It’s been a long winter and recently I’ve begun to become concerned for my clients. Why, you might ask. Because the long dark days of winter can lead to feeling down and depressed. Sometimes it’s hard to see past the snow drifts. We loose hope that the sun will shine bright again and the snow will melt. We long for short sleeves and bathing suits. I totally get these feelings, because I feel them too. So what do we do with the ‘winter blahs’?
The first thing we need to do is focus on any positives we can come up with. I don’t care how big or small they are, a positive focus will give us hope. The daffodils, crocuses and tulips may not be appearing in the gardens yet, but they are in the stores, which reminds us that they’ll be in the garden soon. The days are getting longer. I left my office at 6:30 last night and there was still a hint of light. Daylight savings is going to help with that too. It’s just another reminder that as we ‘spring forward’ in time that the snow is going to have to melt. More importantly, the bitter cold that we’ve experienced this year will turn into the ‘dog days of summer’.
To take all of this a step further, this is a great analogy for the winter seasons of our life. I was recently reading ‘The Art of Happiness’ by the Dali Lama. What a wonderful man he is. In the chapter on struggling he pointed out that our society seems to believe that we are all good people and that as such we deserve good. Then when something bad happens in our life we’re unprepared to handle it. A simple statement he made had profound impact on me. He said, “We will have struggles”. If we face this head on and accept it our minds will be prepared when it comes. So, don’t panic when hard times hit. Accept that it’s part of this life and that eventually the snow will melt and the sun will shine. And focus on any small thing that will give you hope because hope is the foundation of happiness.