My tricks for long winters with seasonal depression
❄️vitamin d3, honeys! it’s essentially a sunshine pill and you are a cute little plant that needs to be taken care of *boop*✨🌿🌼
❄️speaking of being a plant, hydrate so you don’t die-drate! I know it’s basic, but so many problems can be fixed with water~ fill up a couple of bottles and bring them to bed with you so you don’t get dehydrated if the executive dysfunction sets in and you have a hard time starting your day~ herbal tea is another great way to get your water, but caffeinated tea will just dehydrate you further! 💦☕️🥥 and if you can, treat yourself to some potassium-rich and super-hydrating coconut water
❄️keep in touch with yourself by writing your moods and feelings in a diary 📖💻📒 (be kind but honest about what’s going on and brainstorm things that might make you happier, like a cleaning project or singing along to a guilty pleasure from middle school)
❄️take st. john’s wort to lift your spirits 🍃🌿 (and it comes as a tea!)~ it can decrease the effectiveness of some prescription medications so do your research first
❄️seek out free or affordable counseling in your community 🏥 (in most US states, you can dial 211 to talk to someone about your local mental health resources, and if you’re low income, have a history of abuse, or struggle with addiction, there are often free alternatives to expensive therapy sessions)~ we can all benefit from having someone to talk to, so don’t wait if you need help! i let my guilt of “taking advantage” of a free program keep me away for years from a service that was made to support people like me.
❄️take ashwagandha to stabilize mood, decrease cortisol (stress hormone) levels, and regulate body temperature~ I have been able to handle anxiety with much more grace and ease ever since I started regularly taking ashwagandha, and it can even boost brain function and improve memory too! 🧠💪🏻😺
❄️adopt a pet project to distract yourself from thinking about the void! some ideas are: collecting collage materials for future art projects, making a hand-written book of your favorite quotes and decorating it with stickers, ridding your closet of clothes you haven’t worn in years, making a list of your top 25 favorite songs, organizing your spice rack by color or your books by genre, or learning how to cook your favorite meal that you usually go out to eat 🥘🍲🍝
❄️protect yourself with immune boosters like elderberry, echinacea, chaga, reishi, and vitamin c~ nothing is worse than feeling physically ill on top of feeling emotionally unwell, so don’t forget to use nature as your armor during cold season! 🌳💪🏻🦠~ if you do start to feel icky, take zinc at the first sign of a cold to shorten its duration (my grandma swears by this, and you gotta trust my cute lil Finnish grandma)
❄️diffuse mood-boosting essential oils~ my favorite blend is grapefruit, orange, bergamot, vanilla, lime, lemon, cinnamon, and ginger 🍋🍊~be careful when diffusing because some essential oils are harmful to pets, particularly tea tree and thyme, but in my experience, citrus oils have been safe (eliminate the cinnamon from my blend to make it dog-friendly)
❄️plan fun winter activities with your friends like art nights, book clubs, mutual binge watching, pizza or taco nights, board game tournaments, D&D campaigns, poetry circles, jam sessions, fort building, or just video game hangouts📚📺🕹try to think of fun *substance free* activities cause there are already plenty of opportunities to booze your way through the season
❄️romanticize winter the same way we do other seasons! 🌨☕️🌬🍂🍜🕯 spring may be budding blossoms and summer may be lakeside sunsets and autumn may be swirling leaves… but winter is cups of cocoa and softly falling snow and colorful scarves and beautiful patterns of frost on your windows and snuggling under 4 blankets and tip-toeing in slippers and hot bowls of soup and guilt-free days of watching cartoons in bed! Remind yourself of the beauty around you, even when things feel bleak or lonely.
Sorry I neglected to post this earlier and I hope these help! 💕 Princess Laue
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