I’m curious about how you feel about Winter. What beliefs do you hold true about Winter, how do you feel during this season and the run up to it?
You might be one of the many who dreads the long, dark, cold days in a season which, in Scotland, let’s face it, goes on even longer than the 12 inch version of Fools Gold by The Stones Roses (showing my age now). Do you long for a return to the warmth and sunshine of Summer, do you crave a trip to the sunshine wearing short sleeves and less wool content?
Let me let you in on a secret - that’s how I used to view Winter. I kind of hated it and dreaded it coming.
What if I told you that I don’t feel like this any more about Winter? Would you wonder how I shifted my perspective? Maybe? Well, if you are curious read on…
It all started with my thoughts. I began to change the way I thought about Winter - essentially retraining my mind to replace negative associations with with different, more positive themes.
Instead of focusing on the things I didn’t like, I began writing a list of things that I liked or that Winter provided the opportunity for in ways that other seasons didn’t. Things like:
· Layering up to full cosy with favourite soft wool hat, bright gloves then getting out into nature for a long walk. Coming back home all rosy cheeked and curling up on the sofa with a warm drink and a chocolate ginger biscuit
· The sound of crunching snow and ice underfoot - bonus if the day ends with one of those sunsets that turn pink against a whitened landscape
· The dark nights when it’s blowing a hoolie outside and you are inside feeling all safe and toastie with your jammies on
· Creating a comfy, cosy ambience with soft blankets and scented candles
· Dark evenings or even afternoons bring extra opportunities for candle lit baths with favourite bath bubbles and essential oils
· How on earth can I write this without writing ‘hygge’ (which, in case you are still struggling with the pronunciation, rhymes with “shoo-ga” rather than “jiggy” but I can’t stop myself wanting to say “getting hygge (prounced like jiggy) with it”.
Anyway you get the idea, right? You’ll have some of your own to add, let me know what they are, I’d love to know.
This approach worked so well for me that in more recent years I took to going loch swimming and paddleboarding through the Winter months. I even hacked a hole in thick ice with an axe for the thrill of entering ice cold water for a short dip (disclaimer: do not do this at home). I swear that feeling of celebrating with a hot drink when dried off and cosy and sharing the extreme experience with my equally adventurous/mad (delete as appropriate) cold water bestie was only enhanced by the season.
From a Chinese Medicine perspective (and most sensible people) this ice challenge is not the best thing to do in Winter. Instead, we are encouraged to keep our bodies warm, wear a scarf round our neck at all times, no draughts up our low back (though to be honest that’s not the first reason you won’t see me wearing a crop top) and keep your feet warm; please no walking across stone cold floors in bare feet.
You’ll always hear me banging on in clinic about eating soups and stews to support our digestion and in Winter these choices feel so right. If you are a bit of a caul tattie, with cold hands and feet, try adding warming herbs and spices like cinnamon and ginger to your porridge or make a fresh ginger tea with a slice of lemon. Soups, stews, cinnamon and ginger…they sound so nourishing and warming to me, Winter’s really not so bad, is it?