before the winter blues: how to prepare for seasonal depression
The winter blues is no joke. It’s slowly starting to get dark earlier. We are losing another hour of sunlight. This is the time to be extra intentional with our diet, our time, and our energy. The leaves are beginning to change, we can feel the transitions happening in real time. Many of us start to feel a shift in our mood and energy level, often leading to fatigue, mood swings, and an overall sense of disconnection. Despite all of this, there are holistic and effective ways to stay balanced, healthy, and to thrive during this season. This is the season where we take our vitamin D, magnesium, wake up a bit earlier, eat more root + grounding vegetables, more journaling, more audio journaling, more exercise, and more therapy. Therapy in ways that you deem fit to be healing and soothing for you. We’re going to be alright.
Let’s discuss the Top 3 ways to combat the seasonal blues:
Spend more time with yourself in the mornings. Start to prioritize morning light exposure. It affects our serotonin levels and can help with our circadian rhythm, helping us to increase our energy. This might look like waking up earlier, spending more time near the windows and sunlight within the first hour of waking up. Even just 10-15 minutes of morning sunlight can make such a massive difference. If you tend to wake up late often, invest into light therapy. They have light therapy lamps that mimic natural sunlight and can help regulate our body’s natural rhythms and boost our mood and energy levels. If you want to hear about my ideal 30-minute and 60-minute morning routine during the Fall and Winter season, check out my blog on that. It’s exclusive to the holistic homies membership at $4.99/mo!
Eat more seasonal produce. A balanced and nutrient dense diet makes all the difference in our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. During the Fall and Winter seasons our bodies tend to crave more warm and grounding foods. These foods also help us stay more energized, fight inflammation and improve our digestion. This is the season for more soups, stews, and roasted vegetables. More sweet potatoes, carrots, and apples. For a thorough food shopping list, check out my plant-based starter pack! It’s great for eating more seasonal produce and making every meal a lot more green and colorful — perfect for beginners. And I don’t know who needs to hear this but there’s a lot of power in cooking at home during this season. It’s therapuetic, grounding, and it helps us create a better relationship with food and our bodies.
Move your body in ways that feel fun, creative, and good to you. This can be indoors or outdoors but if you’re anything like me I do not like to workout outside in cold weather. We ned movement more than every during this season because it released endorphins which help us with anxiety, mood swings, and depression. This helps us create more emotional stability. This is a great time to take walks outside or to sign up for a hot yoga or hot pilates membership. Even a quick 15-20 minute at home workout on YouTube can work wonders! I also think this is a great time to get into more community workouts like dance, barre, boxing or HIIT training. It will increase your heart rate and improve your mood.
More than ever we want to stay connected with ourselves this season. The goal is to get clear on how we want to feel and aligning our schedule with things that make us feel good and fulfilled.
Seasonal depression or SAD can feel isolating, but by integrating these habits, you’re actively investing in your mental well-being. Each habit has been chosen not only to keep your spirits up but also to help you stay grounded, connected, and uplifted during this time. Remember, small, intentional steps can go a long way toward supporting a balanced mind and body. Wishing you a cozy, vibrant fall season filled with warmth and well-being!
BIG gratitude, not the little one.
- Arielle Simone