Resources

Winter Blues Tip 16: Party like the Super Bowl all winter

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There was a football game this past weekend. Did you notice? A lot of people noticed. And a whole helluva lotta people had great parties, whether they liked football, the teams or not. The Super Bowl is a great example of how to make winter more fun. Pick a routine activity you enjoy and make [...]

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Winter Blues Tip 15: Change a winter habit? Reward thyself!

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Winter is the worst possible time to change or create a new habit, even if the change is going to make you feel better and winter easier. Change winter Yet, that’s what I’m asking you to do, even though your energy is already at low tide. All of the month-long series of Winter Blues Tips [...]

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Winter Blues Tip 14: Take notes when you change a winter routine

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Let’s pretend here and say you’ve listened up and are applying some of the Winter Blues Tips I’ve been offering for the past couple weeks. You are moving more outside, have cut back on carbs during the day, are exercising regularly with a buddy, have washed your windows and opened the blinds to let in [...]

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Winter Blues Tip 13: Ask your dog to help you beat the blues

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The dark, gray months can be miserable. Find support nearby Support to take healthier actions and change habits is all around us. Sometimes we just have to ask. Ask your dog if she wants to go for a walk. If you already walk with her once a day, ask her again. Ask a neighbor if [...]

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Winter Blues Tip 12: Eat to reduce cravings, maximize energy

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One of the big clues that we’re suffering from seasonal depression and the winter blues are the sugar and carbohydrate cravings. They can be huge. Inescapable. There were times at work when about 3 p.m. the only thing I could think about was a candy bar. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t concentrate. It didn’t help that [...]

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Winter Blues Tip 11: Exercise with a buddy. Make winter more fun

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We talked about how regular exercise helps beat depression, seasonal and otherwise, in Winter Blues Tip 10. Which raises a great question: If you’re already depressed, how do you get yourself to exercise? Get a support buddy Answer: By getting yourself support – by getting yourself an exercise buddy. Years ago I ran in the [...]

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Winter Blues Tip 9: Use snow reflected light

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Has it snowed recently in your corner of the world? Southeast Michigan hasn’t been hit with the heavy  – some would say overwhelming – snow storms that have hit the Midwest and East Coast, but we have several inches of snow on the ground. Use the reflective beauty of snow If it’s going to be [...]

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Winter Blues Tip 7: Dawn simulators wake you up on dark mornings

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A dawn simulator works for me, like magic. I wake up easily, rested and alert. In fact, when my dawn simulator didn’t work properly the other morning after I popped a circuit breaker, I woke up anyway at about the same time. It hasn’t always been this effortless. In the depths of SAD 10 years [...]

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Winter Blues Tip 6: Depression for more than 2 weeks may not be SAD

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The sun slept in today, because we never saw it in Michigan. It’s dark, dreary and bleak mid-afternoon. It’s easy to feel down this time of year. Seasonal affective disorder, SAD, is aptly named. SAD typically starts in the fall or winter and disappears in the springtime. These are the symptoms: decreased levels of energy [...]

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Winter Blues Tip 5: Work with your body clock to beat SAD

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Are you a lark or an owl? Are you a morning person or night person? Your body clock determines whether you’re one or the other. If you’ve ever tried to be an owl when you’re a lark, you know how whacked out you feel when you don’t listen to your natural rhythm. You can’t catch [...]

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Winter Blues Tip 3: Light therapy and Vitamin D don’t mix

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Every day a variety of internet searches find this site asking if light therapy lamps and light boxes produce Vitamin D.  Short answer: No. You don’t want to get Vitamin D from a light box There are two key parts of the winter blues puzzles tangled together here – light therapy and Vitamin D production. [...]

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Winter Blues Tip 2: Wash your windows for 20% more light

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My neighbor – a free-wheelin’, devil-may-care, come-again hippy – has never washed some of his windows. Not in years, likely not in a couple of decades. His windows are so dirty they look like frosted glass. Do you wonder why he spends every spare moment outside, all year round, whatever the temperature? Dirty windows – [...]

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20 Minutes to Winter Wellness

Helping moms beat the winter blues I’d like to introduce you to Lisa Byrne, an enterprising and inspiring woman who has created an online haven for busy moms who want to take care of themselves. Lisa, who is a busy mom of three little ones herself, offers classes and workshops through her blog the Well [...]

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10 Reasons the Winter Blues Will Get You

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If you’re feeling lousy since the long, dark  fall and winter days rolled in, you may be asking, “Why do I feel so bad?” or  “What’s wrong with me?” Having just experienced the winter solstice with a beautiful lunar eclipse,  this is the perfect opportunity to reframe the rest of the season. Most of what [...]

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Vitamin D Can Help Seasonal Depression

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It’s the beginning of December, the minutes of daylight are getting shorter every day and our seasonal depression is getting stronger. How much Vitamin D? More than I thought. Since writing about Vitamin D, sunshine and your brain this summer, I’ve been reading more about Vitamin D deficiency and what current research is finding. It’s [...]

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Create your own winter dawn

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Halleluiah. Daylight savings time is ending this weekend. Using a dawn simulator I’ve been using my dawn simulator to wake up in the dark mornings. I’ll continue using it because the weak rays of the fall and winter dawn aren’t enough to pull me out of my warm bed. (Truth be told, the only things [...]

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Get your insurance company to buy your light box

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You’ve done your homework, have read about seasonal depression and have downloaded the Light Therapy Light Guide to shop for the best one for your needs. Paperwork, paperwork If you’re considering buying a light box you may be able to get reimbursed for the cost from your insurance company. But just like anything to do [...]

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Take steps to beat the winter blues

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It’s early October and folks are feeling the first touches of the winter blues. The days are shorter, cloudier and besides the cold in the air, you might feel a bit of panic setting in as you think about how difficult winter can be. Winter doesn’t have to be so hard I’m putting the final [...]

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Why you feel blue when the sun shines

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Many of us are sunflowers: We need lots of sunshine to thrive, grow tall and blossom. A few of us are more like the trillium you find on the forest floor, a shade-loving, spring-blooming perennial woodland wildflower. Most of are probably more like shamrocks, which are happiest in bright, but not direct sunlight. One chance [...]

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Joining a mission big and bold

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The Internet is an amazing place. With a flash of lightening, the landscape is transformed. The Winter Blues Coach is now contributing to The Daily Brainstorm: A Blogazine to Rock Your Mind, launching July 12 on an Internet connection near you. A blogazine is netspeak for an aggregate blog that pulls in posts from a [...]

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5 Best Books to Beat the Winter Blues

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I’m a firm believer that knowledge equals power. Here are my choices for books that will help you understand how to manage the winter blues and seasonal affective disorder.  I will add more relevant books as they come across my desk, so please feel free to email me suggestions. Winter Blues: Seasonal Affective Disorder, What [...]

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