is less actual light later the snow on ground makes things easier to see with the little there is.

 

[Chris]

I don’t know if they work for everyone, but I have heard from a few people that they’ve had some success with those SAD sunrise alarm clocks during winter. They gradually bring your room up to a natural lighting like the sunrise would.

I think Lumie and Philips are the well known ones, but I expect you can find much cheaper ones these days that do the trick.

 

[Broch]

The colour temperature of sunlight changes from 2000K at dawn and dusk to around 5500K at midday. 5500K is actually quite 'white' and may look garish but it is accurate for midday sun in summer. As long as the sun is lower on the horizon it will appear warmer.

Many 'daylight' bulbs are 6500K or even 7000K and are too white. So choose your desired ambience bulbs by the quoted temperature not whether it says 'daylight' or not

 

[Herman30]

No, no blues here. It´s fantastic when it gets dark early. There is a little boy inside me that still likes to play with flashlights.
About a month or so from now we should get the first snow, then it gets light again.

 

[Keith_Beef]

lights for vivariums for lizards and snakes

These are often very red and pump out a lot of infra-red to keep the beasties warm plus UVA and UVB that they use.

UVA is visible to them and having UVA lamps on at regular intervals apparently helps them to regulate their waking and sleeping cycles; UVB is necessary for vitamin D synthesis in the reptile's liver, which is then used in calcium uptake.
On red-light therapy articles in Teh Economist:

Google Search

 

[Pupers]

No blues in these ere parts, I have a working English Springer and we are out three or four times a week Beating, Dartmoor to hike with hardly anyone around, quiet beaches to visit with the dog, plus all the usual domestic admin.

Certainly not saying I prefer winter to Spring or summer, but it most definitely doesn’t get me down.

 

[Broch]

You can never be glum with an ESS

 

[Falstaff]

Give yourself a challenge and a timescale to achieve it in.
Might be something new like a new skill, or making something new you haven't tried or made before. Maybe a list of all those jobs or changes that never got down or were just ideas, with a challenge to do one or more of them by a given date or time.
A plan to redecorate say, a room - then find ways how to do it for less, then do it. (e.g. Many council waste disposal sites sell cheap parts tins of paint, ditto there are recycle sites, FB market place, carpet offcuts etc etc)
A forward diary list/plan for better weather camping/events?
Toddy was right about the Vit D, you need Zinc (nuts or pills) to help absorb it, and /or Vit K2. A recent Telegraph article -several old age consultant doctors were taking it to stave off dementia and all the other aged ills.

 

[Glow_worm]

I enjoy all the seasons but I do suffer from moons. Sounds mad and might not add much to the thread but bear with me.

It begins a week before every full moon and ends on the day of the full moon. A little before moonrise I will be hit with a wave of depression and often exhaustion which will last the rest of the day. I lose ambition, creativity and self esteem. It's a real effort to ignore it and carry on, and I tend to just take it easy and do something enjoyable in the evenings even if it isn't as enjoyable as it should be. My health often dips a bit too, I might end up with a sniffle for a few days, or even a week or more of poorer health. Sleep is a bit poorer and I often go for a wander outdoors and just enjoy it.

It would be a worrying experience if there was no reason behind it, suddenly losing all motivation. But it isn't so bad because I understand something uncontrollable is causing it, although it often catches me out on the first day when I forget where we are in the cycle. Perhaps I need to buy a big old moon phase grandfather clock!

I've been recording this for years and it happens without fail every lunar cycle. Sometimes I can power through and continue whatever projects I am up to in the evenings, other times I just need to rest with an audiobook.

 

[demented dale]

I find it is good not to have any value attachment to weather or darkness. It is also good to just go with the flow, accept what is and get into it. I am glad this subject came up because it just made me realise how happy I am with anything. It wasnt always that way. I used to get fed up in winter. Now I love it and the colder the better. I couldn't practice my archery as much in winter so I got some advice on here and fitted my bow with a killer torch and now I go out at midnight.
My experience has been that if I sit in a dark place for long enough I isolate physically, mentally and spiritually. I was grateful to recognise what was going on and to have the ability to ask others and then get into the solution before it gets out of hand.
I also think that in a tribal setting which is our natural place the winter would have been a gregarious time of communal fires, story telling, socialising and feasting . I spend almost the entire winter alone in the woods. Thankfully I like myself and am pretty good company these days although it took many years to get there. . There are many folk on here who are always good for a chat if we are struggling a bit. I am one of them. DD xxxxxx