Winter Blues, Seasonal Depression? Hygge, mental health and exercise plan!

Diana Denmark here and welcome back to another cozy chat at the kitchen table here in Copenhagen. I am a routine trainer. I help people manage time and have more joy and return to their lives and I am also a hookah expert and today I want to talk. for you on how to deal with

winter

blues

, sad

seasonal

affective disorder and even if you don't suffer from one of those things, I just want to give you a

plan

on how I

plan

my way out of the

winter

darkness, you can also use these tips if you are grieving , if you are going through a period where you are extremely tired and it is a very easy three point plan: the physical and

mental

side of things, we will also talk about the social side of things and the last one is the team, right , let's talk a little bit about the team to help us get through this.

Let's start with the physical side, the physical side and the masculine side of things when I first arrived in Scandinavia 23 years ago, the winter. The darkness, the little darkness that really hit me hard, threw me into a kind of dark, downward spiral and in the winter here in Copenhagen, in the month of January, we have something like six hours of daylight and, if it's raining, it could be raining all day, then. it can really be dark all day I have to go out every day even if it's very windy even if it's raining even if it's snowing you know what we see here in Denmark there is no such thing as bad weather just the wrong clothes and so on As long as you have the clothes appropriate, you can go out any way and I have to be outside active for at least 15 minutes every day.

Now there are different ways I do it, some days I will go out for a walk with a friend. I usually ride my bike every day. We also ride bikes in the snow and ice. One thing that has really changed things for me has been bathing in the winter. I bathe naked in the sea all year round. It doesn't matter the weather and usually the worse the weather the stronger the smells when we get out of the water and I have a lot of videos about winter swimming and why we swim naked and the whole concept behind it is not something we do to get

health

benefits is more a matter of mindfulness.

I've talked about that before uploading the video, but of course it gives us

health

benefits and also

mental

health benefits and for me it's being outdoors. every day even if it's dark all day the days are different the size of the hail is different the clouds are different now obviously I'm not suggesting you start bathing in winter but maybe you can do something in your area and what I always do I tell my coaching clients that every time we want to adopt some kind of new habit, we have to have a time, a date and a place, because if we don't have a time of day in a place, it probably won't happen and Once a week I meet up with my group of Bluetooth Relax Swimmers from Copenhagen, where a group of women meet once a week and some people do the tea bag thing called immersion, where you just dive into the water and come back to go out like dipping a tea bag, others are doing challenges where they swim 500 meters in the winter, meet up with other people, that's a great way to make sure you get out, maybe you can arrange a meet up with a neighbor every Thursday morning and wow. go for a walk and grab a thermos of tea or coffee, if you can go for a walk where you are, maybe you can go to your local shopping center and do a brisk walk there.

I used to do that when the kids were little and they were still in strollers we really need to move our bodies because it's too easy when they, when darkness falls, just to hibernate and we want to hang under a blanket, and on the social side of things things, now I'm actually an introvert. very happy to have my own company I like it when I'm with people I know and talking about a topic that I like to talk about so I'm more extroverted but in reality I'm a bit introverted but I've discovered it more the years that I absolutely have to go out and socialize or be in a social setting with other people at least once a week.

I work from home. I'm training online with people all day and it's very easy for me to just say "ok." I'm tired and I want to go out. I plan to meet up once a week with someone else or at least go into town so I have things to do around me and if you are following the Fly Lady system. You know we have Tuesdays, it's a plan and I'm begging you on a Tuesday I plan ahead for the next week or the next month, that's when I'll reach out to a friend and say, "Oh, should we go to a concert?" ?

I'm going to see one of my favorite bands from my punk youth. I'm going to see The Stranglers in a couple of weeks with my friend Catherine. I was recently at a craft workshop with my friends, uh, Jen and Erica, and it's just that planning. getting ahead of these things instead of just letting the week go by, reaching out, reaching out to other people and saying, hey, what are you doing that week? Can we meet for another early dinner in town? Can we take a walk? go to the park and it's actually really easy to make sure you meet people when you have a plan for it because they expect you to come back so absolutely plan, plan some fun for yourself and plan some

exercise

for yourself. one of the other small groups I go to is Stitch and I'm not a big person, it's crochet or knitting but you can take a little craft with you and it's just getting together with others over a cup of tea and maybe drinking it's a piece of cake and going out, connecting, there are a lot of book clubs online, volunteering is another great way to meet other people and one of the other things I said is just going into the city, to Copenhagen, for me, I don't need to talk to someone or do anything, but I just walk, I look out the windows, I don't go buy anything, it gives me a lot of ideas and it just recharges my batteries and of course any kind of project is good to carry out.

Over the winter, I will once again be bringing you some sort of Christmas prep stuff this year. I have a little worksheet for you. I hope you will join me and we will be working week by week. I've got some little hookah quests for you, of course we'll talk about Christmas countdown calendar candles, all that sort of stuff. The last thing I want to talk about is the equipment, like I said, in Denmark we have a sink, there is no such thing as a bad thing. weather just in the wrong clothes and this time of year I can really embrace the coming darkness and embrace the cold and last year remember I bought this heated vest a bit like Iron Man?

I feel like Iron Man when I have this on and then I can turn on the heat and it's been great for working in my home office when I'm really cold. It runs on a battery everywhere, a small power bank and since I swim in winter I have one. of these costumes and I will do a video on my winter gear in the next few weeks, but I already bought an extra one for this year. This is actually a child's size, but they are oversized. Actually, it's big enough. for me this is a spacer that works for me when i'm on my bike and just for general walks and of course since it's so dark here the brighter the better think of all the things that can really make it cozy .

I've started using a hot water bottle again when I go to bed because we've lowered the temperature in the house to 21 degrees Celsius because we're trying to save electricity, save the grid, maybe you can get a nice pair of pajamas. flannel, get your fluffy socks and a really nice blanket when I'm in my favorite reading chair at night. I like to lie down and get my blanket and that's another thing, all these kinds of things that we can do for ourselves, it's not necessary. go buy things I love getting books from the library and one of the things I like to do at Christmas is

seasonal

reading and that's one way we can really embrace this season instead of fighting against it.

I love the crane classics from the British Library. maybe we can get all of this from our local Danish Danish library and look at this look at the murder of Santa Claus, so I can start reading it in the next few weeks, so think about other things like in Denmark, we bring the Outside, in, bring some seasonal plants and I was thinking about that the other day on YouTube and Pinterest and they're decorating for fall and I was thinking we don't do that in Denmark, we don't have said. signs that say you know, full welcome and I think it's because we actually have the seasons here, we don't need to have a sign that says it because we can look out the window and we can and we can definitely feel it. you bring that will make you embrace the season it's apple season here the apples in the garden are starting to fall the trees I'm making apple pie let's think about all the different ways we can really embrace embrace the season the dark season is coming and yes even your cleaning can be seasonal look what I bought last week this is my favorite cleaning item they brought a winter one so I couldn't wait I couldn't wait to buy and I'm not going to use it yeah I'm going to keep this probably until what we should see on the first of November, yes, the first of November, and if you want to see my morning routine, I have a cozy morning routine for the winter, when it's a long time. dark and we have a lot of LED candles and real candles because those mornings I don't turn on all the lights as soon as I wake up, I like to gently approach with my cup of coffee, so if you want to check it out know that I will put it on, it's on my playlist on the Fly Lady refresher course and one of the easiest ways for me to keep my mood up all winter is to keep dressing like I usually do in my right colors.

I'm type one. in the dress in your truth system Dressing Your Truth is a color analysis system and is a bit like the Myers color analysis bricks because it is based on the shape of your face and how you move during the day and what I find especially when it gets dark and I love my light, bright colors and you'll notice that all my outerwear is very bright, like things that I have for swimming or I have winter white and I have cream and white, so all my winter coats really make me they support that way.

I keep my energy. I like the shine, especially in a sea of ​​dark black coats here in Copenhagen, yes you really stand out, oh yes, and even my boots are white, my Doc Martens still wear. your routines out there if you need help I also offer individual training sessions remember I will be here guiding you through the little Christmas project we have preparing for Christmas and all the hookah stuff coming up and everything I have What's left to say is May we live long and prosper. May the Danish Houga be with you and see you very soon.

Well, goodbye for now.