After a mild Christmas, January rolled around with a cold snap standard to Winnipeg. In other words, we have this:
The days have grown longer. In late November/early December, I left work at 4 pm in darkness. Now the sun goes down after 4:30 and edges closer to 5 pm. Mornings still have to catch up. I still wake up in the dark with the sun coming up closer to 8:30 am. January and February are ‘meh’ months with me. I work to get up, work at keeping motivated, and everything just feels harder than usual. Once March rolls around an internal switch gets flipped.
The only way to fight off the malaise is to get out once in a while plus have people over. January and February also mean being careful of the home-work-home treadmill. Nobody knows a rut has happened until the rut has happened. Nothing wrong with being at home with warm, comfy pajamas, Netflix, and heavy food. It’s trying not to repeat that pattern among the many in the winter months.
Plus spring feels so far away like it will never come.
Once spring does come around, everything else fades into memory until it happens again like it’s the first time. Many people with SAD Seasonal Affective Disorder) practice a mindful awareness about the turn of the seasons. I finally caught on to this turn for the first time in my life. It’s one thing to ‘know’, but it’s quite another to put it into practice.
Last night I took myself out to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Today I will remind myself laundry does not equal drudgery but self-care with clean clothes. The best part? New York draws even closer. Hang in there spring does come.
Unpaused Life 