It's getting colder every day. Winter is surely coming, and according to weather people and conversations around town, this year’s will have no mercy. To most, this means taking advantage of snow days, participating in everything Christmas/Hanukkah, drinking mugs filled to the brim with hot chocolate, and roasting some chestnuts on open fires, all sounding nice. That said, all that comes to mind with the thought of winter is hibernation, frostbite, and Siberian prison. Although cozying up with my pillow pet to watch a Christmas classic sounds good in theory, unfortunately, I despise cheesy movies and don’t even own a pillow pet.
I am an outdoor human, and feel uncomfortable being cooped up in doors. I never know what to do with myself inside. I get bored of TV within the first episode of a new show, prefer to read my books under a tree, and still can't seem to get the hang of napping.
Being a native San Diegan, if the temperature drops below 50 degrees, people where I’m from panic. I obviously took into consideration that moving to Boston was going to be a big change, both culturally and climactically, but I was still not mentally prepared for the extent of the differences. Everyone here seems content with the thought of staying in bed all day, and embraces the winter as time to get cozy. I on the other hand feel stir crazy after watching more than one episode of Netflix in a row and always seek ways to get out of bed.
For me, I feel the coming winter is a death sentence for my restless outdoor spirit, and a signal for a decrease of serotonin in my brain. However after some thought, I’ve realized there are ways to preserve this my mental wellbeing, even when being outside isn’t an option. If you're anything like me, and feel like everyone else's winter wonderland is your version of a frozen hell, know that you're not alone, you don't have to panic; winter doesn’t mean depression.
Last January, in hopes of finding excuses to escape my dorm, I googled things to do during winter. besides the obvious “build a snowman answer”, one sight advised me to go play in a children’s museum, or head to my local indoor boat show. The former was apparently supposed to lift my spirits by helping me find my inner child, and the latter, they promised, would remind me of the good old summer times spent at the lake house. Both options were, unfortunately, not quite what I was looking for.
Instead of collapsing back in bed to rewatch another season of Mad Men, I decided to get creative. Yes, it was pretty close to freezing, and no there wasn’t any snow to build a snowman, but I headed outdoors anyway. I decided to walk around the city and take pictures of some winter wonders. Although my hand near caught frostbite, it was very therapeutic having the sting of wind on your cheek while distracting your conscious by focusing on getting a good angle for a shot.
When I could no longer distract the cold away, I headed to a close coffee shop in search of something warm. I stumbled upon a cozy place and decided to pull my book out. Just the change of setting from my dorm bed to a coffeehouse booth made me all the more willing to pick up my book, and actually pay attention to the words.
Friends helped as well. In finding people just as fed up as I was, we pushed each other to visit to different art museums every weekend, cook each other Sunday brunches, and plan thrift shop excursions. Instead of feeding off of each others negative winter energy, we found ways of turning our indoor frustration into an opportunity try new things.
One low day, miserably sick of everything, I was desperate to get my mind off of feeling penned in. So, to my own amazement, I did a crossword puzzle. With a few friends, we managed to laugh our way through the clues, barely getting ten answers to the tricky puzzle. Although it did make us feel a bit stupid, our minds were intellectually challenged for a few hours, which put us all in much better moods.
I've found the best ways to cure the winter blues involve keeping your brain sharp and stimulated. Instead of vegging out and going into TV hibernation, surrounding myself with positive people, and pushing myself to keep my brain active was enough to make me feel alive.
Right now with fall coming to an end, and everything slowly dying from the temperature change, I recognize that I don't have to be a falling leaf or hibernating bear. In getting creative and consciously working on preserving my mental health, the winter is a time for getting outside of my comfort zone by finding indside ways to keep myself happy.
