5 Ways To Avoid The Winter Blues

Hey guys!

Happy to have you here!

So now that I've got my first East Coast winter under my belt after year of living in the south, my official game plan for surviving the winter blues is simple, plants, plants, and more plants. I knew that my main challenge with moving up here would be sacrificing Houston’s super warm and sunny climate for the east coast’s tough weather months, so I’ve been super intentional about doing whatever I can to prepare myself for months on end of gray days and crappy weather. Here are 5 tips I’ve come up with in retrospect that may be helpful for my fellow southerns gearing up for a temp drop and anyone who maybe just thinks it's time to mix things up this winter. 

1. Own The Start Of Your Day: Have a morning routine prayer, meditation, devotional, a feel-good playlist, all of the above (me) haha Just make sure that whatever it is, it’s something that lifts your spirits. You can check out our morning meditation series, here.

2. Get A Sun Lamp. For me, it wasn't the first gray day that got me, it was the third day in a row of no sunshine, rain, and all the barren trees against the gray sky that finished me off. I literally hopped on Amazon in a flash, ordered a sun lamp and an essential oil humidifier. (Unfortunately, I had forgotten to update the address to New York, so it automatically Amazon Prime’d it to my parents house, in sunny Texas haha) My fix? Lights on, candles lit, and a really upbeat playlist. 

3. You’re Not Trapped! haha (Say it over and over until you believe it.) The winter literally paralyzes me, and if I’m not careful, I would quite possibly buy a lifetime supply of snacks and wait out summer. If you know you might slip into hibernation as well, do the best thing I could have done last year and fill up your calendar! It will force you to move around. For you that may mean taking a trip home or to a warmer/sunnier climate, or even just committing to trying out the restaurants you’ve been meaning to get to. Either way, it creates a pretty awesome boost in morale knowing that months and months of your life weren't thrown away.

4. Get Plants! Something I hadn’t quite prepared for (or remembered) is that at some point all the greenery outside is GONE. Like non-existent. In Houston that isn’t really a thing. I remember looking out of the window of my Brooklyn apartment day after day wondering when my tree lined street would bloom, and then BOOM, the teeniest green leaves began to sprout on trees that had been barren for months at this point. As great as it was to see, more than anything, I reveled in the anticipation and comfort I found in knowing that it was the first sign of warmer days to come. I say all that to say that plain and simple, plants make people happy, and my apartment is about to turn into a full-blown urban jungle haha I don’t know about all that actually, but I do know that having something to tend to and nurture is a highlight of mine I'm so thankful to have uncovered.

5. Prevention Is Key! Don’t wait until you start feeling the down to start figuring things out. I know that I am naturally more productive when the weather is nice out, so get your game plan in place now. Hit up your local nursery or IKEA (we live at IKEA) for plants. Get some road trips to see friends on your calendar, and we’ll look up and it’ll be June in no time haha 

Hope this was useful for someone! Feel free to leave any recommendations + tips you have below!

Xoxo -Chels