Winter can feel endless sometimes, even if temperatures are mild and there is barely any snow to shovel. Daylight hours are shorter, the weather is often less pleasant and we generally spend more time indoors and being less active. For many people seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a very real issue during the cold months and if you’ve ever felt the pains associated with it, you’re certainly not alone.
According to the Centre for Mental Health and Addiction, “seasonal affective disorder is a type of depression that occurs during the same season each year. It usually happens in the fall or winter. The list of signs and symptoms of SAD is the same as the list for major depression. However, with SAD, these signs and symptoms appear and disappear at about the same time each year.”
With this in mind, we wanted to offer you a few eco-conscious ideas to help cope with, and maybe even enjoy, the remaining winter days we have left. Spring is just around the corner and hopefully these environmentally-friendly tips can make the time between now and then a little bit brighter.
Don’t hide from it, embrace it!
This might not be what you want to hear, but facing the cold weather head on is one of the best ways to improve your mental health during the winter months. Getting outside in the sunshine and getting active, even when it’s cold out, has been linked to numerous health benefits including improved sleep, improved respiration, reduced depression symptoms, lower stress levels and an overall improvement to your general health and wellbeing, according to Parks Ontario. All this can work together to help you feel better and more like yourself during the darkest time of year, here in the northern hemisphere.
Besides all that good you’re doing for yourself, you’re also doing the environment a whole lot of good by choosing an activity that is nearly as carbon neutral as they come. Walking, jogging, playing with your dog, skiing, skating, tobogganing, shovelling or really any form of outdoor winter activity has a negligible impact on the environment and the personal benefits are enormous. That’s why it’s one of our favourite winter season mood-boosters.
Ecotourism Adventures
Craving a little more adventure than simply getting outside? Ecotourism is one of the best ways to responsibly enjoy what the winter months have to offer by going a little bit further than just your own neighbourhood.
Parks Canada has an entire webpage dedicated to the winter activities they offer. Depending where you live, searching for ecotourism options near me can be a great way to spark an idea or introduce you to a sustainable adventure close-by.
Volunteerism
Volunteering can bring a lot of these tips together into one action that benefits more than just yourself. Volunteering encourages us to get out of the house, often times to get active by exploring your own city, meeting new people, and providing a positive service to others, while also creating a unique and fulfilling experience for yourself too.
GoodWork is an excellent website to search for volunteering opportunities near you. Most of the organisations looking for volunteers on this site have sustainability and the environment as part of their core mission.
Just because it’s cold outside doesn’t mean the work stops, places like food banks and warming shelters need even more help during the cold winter months due to a higher demand for their services. Volunteering at these places can be extremely rewarding and make the winter months seem to fly by.
Explore your own backyard
We don’t literally mean your own backyard, even though that could work for those of us that have a backyard. We mean taking a fresh look at your neighbourhood and anything within a comfortable walking distance.
Go check out that new store that just opened up down the block or pop into that old store you’ve never explored before, choose to walk down a different path in a new park, even try sparking up a conversation with a stranger. Look for those opportunities to make your usual environment feel new. This can bring an element of excitement to the sometimes mundane routine we can all fall into at this time of the year.
We know all these things are often easier said than done when it comes to improving your mental health during a difficult period. A trick that can help you follow through with one or more of these activities is to treat it seriously, not passively. Treat it the same way you would an important meeting or event you must attend by blocking out time in your calendar or personal schedule in advance. By pre-determining space in your life for these moments of self-care, you’re much more likely to actually do them.
That said, even the small things can sometimes seem really difficult. So, if feeling better to you simply means making a cup of green tea and sitting by a sunny window during the wintertime, then that’s just as important and valuable too… and the environment sure won’t complain about that one either!