That’s Not My Age

Photo: The White Company

There’s no avoiding it: we have four seasons, so let’s embrace the changing of the seasons, even if this one is our least favourite.

We like to think we’re such sophisticated, hi-tech creatures, in control of every aspect of our lives, but we’re actually still subject to the same basic cycles as our ancient forebears. In winter, less sunlight can increase the production of melatonin, the hormone that makes us feel sleepy, and decrease serotonin production, the hormone that affects mood, appetite and sleep, which can result in lowered mood, or depression. Our internal clock, or circadian rhythm, which is governed by sunlight, is also affected by lower light levels. In some people, this can lead to Seasonal Affective Depression, or SAD. If you feel a pattern of depression linked to the onset of winter, see your GP – help is available.

This year when the clocks went back I noticed it seemed to take longer to adjust, and I went to bed a lot earlier for a couple of weeks. Take a cue from the natural world, where animals hibernate and seeds lie low until spring, and rest and relax. That’s not to say you should retreat indoors for months on end: expose yourself to morning light, which confirms that the day has started for your body clock, and helps regulate melatonin production. Throughout the day, pop out for light and air breaks. The sun’s not strong enough to meet your vitamin D needs, so take a supplement between October and March, as the NHS recommends. If you can, work near a window.

Photo: Kate Jones knitwear

Savour the pleasures of the season

Winter is our least favourite season (surprise: summer is number one), chosen by just eight per cent in a recent poll of over 1,000 people. Focusing on the negatives can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, so think about the elements you enjoy. It’s definitely time for some ‘dopamine dressing’: reacquaint yourself with your winter wardrobe of jumpers, boots, hats and scarves and wear what makes you feel good ( see below!).

Crunch through leaves as you see your breath puffing out into the crisp air on a walk, feeling the warmth of the pale, watery sun on your face (do keep going with the SPF though.) Take time for self-care, however that looks to you. (To me, it’s making things, and reading.)

Light up the night! Candles have become shorthand for a ‘hygge’ vibe, but their warm glow and flickering flames are calm and cosy. And don’t underestimate the jollification potential of twinkling fairy lights, inside and out: on bedsteads, doorways, trees, fences, balconies. I bought a couple of strings at the weekend – one is wrapped around the trunk of the apple tree and I’ll be installing the other along the back fence for a more cheerful outlook.

Photo via Wallace Sewell on Facebook

I don’t want to mention the C-word too early but if you can swerve the festive stress that sometimes feels inevitable, the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ can be full of fun. Decorating your home with evergreens, like the Christmas tree, holly and ivy, and mistletoe, echoes the belief of our forebears that evergreens, still flourishing at this time of year, were a symbol of new life, with the power to ‘defeat’ winter.

Outdoors, improve your view with a couple of pots on windowsills, filled with seasonal stars that have flowers, berries or foliage, like winter-flowering pansies, cyclamen, heathers and hellebores, skimmia or ivy. I also like to have potted bulbs indoors, as a colourful, scented trailer for spring.

Planning and cooking ahead for celebratory meals, the joy of giving, and making time to see friends and family are all pleasurable. Throw in mulled wine or hot chocolate, and snowballs (both the drinking and the throwing type, climate change permitting).

After the noise of Christmas and New Year dies down, it can feel like there’s nothing to look forward to, so book days and nights out, next year’s travel plans, meet-ups with friends and family, or what you’ll plant in the garden.

It doesn’t last for ever

Although the short, dark days may seem interminable, remember that the days start to lengthen again from December 21, the winter solstice. (I’ll be heading to Stonehenge – built to align with the sun at the solstices – at dawn on the 22nd to experience the ‘turning of the year’.) Days start to lengthen again: see how fast for your location here. Meteorologically March 1 is the first day of spring, although we have to wait until March 20 for the astronomical first day of spring, or vernal equinox. And on March 30, the clocks go forward.

Keeping an eye on when the sun sets – looking at the sky, going for a walk – is helpful. It avoids the shock of suddenly looking up to find it’s dark already. Another recent shock for me was that the sun doesn’t set in the west.

In her book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, Katherine May says ‘I have long known that the sun moves across the sky over the course of the year’ – a real ‘wait… what?’ moment for me.

Apparently, the sun sets in the west only at the spring and autumn equinoxes. My garden faces southwest, with a wide spread of sky above it, so you’d think I might have noticed!

Adrienne Wyper is a health and lifestyle writer and regular TNMA contributor. 

Ways to enhance your winter wardrobe:

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