Mayo Clinic Staff states, “If you’re like most people with seasonal affective disorder, your symptoms start in the fall and may continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody.”
Sound familiar?
While the Golden Dome may serve as a beacon of light in the permacloud of a South Bend winter, it’s hard to deny that days on days of gray and sunless sky can start to settle a permacloud around your otherwise sunny outlook on life. Sometimes the South Quad wind tunnel can hurl winter air just too fast and furious for your North Face to offer adequate defense. This is not admitting defeat by the frosty seasons, but rather recognizing the need for a freshly drawn up game plan – one that harnesses the energy and positivity of sunshine, even when that sunshine is scarce.
Now being a Sunny-D Pollyanna during this season sure isn’t easy. Let’s consider two routes:
Route A
It’s 8 o’clock on a Tuesday morning. You creep open your eyes just long enough to catch a glimpse of the white, gray blur outside your window. Having gone to bed somewhere between 3am and 4am, you hit the snooze button relentlessly until it’s nearly 9 o’clock. And your class is at 9:30. And you haven’t finished the homework.
You grumpily sludge through your classes, your countenance foreshadowing the zombie apocalypse to your concerned professors. When the classes are over, you tumble into bed where you will lie comatose for three hours.
You awaken in perfect timing with your friends’ dinner plans. To make up for a wonky meal schedule the first half of the day, you go on SDH carbo-lockdown, hoarding like your squirrel counterparts for the winter.
Later, drowsy by your dinner ventures, you consistently trip between classwork and Hulu episodes. This less than full spirited work ethic continues until, once again, the night is overdue. You make it to your bed past personally acceptable timing, just as you had the night before.
And still, sleep does not come easy. You’ve collected half of your sleep from your “power nap.” You’ve neglected exercise so your limbs are really not tired yet. You’ve followed so many TV show storylines that your mind is a speed track freeway of Jim and Pam and Jesse.
And with the morning, comes another dismal day, or so this sunless day will seem to your sleep-deprived you.
Route B
It’s 8 o’clock on a Tuesday morning, how lovely! After eight hours of wholesome sleep, you hop to the window to behold a sparkling winter wonderland. Due to your prompt spring out of bed, you’ve got enough time for a full bowl of cereal and a thoughtful outfit selection before class.
You’ve got pep in your step today, even on the hikes between Jordan, Geddes, and the Pasquerilla Center for your classes. While that twinkle in your eye may not be a reflection of some natural South Bend sun, it is a reflection of a positive attitude built off some healthy habits.
When classes are through, you’ve even got enough energy in the tank for a run. As Elle Woods would argue, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy.” And so there you are, happy and sweaty with just the appetite for some SDH.
Your sunny outlook today equips you with the gumption to view your food as fuel, so your stellar will power wins you a full plate of fruits and veggies and lean protein, not to mention the attention rightly focused on your friendly dinner company rather than on your cravings.
Your body thanks you for the healthy meal with energy to tackle that late night homework with time left over, time you can spend laughing and making memories with your buds.
Then off to bed you go and sleep is sweet, promising sunny dreams.
Tragically, “Route A” proves all too common for the typical college student. It is so easy to fall into this rut and to truly believe digging out of this trap is near impossible.
But take hope: it has been told and proven time and again that good habits perpetuate good habits. Once you fall into the “rut” of “Route B,” the optimism, the good vibes, the self-sustaining sunshine is addictive!
It just takes that first step—that first initiative to turn in for the night an hour early, to load up the SDH tray with the wonderfully convenient, fiber-happy apple slices in place of the fried medleys, to hit the treadmill for some sweat therapy—and your wellness momentum will skyrocket.
Indeed the sun may hide for quite a few more weeks this semester, but we Notre Dame students were not made for hiding along with it. We were made for shining with as much energy and attitude as that South Bend sun, especially on days when the sun is out with a case of winter blues.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/seasonal-affective-disorder/DS00195