Embarkation ahead…
Tomorrow marks the first day of my 10 weeks of winter. For today I will prepare the tools and techniques that I hope will sustain me and help rekindle the appreciation for the season. Through experience I’ve learned that drastic change never lasts. Modifications need to be made slowly and consistently and with a reasonable amount of reflection. For several weeks already I have been making adjustments to my morning and evening routines to support me through the winter. Now its time for consistent adherence and a few more tweaks to my regular schedule to test whether my plans to beat the winter blues will really work.
Ch-ch-ch-changes….
The question of how we make change has been written about and researched to the point of diminishing returns. You can find a few great books and many terrible ones on the subject. I’ve obviously read quite a few myself, and mostly to my benefit. It’s a worthy pursuit to understand how to make change in your life, but understanding and putting into practice typically run on divergent paths. I understand that I need to be consistent, but the reality of life is inherently inconsistent. I understand that I have to work at something with no observable progress for a long long time before I’ll be able to see change, but I am nevertheless discouraged by lack of observable progress. Old habits create friction. Establishing new habits creates friction. Friction makes it hard and more time consuming to do new things, let alone the regular things that need doing along side the added urgent or unexpected things that pop up! We do not live in simple times and our lives are filled with the complexities of ourselves, others, and our broader social milieu. So how can we set ourselves up for success and make changes?
Here’s what I know works for me:
- Start small. Teeny tiny, wee bits of so possible it’s hard to fail.
- Create transitions. Set up spaces, moods, and ambiance that shift your mind into another mode.
- Write essential, but not overly prescribed, lists. Lists can help keep track of the things and needs of the day. They can help you remember things that aren’t readily queued up in your mind. However, I find, overly restrictive or rigid lists with time stamps and time frames and inclusion of little things that I will definitely do anyway overwhelm me and I am likely to abandon both list and list items.
- Don’t think about it, just do it. It took me forever to understand how to do this, but I finally get it and it does work. It can also be framed as trust the process.
The tool box…
With these change techniques in mind, I intend to employ several tools that I will write about in more depth over the next 10 weeks. They are tools to either mitigate the effects that I believe have detracted from my enjoyment of winter (age, isolation, and screentime) or that enhance the joy I remember having for winter (festivity, refreshing and renewing, coziness, and restful creative solitude). Check out the introduction post for more on these topics.
The tools for beating the winter blues that I have identified so far are:
- Red Light Therapy
- Morning Light Viewing
- Vitamin D Supplementation
- Sauna
- Movement
- Breathing Practices
- Going Outside
- Cleaning and Clearing
- Rest
- Reflection
As the weeks unfold I may build up my protocols and approaches to using these tools or add/remove tools, but to begin I have set the following protocols for myself. Remembering to keep the change as small as possible (i.e., achievable) – to do this I will combine several of the tools, and these protocols will serve as my baseline. If (when) I stray I will return to these exact protocols as soon as possible.
Daily Protocols
Red Light Therapy: 5 minutes first thing in the morning and 7 minutes around 20 minutes before bed
Morning Light Viewing: Minimum 5 minutes outside morning light viewing around 8 AM (the shortest day of the year in my latitude sees sunrise around 8 AM)
Vitamin D Supplementation: 1,000 IU
Movement: Morning stretches, alternating cardio and strength training (from existing routines)
Breathing Practices: Morning pranayama practice and pre-bed abdominal breathing (these can be done at the same time as the red light therapy)
Going Outside: Morning or afternoon walks while it is light out (at a minimum around the block, rain or shine, or hopefully snow!!!)
Reflection: Daily blog post
Sauna, cleaning and clearing, and rest have not found their way into the daily protocols, and may not ultimately fit there. During the first week I will explore to see how they fit into the 10 weeks of winter.
The rationale behind these protocols is to boost mood through physiological interventions and develop strong circadian rhythms that support easier morning wake-ups in the dark and reduced inclination to blow past tiredness at bedtime. Further, going outside, viewing light, and breathing practices may help to emphasize experiences of the daytime rather than only noticing the bookends of night – this is a key component to the project. I don’t want to waste winter. I don’t want to bypass it. I want to experience it.
To screen or not to screen…
The daily protocols should help to create a foundation for a better, healthier system and may counter some of the effects of age, but I will also need to attend to the things I’m doing that may detract from these beneficial practices. In particular my screentime habits are a detriment that I don’t particularly want to address, and addressing the issue of screentime lifts the veil on the issue of isolation. Truthfully as I touch on the idea of reducing screentime or wearing blue blocker glasses I cringe away as though I’ve spied something horrid that I don’t want to see. This is fear. I am afraid of how or what I will feel if I’m not using my screens late into the evening. It may take some doing to unravel this one. My early inclination is to use an easy alternative, something else I like that is at least comforting, like reading a book (do you know the line…it rips my life away but it’s a great escape…). There is much to unwind that is wrapped up in screentime and at this outset I don’t yet have an approach to adjusting that behavior.
Onward…
Regardless, the stage is set. The blog has launched, the red light panel is prepped and ready, lists are made, and I know what I need to do to just trust the process and follow where it leads.
Details…
For anyone interested in the specific products or practices I’m using, here’s a list:
Red Light Therapy Panel from Amazon – I make no promises about its efficacy, but it looked like it check all the boxes without a great expense (https://www.amazon.com/Red-Light-Therapy-Device-Near-Infrared-Beauty-Relief-Muscles/dp/B09Z363CSX?psc=1)
Breathing Practice Morning Pranayama – Selected this YouTube creator on a gut check and based on previous experiences with breathing practices, again no promises (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwEHZ3NmeEg)
Breathing Practice Evening Abdominal Breathing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVvA5dwYkE4)
Morning Light Viewing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDv4AWk0J3U&t=35s)
Vitamin D Supplementation (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RagEbxluZTs)
My movement practices are not easy to summarize or supplement with quick reference materials. More on movement, going outside, and reflection later.
Leave a Reply