This is interesting to me! I live somewhere with very long, *very* dark winters, and November in particular tends to be awful because it is wet instead of snowy, and so it's just very dark. It's not that unusual to have fewer than twenty hours of sunshine over the whole month.
Two things have helped. First, I came to realise that I love the darkness – what I didn't like about it in a different urban environment was that it was associated with danger. Take that away (and add a therapy light, yes) and darkness becomes cozy, for me.
Second, and this differs from the theme of the post, but has worked very reliably for me. When November is coming, I say to myself, "This is going to be a very terrible month, but you'll get through it and then it's Christmas time. Just be ready for a finite period of misery." And then when November is actually happening, I tend to think, "Wow, this isn't so bad after all!"
It still has to do with expectations, somehow: I expect it to be terrible, I tell myself I can handle it, and then when it isn't the absolute worst time ever, I feel like I lucked out. This works even though I know I'm tricking myself, and I am pretty sure it really does work, because one year I forgot to mentally prepare myself, and midway through the month was wondering why life seemed so drab and joyless.
I wonder how this experience interacts with Leibowitz's findings. I do honestly love the winter and so many things about it, but I'm okay with not liking November (but, I guess, secretly liking it, too).
Thanks so much for this wonderful comment! November can be particularly rough, can't it? November and February. The darkness thing makes a lot of sense. And I think the grit-your-teeth thing may be another mindset approach — you're telling yourself you can cope, you'll be fine, and so you do and you are. I do wonder whether, if you were to aim higher ("I'm going to enjoy this!") you might have an even better time? But maybe you've found the optimal approach already. And maybe secretly you're already deciding to enjoy it!
Immediately went and waitlisted for that book at the library!
I read once to think of winter as a hibernation season. Things will slow down, evenings may be calmer and more full of things like watching a show or reading a book... It helped me to realize I don't need to have the same expectations of myself that I do during the summer when days are long.
Yes! That’s something I’m thinking about too. It’s ok for winter to be time for rest and recreation. Deliberately taking on less and saying no more. I’ve decided that the winter’s going to be come my time for getting better at playing the piano!
This is interesting to me! I live somewhere with very long, *very* dark winters, and November in particular tends to be awful because it is wet instead of snowy, and so it's just very dark. It's not that unusual to have fewer than twenty hours of sunshine over the whole month.
Two things have helped. First, I came to realise that I love the darkness – what I didn't like about it in a different urban environment was that it was associated with danger. Take that away (and add a therapy light, yes) and darkness becomes cozy, for me.
Second, and this differs from the theme of the post, but has worked very reliably for me. When November is coming, I say to myself, "This is going to be a very terrible month, but you'll get through it and then it's Christmas time. Just be ready for a finite period of misery." And then when November is actually happening, I tend to think, "Wow, this isn't so bad after all!"
It still has to do with expectations, somehow: I expect it to be terrible, I tell myself I can handle it, and then when it isn't the absolute worst time ever, I feel like I lucked out. This works even though I know I'm tricking myself, and I am pretty sure it really does work, because one year I forgot to mentally prepare myself, and midway through the month was wondering why life seemed so drab and joyless.
I wonder how this experience interacts with Leibowitz's findings. I do honestly love the winter and so many things about it, but I'm okay with not liking November (but, I guess, secretly liking it, too).
Thanks so much for this wonderful comment! November can be particularly rough, can't it? November and February. The darkness thing makes a lot of sense. And I think the grit-your-teeth thing may be another mindset approach — you're telling yourself you can cope, you'll be fine, and so you do and you are. I do wonder whether, if you were to aim higher ("I'm going to enjoy this!") you might have an even better time? But maybe you've found the optimal approach already. And maybe secretly you're already deciding to enjoy it!
Immediately went and waitlisted for that book at the library!
I read once to think of winter as a hibernation season. Things will slow down, evenings may be calmer and more full of things like watching a show or reading a book... It helped me to realize I don't need to have the same expectations of myself that I do during the summer when days are long.
Yes! That’s something I’m thinking about too. It’s ok for winter to be time for rest and recreation. Deliberately taking on less and saying no more. I’ve decided that the winter’s going to be come my time for getting better at playing the piano!