Don't brush off that yearly feeling as simply a case of the "winter blues" or a seasonal funk that you have to tough out on your own. Take steps to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year.
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that's related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same times every year. If you're like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. These symptoms often resolve during the spring and summer months. Less often, SAD causes depression in the spring or early summer and resolves during the fall or winter months.
SAD SYMPTOMS
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) - Symptoms and causes
In most cases, seasonal affective disorder symptoms appear during late fall or early winter and go away during the sunnier days of spring and summer. Less commonly, people with the opposite pattern have symptoms that begin in spring or summer. In either case, symptoms may start out mild and become more severe as the season progresses.
Signs and symptoms of SAD may include:
Feeling listless, sad or down most of the day, nearly every day
Losing interest in activities you once enjoyed
Having low energy and feeling sluggish
Having problems with sleeping too much
Experiencing carbohydrate cravings, overeating and weight gain
Having difficulty concentrating
Feeling hopeless, worthless or guilty
Having thoughts of not wanting to live
Oversleeping
Appetite changes, especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates
Weight gain
Tiredness or low energy
FALL IN TCM
Chinese medicine pays very close attention to season changes as these changes can impact our bodies and minds in various ways. Every season has its own affinity to one of the five elements as well as to different organ systems. Autumn represents the metal element and the organ associated with metal is the lung. This is the time to pay special attention to lung health and your immune system, especially since we are headed into winter (aka flu season).
Along with the physical symptoms that can arise during the shift from summer into fall, we can also become more susceptible to sadness and grief. Just as each organ has an affinity to a particular season, each organ has an affinity to particular emotions too. In Chinese medicine, excess sadness and grief is said to damage the lungs. This works the opposite way too: if our lungs feel stressed during the summer/autumn shift, we become more likely to experience sadness and grief.
HERE ARE SOME TIPS ON ADJUSTING TO THE TRANSITION AND EMBRACING AUTUMN
Eating seasonally can help your body to function at its highest potential. Vegetables ripen at particular times because that’s when they are supposed to be eaten. It’s nature’s way of providing what is needed at the appropriate times of the year. All those yummy oranges and yellow squashes, apples and kale leaves, and pretty much any root vegetables are the perfect foods to eat plenty of.
Spend time outside in nature. Research shows that our perception of color shifts according to the season. As the leaves on the trees begin to change color, try to spend some time enjoying the beauty of the change.
Has it been a while since you’ve gotten acupuncture? Now is the perfect time for an acupuncture tune-up to ease symptoms of seasonal change. The practitioners at Onyx can also custom tailor a treatment plan designed just for you to support you throughout Autumn, and beyond.
WINTER IN TCM: USE NATURE TO GUIDE YOU
According to Chinese Medicine, Winter is the most Yin Season. You have most likely heard of the principle of Yin and Yang. Yin is the cold, inward, dark, restful , feminine qualities. Yang has warm, outward, bright, active, masculine qualities. There are ways to work with nature and the seasons to make the most of each time of year. We are part of nature and we often forget this due to our never changing work routines, the ever available produce throughout the year, and our climate controlled homes.
Winter is a time to slow down, take time to rest, do more internal self-care and activities such as reading, journaling, restorative yoga, and meditation. Winter is related to the Kidneys which house our most basic energy passed down from our parents and what we then give our children. It can be fortified by all of the activities above and by the food we choose to eat. Some Kidney tonifying/winter foods are: root vegetables, bone broth, sea weeds, fish, miso, eggs, black and kidney beans. Eating warm, nourishing foods during the cold months does wonders to restore our energy and get us ready for a more active time.
WINTER IS A TIME TO TURN INWARD.
This long dark winter will come to an end. It always does. This winter seems more bleak than past years but all the more reason to turn our attention inward, do some needed self-reflection, contemplate all the questions humans have asked for millennia, cozy up with a book you have been wanting to read, snuggle with your partner, kids or pets. It is truly beneficial having a mindset that makes the winter and social distancing feel like a challenge that we can use to our advantage. We can learn from these new boundaries and use this time to improve ourselves. We can also come out of this season with a renewed sense of purpose every year when the seasons start turning cold.
“If we never experience the chill of a dark winter, it is very unlikely that we will ever cherish the warmth of a bright summer’s day. Nothing stimulates our appetite for the simple joys of life more than the starvation caused by sadness or desperation. In order to complete our amazing life journey successfully, it is vital that we turn each and every dark tear into a pearl of wisdom, and find the blessing in every curse.” - Anthon St. Maarten