As winter slowly approaches and our days become shortened, the state of our psychological wellbeing may be impacted due to the reduced amount of natural sunlight and we may find ourselves unhappy or distressed. Below are 3 simple methodologies that one could start implementing today to counteract these negative emotions.
1. Practice Self-care
Investing time in self-care contributes to your mental and emotional wellbeing. Set time aside for yourself; attend to your own emotional needs; read a book; pamper yourself. You could learn to use aspects of mindfulness to relax.
“Mindfulness simply means being in the present without thinking of the past or future; choosing what you respond to, rather than getting carried away with everything that appears in your mind or your experience; to focus on one thing at a time, be non-judgmental and cultivate an attitude of impermanence towards things and situations. This helps you stay open to experiences and helps you not get overly affected by them,” says Dr. M Manjula, additional professor of clinical psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (URL).
2. Dog Adoption
Fostering a dog from your local shelter is an excellent way to prevent being alone and enjoy having a physical companion. Various studies have shown that dogs could help us relieve stress, provide us with a sense of purpose, promote socialization, etc.
3. Light Therapy
Incorporating the use of light therapy in our daily routines is another great way to deal with seasonal emotional disorders. Light therapy entails sitting close to a special “lightbox” for 30 minutes a day, usually as soon after waking up as possible.
These boxes provide 10,000 lux (“lux” is a measure of light intensity). That’s about 100 times brighter than usual indoor lighting; a bright sunny day is 50,000 lux or more.
You should have your eyes open, but don’t look at the light. Many people use the time to read a newspaper, book, or magazine, or catch up on work, but having this additional lighting can drastically improve your psychological wellbeing (URL).