In my office, this has been a week about talking about the weather. Not necessarily the daily weather but the fact that the winter’s weather has come rather early this year. Except for a few, the general consensus was a rather negative one in that most are not looking forward to winter.
As a kid I remember being enthusiastic about the onset of winter. Sledding, skating, snowball fights, skiing, making snow forts and, of course, the Christmas season, all made the winter months more than just tolerable.
As an adult, however, the thought of snow shoveling, scraping windshields, plugging in the car, dry skin, slippery roads and (sometimes) the Christmas season, rank winter low on the list of favourite seasons.
I recently reviewed a research paper written by a PhD student who spent a winter in a northern Norway town where the sun never rises above the horizon during the winter months. In such a town where one would expect higher rates of depression due to the lack of sunlight, the overall mental health was surprisingly, well…healthy. Stanford student Kari Leibowitz wanted to understand why seasonal depression was far less there than in towns with similar populations in more southern latitudes.
Her research suggested it was the mindset of the citizens prior to going into winter. She found that most people she spoke with had at least one reason to look forward to in up-and-coming winter. Walks in the fresh snow, cross country skiing, ice skating, building snowmen (even as adults!), beautiful winter skies and sipping hot coffee or hot chocolate by a fire were activities that more than compensated for the short days.
Mindset is an interesting concept. We often describe mood as something that we are passive to and something that controls us. While mood can be dictated by brain chemistry, we can alter brain chemistry with our thoughts. This means we can alter our own moods, which means we control our mindset.
Yes, the winter season is long here in Saskatchewan. Yes, the days are as short as the nights are long. Even so, try to create a positive mindset in the coming weeks leading up to our winter. While the days are short, they sure are sunny. We probably have the longest ice-fishing season in North America, the freshest air to breath, the crunchiest snow to walk on and the friendliest people on the prairies. Find one thing to look forward to, even if you have to reincarnate your inner child.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
