10 Weeks of Winter

The light returns…

It’s been a week since wrapping up my 10 Weeks of Winter project, and what would be the point of running this experiment without conducting a review? 10 Weeks of Winter was my attempt to reclaim my favorite season throughout the darkest parts of the winter. In recent years I had been experiencing drudgery and low mood during winter and found I was surprisingly relieved when the warmer brighter days of spring arrived. While I know this experience is common for many, it was novel for me. My usual experience at the return of longer days was a feeling of too soon. I wanted to stay in the cold and the dark of winter where I could be cozy inside and maybe see some snow. I love that everything is calmer in winter. Fewer people pile onto the streets or make noise – the weather and darkness seem to keep them at bay. The world becomes peaceful and open and more available for anyone who has paid attention to this phenomenon. Yet, to enjoy it, I need to be in a condition such that I can appreciate the winter season for what it is. I needed something to perk up my mood and reconnect me with my affection for winter.

Tackling the winter blues…

I developed several protocols that I thought might have an impact on my experience of winter. My approach involved addressing hormones, sleep and wakefulness (or circadian rhythms), energy, and deep noticing. I was more consistent with some of my protocols than others, but ultimately I arrived at set of approaches for tackling the winter blues that were effective for me and that I will definitely apply during future winter seasons. Here they are in order of effectiveness:

Vitamin D – Regular daily supplements at a relatively high dose had the most noticeable impact of the protocols on my mood and some impact on energy levels. I fell off supplementing somewhere around Christmas because I was away from home for a bit and didn’t quite get back to my routine. My mood eventually started to tank, and I felt increasingly tired. I got back to supplementing and everything improved. You’ve already heard it everywhere, supplementing vitamin D, especially in winter, is very effective and arguably important to your health.

Daily Walks Outside (“Get Outside”) – Whether raining, overcast, or a nice sunny winter day, I benefited immensely from a daily walk. It didn’t have to be a long one either. 10 minutes was enough, but 20 or 30 was better, however it has to be done during light hours for the most benefit. I found that between 10 AM and 2 PM were the best times during the dark days of winter. Earlier and later times had light levels that were too low to get the best benefits from getting outside. When I didn’t get my walk in, I noticed more restlessness in the evening. I was moodier and unsettled and had to spend hours in darkness with this uncomfortable feeling. However, on days when I walked the darkness didn’t bother me, and I think I felt more properly ready for bed around bedtime. Getting outside had both grand and subtle impacts on me and happily reached a point at which I looked forward to it. It became something that I wanted to do because I began to associate it with feeling good.

Reflection – Through writing a daily blog post I gave myself the opportunity to think about how well I was following my protocols, what was working best, and to conjure up or recount my experiences of winter. These reflections helped me stay on track, prioritize protocols during busy times, and, most impactfully, helped me remember and reengage with my favorite season.

Movement – In addition to daily walks, I maintained a regular stretching and exercising routine. I wasn’t really getting any fitter, but I kept up the habit and probably maintained some strength. This was relatively straightforward for me because I already had consistent practices of working out and stretching, nevertheless, it is something that can slip away from me if I don’t make it a priority. So that’s what I did. I prioritized maintaining a movement practice with no other goal than to keep up the habit. No matter the season, this practice or habit makes me feel better about myself and keeps me relatively strong, which has incredible physical and psychological impacts that could fill up many complete volumes of their own. This isn’t new information to anyone, but it must be included because it is crucial to wellbeing of any kind during any season.

Cleaning and Clearing – Managing and maintaining my physical space, mind, and body through deliberate cleaning and clearing activities enhanced my winter experience this year. Cleaning and clearing, for me, facilitates creativity, relaxation, and coziness.

Sauna – Though I didn’t get to the sauna even as close to as often as I wanted to, its effects are so striking that it’s obviously a winter mood booster. Sauna is nearly magic in all its reported health benefits. For me, I love how content and peaceful it makes me feel. It causes me to breathe deeper. It’s a treat for getting some deep heat into the body when it’s cold outside. It’s a happy maker. I absolutely intend to find a way to get a sauna for my home. The biggest detriment was that I had to use one at a gym, which limited my ability, and willingness, to use it. Obviously Scandinavian cultures know what they’re doing in winter. I would strongly recommend trying out sauna to get through the dark and cold of winter.

Breathing Practices – Application of breathing practices was trickier for me, but they still observably offer some benefits. The main benefit I found was for rest. Abdominal breathing significantly supported how well I got to sleep and the quality of my sleep. Using pranayama practices for energy and heat, while effective, were quite intense for me and caused some sensitivities that were uncomfortable and didn’t really enhance my winter experience. I began to apply the practices more specifically and deliberately over time, which I found better than just generally running through a daily sequence. I don’t think a breathing protocol is necessarily a winter enhancer, but breathing practices have interesting benefits that could be learned and used on an as needed basis depending on other factors and circumstances, like fitness levels, mood, emotional state, etc. It’s not a blunt instrument, as I tried to use it in the beginning. It’s a subtle tool that should be tailored for very directed purposes. With the exception of abdominal breathing, which I found to be generally useful for rest and ease every time.

Red Light Therapy – For me, red light therapy turned out to be a great tool for skin health and maybe eye health, but I’m not sure it had impacts on rest or circadian rhythms (getting to sleep and waking up). I’m not sure of the impacts on rest partly because I didn’t use it consistently enough to drawn conclusions, and I think some of the other protocols were more dominant in their impacts and so overrode my ability to notice whether or not the red light therapy was having an effect. It’s a good tool for beauty, maybe health, but I’m not sure it’s a critical element of a happy winter.

Rest – I didn’t get to spend as much direct attention on rest as I had hoped. I continue to believe that rest is a crucial and natural part of winter that should be attended to, but this winter I only reached good rest indirectly. I believe my rest was improved by other protocols (daily walks and breathing practices in particular). I also made some attempts to reduce screentime and mitigate the effects of screen usage with blue blocker glasses. Ultimately I failed to reduce screentime. Writing the blog was a counteraction to reduced screentime, and as much as I tried to engage with more in non-screen activities I just can’t seem to pry myself away. However, I do think the blue blocker glasses helped. After considerable time using blue blocker glasses, I would advocate for their use, especially if gaming or writing or otherwise focusing intently on screens during dark night hours. I purchased Horus X brand glasses from Amazon. I noticed a difference, especially if I was writing a blog post late at night. My eyes and head felt clearer and better than if I didn’t use them and I didn’t seem to have much trouble winding down and getting to sleep. So, rest, yes! However, it’s possible to arrive at good winter rest indirectly.

Morning Light Viewing – I’m surprised to find myself placing this last. I spent the fall developing my morning light viewing habit so that I could keep it up over the winter. I had been thinking about winter enhancement all year, and this was a big one on my list. But it was hard to maintain. Part of the problem was the time of day for morning light viewing. In the winter, sunrise is as late as 8 AM, and I have things to do at 8 AM. It’s still morning, but it’s getting into the active busy part of the morning. I kept trying to fit it into an early morning walk, but other than the timing being awkward, I wonder if these right at sunrise protocols work better in more equatorial regions, because the positive effects getting daylight in my eyes were considerably more noticeable later in the day when the light was stronger. This protocol is one I wouldn’t force for more winter enjoyment. Instead I would aim for a daily walk during the brightest (even if rainy, snowy, or overcast) parts of the day.

Building writing momentum…

A less overt goal I had for this project was to get back into a daily writing habit. I have been working on a novel since 2012 which is about two-thirds of the way completed, and I’d really like to finish it. Partly I just want it done, and partly I have other writing projects I’d like to move onto without this partially completed novel hovering over me. I wanted to use the blog project to build momentum. Frankly, I expected that I would abandon the blog at some point. That’s what usually happens with my overly ambitious ideas. So I’m incredibly pleased to see that I stuck with it. It worked just as well as any daily writing practice I’ve tried resulting in greater ease with writing in larger volumes every day. It also worked to help me see which times of day work best for me to write: confirming that I’m a morning writer and although I can, and did, write in the evening the product is never as good. What I failed to consider for writing a daily blog is the time to proofread and edit posts, which ended up making the blog posts a pretty time-consuming component of my winter. It was worth it, but it ended up limiting or knocking out some other activities. The best part of adhering to this daily writing commitment was that I looked forward to writing the posts most of the time. There were a few days, mostly toward the end of the project, when the little voices in my head had me pretty convinced to give it up and not bother, but I preserved.

I’m looking forward to taking this writing momentum back into my creative writing projects. It’s encouraging just to know that I really do enjoy writing, and I will be delighted to have the opportunity to dedicate more time to editing my writing rather than just getting it up and ready to be posted in all its shabbiness to meet a deadline. The word count I achieved is also exciting. The 10 Weeks of Winter blog ran up a word count of about 72,000 words from 72 posts. That’s easy math working out to about 1,000 words per post on average. That’s a book people! That means I could write a book in 10 weeks. Well, ideally I could. I do find creative writing takes more time and a slower pace of writing. The creative writing posts, like Blue, took considerably more time and had a lower word count than the straight up non-fiction posts (but they were more fun to write). I suspect I can definitely write 500 words a day, and that should be enough to finish a novel that’s already two-thirds of the way complete!

How to make winter wonderful…

In conclusion, to make winter your own personal wonderland, I would recommend the following at a minimum:

• Supplement vitamin D at the high recommended dosage levels
• Go for a 10 to 30 minute daily walk outside during the bright hours of the day
• Bring some attention to cleaning and clearing in your space, mind, and body
• Find ways to appreciate the season by doing what you love to do in winter, for me that includes:
  • Indulging in winter ambience and winter mood
  • Cooking winter recipes and eating winter foods
  • Getting creative
  • Staying warm and cozy
  • Embracing the contrast of the season

Until then…

I’m not sure what the future of this blog might be. I may return to it, and maybe I’ll just leave it here for anyone interested in winter enhancements and wintery thoughts. Thanks to all those who followed along. I hope you found some inspiration, whimsy, intrigue, or beauty in it. I had a blast getting to write this 72 day love letter to my favorite season.