As the weather continues to shift, I’m having more conversations about coping with the change of season. Especially, I’m having conversations about how as it gets colder and darker, our routines of care and connection can be thrown off. For example, you might be one of many people who used to go for a morning run or bikeride but who are now finding it too chilly to do so. Maybe you used to walk your dog at night after the kids were in bed but it’s too dark now. Or, maybe you used to get your social connection by hanging out with friends at the lake but now that’s just not happening anymore. You might be one of many people who’s missing out on time in connection with your body, with nature, and with others.

So, what to do? I think we can take a moment to notice these changes and the effect they have on our mood. These are especially profound for anyone already dealing with a mood disorder like anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder. Then, we can ask ourselves how else we might be able to go about fulfilling these needs, even imperfectly.

Time in connection with your body:
 •    Massage lotion into your body
 •    Stretch every morning
 •    Have a dance party in your living room
 •    Go for a nature walk
 •    Listen to your discomfort and name it
 •    Use your breath to bring your attention inward
 •    Use mindfulness to notice your body’s needs (and meet them)

Time in connection with nature:
 •    Look outside and notice one thing that you like
 •    Open a window and smell the air
 •    Open the door and take 5 breaths (yes, chilly breaths!)
 •    Walk around the block
 •    Play in the backyard with your animal
 •    Sit on your balcony and drink coffee
 •    Collect leaves and bring them into your home
 •    Water indoor plants

Connection with others:
 •    Write handwritten letters or cards
 •    Read the same book as a friend or family member and share your thoughts
 •    Play a game together or share a drink over video
 •    Go sledding, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, snowboarding, or skating
 •    Go for a physically distanced walk in nature
 •    Sit around a firepit together and have some hot chocolate

Photo credit: Mateusz Salaciak on Pexels

Over the years I’ve worked with a number of people trying to make hard decisions, and these hard decisions usually boil down to this: “should I stay or should I go?” What people struggle with most is knowing whether the situation they’re in (a workplace, a relationship, etc) is one that will get better by working on or not. I watch people struggle for months and sometimes years, caught up in the distress of trying to make a decision that’s best for them.

It’s not uncommon in my therapy office to talk about social media. Specifically, I’ve been having a lot of conversations about wanting to not be on social media but having a hard time stopping.
 
When people bring up the topic of their social media use, it’s usually said with a bit of a guilty look, and can come across as a shrug off comment. “I really shouldn’t be using my phone so much,” they might say in an off-hand way. But, since people are paying me money to notice things, I don’t just shrug it off. Instead, I invite them to talk about it. So many of my clients are finding that they’re on social media more than they actually want to be, and that it’s causing upset in their lives. These are some of the things we’ve been talking about in those conversations.