Blog Post Three
Winter Blues?
It’s that time of year, the sparkle of the holiday season has passed, yet we living here in the Great White North know that we won’t be reaching for our flip flops and shorts for at least another 4 months. When I first moved up here, almost 9 years ago, I found this time of year difficult. At that time, I was waiting for my visa to be approved to allow me to move forward to the next step, applying for a my work permit. I had no friends, outside of those who I met via my boyfriend (now husband) and it was the first time, since 18, that I had to lean on someone for financial support. In a lot of ways, it was a dark time for me and tack on the fact that it was my first experience with real winter, I found this time of year to be extra challenging.
So I thought today I would share things I like to do this time of year to either get me out of the house or put a smile on my face, or both! I hope you find some of these ideas helpful for you too!
Wake up and journal for 5-10 minutes. Don’t think about it. Just do it.
I’ve been reading this tip everywhere lately. It makes me wonder if I have known it most of my life, but maybe only sticking now as I embark on developing this new creative space for myself. I believe that a key benefit of this practice is that it helps you get over the dreaded “Writer’s block”. That block can be related to writing, but it can truly be applied to anything that you are attempting to create- drawing, writing, painting, crafting, or working!
Try to get outside, even if it’s for 10 minutes.
I learned the importance of this during the first 6 months of lockdown in 2020. My husband and I were both feeling the eery effects of this unknown virus and every day felt like Groundhog Day. As we worked on a new cadence of life - working remotely, eating every meal inside our home, not seeing friends or family - we realized that we needed to do something to bring new oxygen into our bodies. It was April and the amount of snowfall was stupid. We had so much snow and we were inching way too close to May for me to tolerate it; but, every day, at lunch we put on our boots, gloves and jackets and grabbed our pup, Hank, and took him on a long walk. It was amazing how much better we felt when we got home.
I am probably not informing you of anything you haven’t heard already. Getting outside has proven to have a positive effect on our bodies by reducing cortisol levels, muscle tension, even reducing blood pressure. My point is, again, JUST DO IT.
Plan a meet up with a friend(s) or phone a friend.
Around my 7th year of living in Calgary, I could finally say that I liked living here. Listen, it’s a beautiful city, despite the long winters. Calgary is the cleanest city I have ever lived in, and I love the quick access we have to the mountains with close to ZERO traffic - I know my Denver peeps are extremely jealous of that right now :) However, when I moved here in 2015, I learned quickly how much I underestimated my ability to to make friends.
Sure, I met people. Some of them were wonderful, but it didn’t mean that they let me in. I was not invited to the inner circle of their real friend groups. Looking back, I can understand that we may have been in different life stages - some of them had younger kids and their weekends revolved around kid activities. Some of these new friends flaked on me. Some of them stayed as friendly acquaintances. Some of them just really didn’t have an interest in adding more friends to their circle. I found myself holing up more, not really wanting to put myself out there. However, once I started working, I slowly started to meet new people on my own and after about 5 years of working I made friends…like REAL friends.
I now have regular activities with them - maybe it’s Ladies Golf League, maybe it’s meeting up for a girls’ dinner and drinks, maybe it’s redecorating a room together or maybe it’s planning a girls trip. Regardless, these friends are critical to my happiness and I will hold them close to my heart forever.
Read of for a minimum of 30 minutes a day.
I never read as a kid. In fact, I dreaded my mom telling me that I needed to turn off the tv, or put my beading kit away(laugh if you want, but beading was THE SHIT back in the ‘90s), and sit down and read. I found it boring. As I got older and entered high school, I took some English classes with a teacher named Mrs. Wiley, who in many ways, changed my life. I took a few classes under her direction, but one was Southern Literature. She introduced me to authors like William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams and OMG I fell in love with reading. I loved the challenge of understanding new stories, learning new words, and honestly, my favourite part - the discussion that occurred as we worked our way through the books. It was Mrs. Wiley who taught me how to write and helped me gain confidence in delivering my message to my readers.
After high school, my reading dropped off as I was distracted by the shenanigans of college, but post graduation, I found my love for reading again. Nowadays, I don’t read as much as I would like to, but that’s ok. I found a resource (linked below) that succinctly lists the benefits of reading 30 minutes a day. One of my favourite takeaways was that reading only 30 minutes per day increases your empathy levels. It helps you connect with other people’s perspectives. I loved this, as I find at times when I’m feeling stressed or really busy at work, my empathy levels fall and it’s something I’m working to improv, especially since I manage a team of people. Also, a little fun takeaway was that people who read 30 minutes per day complete around 33 books per year, on average! I listed 5 books that I’ll be reading this year in my first blog post found here: Blog Post One If you’re interested, check out the complete article here: Benefits of Reading 30 minutes per day
Workout for a minimum of 20 min
Fitness is near and dear to my heart. I’ve been doing some sort of fitness since I was 7 years old, stealing my mom’s sports bras and biker shorts and popping in an aerobic VHS tape where I kicked, squatted and stretched in my parent’s living room. I can only imagine that this had to be hilarious to watch mostly because of the fact that a child was wearing an adult sports bra, but I had to dress the part, people! Now as an adult, I have continued to love fitness but I’ve moved away from ‘90s aerobic videos (thanks Kathy Ireland, you are a legend) to weights, running and yoga. I love how it stengthens by body but also my mind and has a visible effect in reducing my stress and anxiety when life is feeling hectic. Time is precious, so if you don’t have time to get in an hour workout, don’t quit on the idea of working out! Most of us can find 20 minutes. I guarantee you spend more than 20 minutes scrolling on Instagram or Pinterest. Take your butt to your gym of choice and put in 20 minutes of excercise and I guarantee you will feel better than you did before you started.
That’s it. These are my tips. It’s not an easy time of the year for many of us, so I truly hope that you find one or two of these tips helpful in bringing a little joy to your days as we wait for the warmth and beauty of Spring and Summer to arrive!
Xo,
Leigh
