How girls cope with the autumn blues
Getting up is already hard pulls on the "comfortable" food and concentrate on work becomes more difficult - hello, autumn. We asked active girls how to deal with seasonal melancholia or not to experience it at all.
I have a birthday in September, but I really do not like autumn (and even more so winter), so I hardly share the joy of my friends: "Now you can get into a thousand clothes!" Come on? In Moscow, it is usually cold, dirty and damp. Seven months of the year, I definitely live somehow differently, all my summer activity is gradually disappearing and I become a small vegetable. It would have faded from summer to summer with chips and serials, but self-control helps to cope: in the mornings I always get up with the first alarm clock - no need to stretch flour and wind up ten, so that I don’t have time or be late, and as soon as I catch myself thoughts that the mood once again deteriorates due to the weather, I take myself in hand and find a positive moment - the day is saved. I forbade myself to be upset for more than a minute for any reason - and the spleen simply does not have time to get comfortable. In general, I, of course, envy those who find this time beautiful and calmly exist in it. It is good that there are planes and places where summer is all year round.
In general, I belong to those people who depend little on the weather: I find my advantages in all seasons. The only thing - for good health, I definitely need to see daylight (ideally, also sunny, but with this it can be quite difficult). Now I am a freelancer and I have a small child - this implies that I plan the day as I prefer, and that in any weather, except for heavy rain, I go for a walk. But even in those days when I worked in an office, I tried to go for a walk instead of lunch at a cafe. Because if you do not do this, it will turn out that in November-December you will never see the daylight: you go to work when it is still dark, and you return home when it is already dark. This is the way to depression, ashes, hopelessness and green complexion. And even a half-hour walk in the middle of the day raises the spirits and thoroughly airs the head. As for food, I, like everyone else, are drawn to comfort food in the winter, but here I am a bad example for imitation and I don’t limit myself in particular.
I love autumn. I like that the weather is unstable and it may rain suddenly after the sun, and that you can wear a T-shirt in mid-September. Since school, autumn has been associated with change, a new school year, and new responsibilities. Autumn blues, as a rule, I do not have, of course, gray and rainy weather crushes, but at such moments I like to lie at home under a blanket and watch TV shows. In this weather, rarely anyone goes for a walk, and you can devote the remaining time to yourself: to disassemble old things or photos from a summer trip. In the fall I try to drink vitamins and actively monitor my health (no one likes to catch cold), I still eat a lot of fruit. But in fact, no one better than friends and relatives will help to cope with the autumn blues. Even if you just watch a movie with friends. Then, as a rule, sadness passes in half a day. I can’t say that autumn is worse than summer, because after autumn comes winter, and there New Year is my favorite holiday, which I look forward to.
I am very active, because there is always a lot of work and I have to constantly fuss. And sometimes the mood changes too often. And while constantly wanting to sleep. Constantly. Appetite does not change. The only thing that is uncharacteristic for me is that I often want tea. Cope is necessary. Rhythm, responsibility and love of action are driven. Always between meals and sleep I will choose a dream. More often I want to spend the evening at home, but in order not to be sad, you are looking for various interesting and pleasant things, so that it is more fun and does not attend the sad autumn thoughts. In general, autumn is very beautiful, and I always have something interesting happening. What rupe are you talking about ?!
Probably due to the fact that my vocation is connected with aesthetics, everything that surrounds me greatly influences my mood. And the presence of rain in the fall really causes a slight sadness. I simply cannot afford to become completely limp, since I work with a large number of creative people who, with no small blues, expect support and inspiration from me. Intuitively, I pay much more attention to my appearance and costume in the fall: I do my makeup more carefully, I definitely wear impressive lipstick, I think through the details of clothes. Sometimes I continue to wear shades of cloudy, sunny and turquoise for a long time, as if prolonging the summer mood. While you are thoroughly engaged in all your ways, you simply have no time to lose heart and be depressed. Most of the time I experiment and change my hair color in the fall (here and now I dyed it with magenta).
I think travel is an undoubted salvation from any longing. It has long been chosen a short vacation (preferably with friends, but not with her beloved) precisely in late September - early October. This autumn week, for example in Europe, provides an opportunity not only to lose all fatigue, but also to choose Christmas presents. I am not a supporter of any diets and is completely far from sports, and the desire to eat more tightly and does not leave me 25 hours a day. But the harder the food, the slower and calmer I get, and this is another reason to stop and chant. I choose autumn vegetables (grilled, baked and even raw), fish and seafood - it’s better to be a little hungry and cheerful than full and dull. Supplements prefer "energy" (such as ginseng), which simply give strength. And I drink a lot of pure water.
This change of weather and daylight has a terrible effect on me. I absolutely do not know how to deal with this, and even the desire to do in the morning 10-minute yoga disappears. I try to do my morning fees as quickly as possible and intensively care for my face so that you can safely leave home without makeup. But there are, of course, cases of perfect blues when I go to the cinema, to an exhibition or a concert, taking with me the most ridiculous friend or girlfriend, so that later at night I can walk and drink wine or not wine.
When I have to wake up before sunrise, I immediately begin to feel apathy. How in this state to continue to work, train and live in general, I understood a year ago. I read many articles on the topic and understood: the most important thing is that more light is needed. And the first thing bought a light alarm. This ingenious invention begins to turn on half an hour before the rise and gradually inflames, the lamp imitates the solar dawn, which is so necessary for us to stop the production of melanin in the body and we wake up awake. This thing saved me last winter, no joke. And do not be afraid of the cost of the lamp - the investment in yourself and your well-being is the most faithful. It is also important to understand that there will be little confusion from the lamp if it is not enough to sleep. I am a lark and I adore the morning, so I try to get up early and do some useful things before work: yoga, cleaning, breakfast - it is important to set the rhythm for your day, and not to be jelly. Therefore, I try to go to bed until 12.
No matter how badly it sounds, the main thing that still needs to be understood is that we have all the problems in our head. And the first step that needs to be done is to choose that you no longer suffer. It may sound strange and incomprehensible, but when you get tired of whining and start thinking that everything is OK, regardless of whether the sun is in the sky or not, it becomes really easier. I forced myself to smile mechanically - and after a while you begin to smile from the heart. All these methods combined helped me so much that I remembered how I went to work in the dark, just because my colleagues ached about it in the morning, proving to me that you feel the way you want to feel. Fighting weaknesses is not difficult if you do not deceive yourself and really want it. I am 100% sure that it’s just convenient for many people to suffer, and those who complain that nothing helps them and “oh God how bad it is without the sun”, they simply chose this and it’s convenient for them to be in such a state. I learned from my own experience that it is possible to get out of this state, so I’m not particularly worried about reducing the daylight hours, but tomorrow I’ll get and set up a light alarm.
Probably because I was born in the middle of autumn, this is my favorite season. Cooling, leaf fall, frequent changes of weather, coats and hats - all this leads me to indescribable delight. What does not negate the fact that with the onset of cold weather activity decreases, drowsiness comes and you do not want to get out from under the blanket in the morning. In addition, this time of colds, and it is they, not the cold themselves, can be great to spoil the mood. What to do with it? I do not think that we need special measures, it is enough to strictly comply with the standard rules of keeping fit. Do exercises, if you do it (or start, if not), try to go to bed and get up at the same time (even if it is 2 am and 8 am). I have two personal recipes, and they are not very original either. The first is to walk more, it is useful and improves mood. The second is to eat off seasonal vegetables and fruits like beets, turnips and apples, which you can find in Moscow if you wish. I was lucky this year - a farm fair appeared next to the office.
This year, having moved to Berlin, I met my first autumn here. By the way, the last day of summer was one of the best days this year, let's call a spade a spade, the Berlin Tinder for art is a real treasure. So, on the second day of the fall, I had nothing in my head except Basa's haiku, "To fall in love like a hot face, put it in the snow ... ". What kind of spleen there. In general, for the fall there appeared a lot of new entertainment. Summer is a pretty sweet time, but Berlin is hot and never sleeps.
When the city has the world famous club "Berghain" in a huge industrial building, the path to which lies through an abandoned wasteland, or the former poor and now trendy district of Neukölln with a bunch of Arab shops in which you feel like in a cyberpunk film, Autumn seems the most natural time for good fun. Such as unemotional techno, which you want to compare with the perfect font Helvetica, in which there is nothing superfluous, with layout and smells of glossy magazines like Monocle and with bright 032C.
But if all the same blues has risen (for me it is not at all connected with the seasons), then it is necessary to change something technically. If you have a bad situation, it means that you haven’t left to hang out for a long time or have lost the wave of working enthusiasm. Then you need an effort of will to get out of the hole or start working and doing everything quickly, not postponing it for later. In the process there is interest. As for the Berlin techno - when listening to good headphones, it seems to me the most versatile and fast medicine for everything.
I do not like autumn, and especially winter, primarily because of the lack of sunlight. Over the years, I realized that neither cold, nor slush, nor rain affect the mood as much as the absence of light. Neither in the morning, nor in the evening, and even in the afternoon you will not wait for it - one grayness and melancholy. From this, I immediately fall into despondency and stop waking up on time. The human body is designed to live according to circadian rhythms, day and night, and does not understand why to get up when it is dark. My way of dealing with this was very radical - I quit my office and stopped getting up early. She also stopped making appointments before 12 in the morning. Of course, not everyone can do the same, but there is one more invigorating method in the fall - to start running in the morning. To be in time for work, you will have to get up early, and the most difficult thing is to push yourself out of a warm bed. But on the street you will find a quiet half-empty city that is just beginning to wake up, freshness and vigor thanks to the coolness - and endorphins after exercise. Only 30 minutes of running in the morning - and the day is already going differently, I am not a sleepy owl, blinking with bulging eyes, but a lively active person. I will also say a commonplace thing, but it seriously affects the state of health of a glass of water immediately after waking up. The body really starts after it and fall back more difficult.
My masthead in the morning and in the evening - fragrant shower gels and body creams: in the morning they are necessarily “energetic”, in the evening they are relaxing. In the mornings - Bath & Body Works Energy lotion, and in the evenings just a bastard from the new Aromatherapy L'Occitane line (relaxing gel and cream). The truth works for me - it gives pleasant emotions, it makes you remember that there is something in the world besides grayness outside the window. A necessary thing for me to be in a good mood is to know that a journey awaits me. I already bought tickets to the tropics for the New Year, and I have one thought about it every morning. I am the person who has a nervous tremor in his hands, if there is no trip ahead, but in the summer it is not so important, it is so pleasant to be in the city, but in the winter it is important.
It is also important for me how to wake up. In the summer at seven in the morning, the sun blinding his eyes wakes up, and in the fall and winter it was usually the shrill thrum of the iPhone, which I hate (as a child I was woken up by a TV that turned on by timer, and I still hate the clap with which it was turned on). Now found two other options. The first one is the Jawbone UP bracelet, it should wake up in the right phase of sleep, but I love it just because of how gently it does it - it vibrates slightly on the arm and that's it. The second option - hurray, in Russia Philips alarms are on sale again! It fills the room with light gradually, increasing it to a predetermined time, as well as the sound (there are sounds of nature in the recording). Not yet fully appreciated (there is no top of the window), but the awakening is already more pleasant. A good thing is to plan yourself for every weekend massage. Well, or at least a couple of times a month: when someone cracks your bones, it’s more difficult to get depressed, the masseur’s skilled hands take off all the nerve clamps. And personally, I'm going to buy a bright red cover on the sofa. In our home there are few bright colors in the interior, it's time to fix it.
From the autumn and winter blues, I literally run away - a journey in this case, perhaps, is the best medicine. But if there is no such possibility, then you can fight it with improvised means, for example, start the day early so that it does not seem so short due to the fact that the sun sets a little earlier than usual. Revise the diet: add more vitamins (better in their natural form) and do not eat at night, to get up in the morning was nicer and easier. Well, instead of fatty foods, when you want something warming, it’s better to just choose the food more sharply. And it is also important to keep yourself in the active phase of the movement: jogging, yoga, swimming pool, great or marathon in the appointments - who like more. Well, mental balance helps to preserve favorite activities, dear friends or new hobbies - I, for example, began to learn two new languages for myself, now I don’t physically have enough time for sadness, bad mood and depression.