Wintered

February always feels like the midst of an unending winter with the bitter cold and dirty snowbanks. I actually enjoy snow and winter sports, but the grey skies definitely make it harder to keep a cheery attitude on the daily. Fighting the winter blues has always been an ongoing struggle, but I have noticed a few things that have made a positive difference over the last few years.

Looking forward to summer might not always be easy, but making plans for weekend trips or vacation always gives me something to look forward to. Plans for warmer weather such as beach days, camping trips, or hikes. Making vacation plans in the winter also allows for ample time for planning - it also gives me greater incentive to watch my spending in order to budget for travelling.

If you can’t beat them, join in and just embrace the cold! Instead of missing the summer, we should take advantage of the snow and ice to do all the activities we can’t normally - from skiing, skating, tobogganing or building snow forts. Just remember to check the weather first and dress accordingly, because frostbite is no one’s friend.

Everyone knows the importance of exercising, but it often takes a back seat in our busy lives. When studying, I used to get really stressed around midterms and finals, and found that even an hour at the gym could help relieve a lot of tension. As I definitely am one of the people who don’t enjoy just working out, I tried a bunch of different classes and sports to find what would work for me. When I finally tried hot yoga at a dedicated studio, I realized just how much I enjoyed it, and that joy was what gave me the drive to go regularly. With regular practice, you can really see your body changing and becoming stronger, which gave me more motivation to go regularly. Many gyms and studios offer welcome packages or trial periods to new students, and finding discounted deals on Groupon can allow you to weigh your options before finding what you enjoy.

Learning never really stops, but when you leave school, it does take on different forms. I really missed the traditional sense of learning, and found myself itching to learn something new. I’ve always wanted to be multilingual, but found it difficult and tedious to learn the ins and outs of new languages. I finally found an app that provided modules in small doses that allowed you to continuously learn and build your vocabulary and sentence structure through practice. Whenever I have an idle moment, I can simply learn a new lesson on my phone in  few minutes.

These few things help me keep the winter blues at bay; just because the sky is grey and the air is chilly, doesn’t mean we have to slow down our lives as well. Nothing is quite as satisfying as seeing yourself continually progress, and winter is the perfect time to work on these things as everything seems to slow down in the cold weather.