Menial moments when mindset matters
The year was 2006, and in ‘06 I was in school in Abbotsford, B.C. I remember it so vividly I was packing to come home for Christmas, I was truly dreading leaving school because I was headed from, a place that held my heart to a dark and gloomy setting, I fell in love with Abbotsford because, in the winter the days were longer and there was almost no snow.
I remember arriving in Smithers, B.C. on the greyhound bus, and it was a cold winters night, probably like midnight and my parents were not there, so I waited as they were probably on their way, I remember looking up at the night sky and thinking “man, the sky is so clear.”
I was picked up pretty quickly after that, and my parent’s place was overcrowded and very hot temperature wise, I slept on their couch. I was going to meet up with my friends in the morning so I need to get some sleep so that I could be at least a little bit coherent the next day, which was in like 5 hours.
I met up with my friends super early as we planning on going for a hike and then go back to their place for a camp fire and some social time, I had some fun there and then it started getting dark at 3:45 pm ish, and without really saying much I asked my mentor if he knew why it gets so dark in the winter so quickly, he quickly answered, it’s the winter solstice it happens every year in December, near Christmas, he then explained what winter solstice was along with summer solstice, and went on to explain how for years he had trouble in the winter until he found a website “www.timeanddate.com” and it has a lot of information that can be a little overwhelming but, what I saw that really interested me was the length of day.
I was still pretty young so I was not taking vitamins yet, but years later, after talking with my doctor I had decided to start taking vitamin D, and when I say years later I talking more recent years like 2022, which is close to 20 years apart.
The reason I am sharing this is because it’s the winter and I have had to try many different coping mechanisms to try and beat the winters blues, if you look at today’s time and date on Jan 20, 2025 the length of day is 8:07:08, just over 8 hrs of day light for today, when winter solstice happened on Dec. 21, 2024 we had 7:12:50 just over 7 hours of daylight, that’s a 1 hour difference in time in 1 month.
To many people the above information may not seem helpful, but when things are difficult and there doesn’t seem like there is much to cling to, and the days seem dark very literal, in the winter time, just remember that winter blues do exist and that you might be affected, my symptoms were as follows (*exclaimer: these symptoms were what I had, and I am not a medical professional, please talk to your doctor, to get the best information regarding your health) I had trouble going to and seeing people, I felt drained, my attitude was very poor, I would focus on all the negative things in my life.
After focus on the days getting longer and how many days the sun was shinning, and after retraining my mind to remember that the days were getting longer, and that soon, summer was going to be here, things started to feel better for me, there are other things I have tried that helped me, like light therapy (sun lamps) I found that 20 minutes under the lamp was very much needed.
Remembering to talk to your doctor when things start to feel off, I am not a doctor and the suggestions I made on this blog are for my situation, I have tested many ways and have found that this regiment is what works for me, looking at a website, taking Vitamins, and utilizing a sun lamp.
Please remember to go online and book a therapy session with a professional therapist, you can go to wwwpsychologytoday.com and look up your town to find a therapist near you, or you can find one that resonates most with you. And especially remember to Breathe deep in and to slowly release the air out.
