This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at DESU chapter.
4 Tips to Boost Your mood During the Winter Months
By Shelynn Handy
Even though fall and winter are the best times for fall festivities and winter fashions, it is also the time where seasonal depression takes place. As someone with anxiety, I am painfully aware that anxiety and depression go hand in hand. So, to keep my spirits up during the colder months, I do these things:
- Wake up earlier. Natural sunlight is a known mood booster, but we don’t get much of it in the winter time. To be able to get the most of it, I wake up a little earlier and actually crack the curtains and blinds open to let in as much sunlight as possible.
- Take some vitamins. There is nothing that puts a damper on my mood more than being sick. To keep my health at an optimal level, I take vitamins to boost my immune system. (They are also gummy vitamins so there aren’t any complaints from me about taking them every day.)
- Do some exercise. I heard that exercising helps to boost energy and mood if done regularly. I thought I’d give this method a try this semester and started to hit the gym. I will say that I do feel a difference and I also feel more productive afterwards.
- Schedule time to just relax. This one is important to me because I am a full-time college student who works. The time where I am able to relax seems very rare, especially when the days feel shorter, so I make sure that I take my mental health days.
Among other activities, these are the things that I think have helped me the most to keep my mood and spirit in a better place during the fall and winter months.