With Christmas over, winter starts to look bleak. No more bright lights to admire, nor Christmas songs to sing along to. The days are short as darkness falls early. People around us are coughing and blowing their noses. Winter can be difficult for many of us.
So how can we get through these cold months whilst remaining positive and productive? The key is in the little things we do:
1. Sunlight
Sunlight brings us happiness! Most people would agree, dreaming of long holidays on the beach in a country full of sunshine. But the reality for those living further away from the equator, is that there is just less sunshine in the winter months. Shorter days mean we have less exposure to the Sun and this has an affect on humans.
Why?
Sunlight enters the eye and triggers a response: the brain produces serotonin. Serotonin is a hormone that is linked to depression when there are low levels of it in our body. In winter months there are less daylight hours and because the weather is usually cold and wet, people are more likely to stay inside. The result? Lower levels of serotonin and more cases of seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
In order to look after yourself and maintain your wellbeing, you need to make a more conscious effort of exposing yourself to more sunlight. Here are a few ideas:
- Throw open the curtains in the morning, even if it’s barely light outside
- Bundle up and go for a walk
- Don’t wear sunglasses for 10-15 minutes of the walk as this can block critical light from entering your eye
- Sit by the window and work or read – as long as light is entering your eyes it doesn’t matter if you are inside or outside
Sunlight also triggers the production of vitamin D but we will talk about that next.
2. Diet
Winter is that wonderful time of year where people get sick and then spread it to everyone around them. Eating the right foods is hugely important for our health and maintaining a well-functioning immune system. A varied diet that includes fruit and vegetables should provide all the vitamins and minerals we need and so it is important to eat well.
The exception to this is vitamin D. Whilst we can get this from food sources such as oily fish e.g. tuna and salmon, egg yolks and red meat, we typically need more vitamin D than our diets provide. On average, our diet provides us with 2μg of vitamin D a day when we actually need 10μg per day. This links back to the previous section of the importance of sunlight because our skin is quite amazing – expose it to sunlight and it can produce vitamin D.
Vitamin D is well-known for contributing to healthy bones and teeth, but did you know it also helps keep muscles healthy and is a modulator in the immune system? So ensuring you have enough vitamin D is important for a healthy immune system. If you are not getting enough sunlight, consider taking vitamin D supplements.
Winter is not a great time to eat a healthy and varied diet when stores are full to the brim with chocolates and cakes. So make a conscious effort to plan meals ahead of time and then, when you get to the store with a list (written on a pretty shopping list pad of course!), go to the fruit and veg aisle first. If you’ve got a budget and have spent most of it on the healthy and necessary items, maybe you won’t be as inclined to buy quite as many chocolate Santas and selection boxes that are in the clearance section.
Good luck!
3. Exercise
This is a tricky one. I don’t know about you but in winter I want to curl up in a blanket and read. The last thing I want to do is step outside into the cold and go to the gym or run around a field. No thank you!
But it is important to exercise. Why? There are a myriad of health benefits to exercising, relating to anything from heart health to reducing the risk of developing dementia. But our focus today is how exercise helps you in winter and whilst maintaining some level of muscle mass and fitness levels is extremely important, I want to draw your attention to the effect it has your mental health.
Winter can be a genuine struggle for some people. I have kept this article quite light-hearted but it is important to understand that seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a form of depression, is pervasive throughout the winter months. Having the resilience to continue with your life as you would normally can be difficult, but it is important to try and put into place some actions to try and combat SAD, keep it from affecting your everyday life.
One of these actions is exercise. Exercise is described as a natural mood booster because it triggers the release of serotonin and endorphins. This leads to a reduction in stress and anxiety, whilst also regulating and enhancing mood. There are lots of different ways to exercise, from walking to HIIT (high intensity interval training) so pick something that you are likely to stick to. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Walking
- Throw on some headphones and listen to music or an audiobook
- Invite someone else for a walk, you are less likely to back out then
- Join a gym
- Some people are motivated by the fact that they have paid for it so to not go means they have wasted their money
- Some gyms have the option of inviting a guest a few times a month
- At home
- YouTube has plenty of exercise videos that require little to no equipment
- Paid exercise programmes also give you high quality workouts that you can do in the comfort of your own home
Here is a website that is great for people who do not know where to start on their exercise journey:
4. Nostalgia
According to the dictionary, nostalgia is a ‘wistful affection for a period in the past’. There is a growing body of evidence that nostalgia can be utilised to increase psychological health, with people describing their life as having more meaning when their past can be more strongly linked to the present.
So how can we utilise our nostalgia?
Throw your mind back to your younger years and think about the films you enjoyed watching, the music you listened to and the books you read with wonder and excitement. Make a list if you want (I love lists, in case you hadn’t noticed). Make time to revisit these things, for example:
- Snuggle into a blanket and rewatch a Disney movie from your childhood
- Put on an 80s music playlist whilst doing household chores
- Read a book you remember enjoying as a child or teenager
- You could browse charity or book shops to find them, or buy them as eBooks
It is worth noting that utilising nostalgia is not for everyone because people may see the past through rose-tinted glasses and it can cause the present to be seen negatively, potentially leading to feelings of bitterness.
5. Sing
More evidence is coming to light about the benefits of singing to people’s health and wellbeing. And the great thing is, you can stay indoors to sing – no going out into the cold!
Singing releases ‘happy’ hormones, namely serotonin, endorphins and dopamine. Five minutes every day can boost your mood, improve mental alertness and increase your lung capacity whilst also engaging your intercostal (rib) muscles.
Michael Mosley discusses the benefits of singing in his book: Just One Thing.
If you want to really commit, you could join a local choir. This can not only reduce blood pressure, anxiety and feelings of loneliness, but singing in a group for one hour a week has been observed to boost your immune system. By this we mean people who sang had higher levels of immunoglobulin A in them, an antibody involved in the immune system’s first line of defence.
So make yourself a playlist or find a choir, and sing!
The Key Point
You will notice that these activities all relate to either releasing ‘happy’ hormones or maintaining good immune system function, which is the key to staying as physically and as mentally healthy as you possibly can during the cold winter months. It takes more effort to do than during the summer months, but it is worth doing.
What To Do Next
I would advise against trying to do everything in one go. But you could definitely get a good head start by doing the following steps:
- Grab your phone, open a streaming app and choose a high energy song
- Bonus points if it’s a nostalgic song for you
- Sing along whilst you prepare to go on a walk (wrap up warm in the winter)
- Go for a walk
- 10-15 minutes is a great starting point
- Whilst walking think about what you could easily implement from this list of ways to look after yourself, in particular:
- Are there any healthy meals you already know how to cook? How can you increase the amount of sunlight you get? Do you want to join a choir or would you rather sing at home?
- What childhood movie or book would make you feel happy if you rewatched it?
If you’re finding any of it hard, try to add a social element to it i.e. invite a friend. But the important thing to remember is to try and have fun with it!
