Fall semester is finally coming to an end. After the holiday season, we will be headed straight for the dark months of winter. We’ll be bundling up for cold weather every day, the sun will out-of-sight by 5:00 p.m., the roads may become icy and we tend to spend a lot of time inside our houses. During this time of year, it isn’t uncommon for us to become sluggish. Our daily routines seem lackluster and our spirits begin to wither. Although it’s difficult to keep our energy in full-throttle during this dreary time-of-year, it’s important that we make the most of what we can’t change and put a little bit of pep in our step. Here are 5 ways to regain your joyful spirit and peace-of-mind when life gets tough.
1. Make a fun change. Do something you’ve never done before. This could range anywhere from trying out a new restaurant with a group of friends, to taking a spur-of-the-moment road trip with an undecided destination, to changing your hair color and getting a tattoo. Every new experience comes with a story to tell. Step out of your comfort zone.
2. Have all of your girlfriends over to hang out, but make a pact to put all cell-phones away for the entire night. When you’re with friends, but everyone is texting and checking social media, no one is fully present. Spend one night completely invested in the people right in front of you. You’ll be surprised at the amount of meaningful and much-needed conversation resulting from just one night without cell-phones.
3. Try harder to connect with strangers. Initiate a conversation, whether big or small, with the stranger next to you in line at the grocery store. Sit down next to the person sitting by himself on a bench in the mall. Say whatever pops into your mind. Set a personal goal to compliment three strangers every day. You may end up with a whole new perspective on life, and you may not. As long as you’re smiling and you’ve made someone else smile, you’ve done your job.
4. Start journaling. Make it a point to sit down every night and write. Try to come up with something you learned, or something a person taught you without even knowing it. If you think hard enough, you’ll realize that you really do learn something new every single day.
5. Spend the day re-organizing and cleaning. You probably won’t have fun, but you’ll feel extremely refreshed when you’re finished! While cleaning is stressful and irritating and I personally hate doing it, I’ve never regretted it afterwards!
The seemingly colorless months will be over before you know it so don’t let winter dull your shine!