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Light

Deficiency of light is the primary cause of SAD and Winter Blues. The decrease in daylight during the winter months causes our brains to secrete melatonin, a hormone that makes us feel tired, sluggish and hungry by day. Shorten days plus daylight saving equals our circadian rhythms and hormones to be thrown off. Use light to reset your mental landscape, increase serotonin, energy and restore joy.

• Maximize natural daylight by removing heavy window treatment, consider light sheer curtains for privacy by day and shades for night time privacy. Position desk chairs to face the healing views of windows that offer mood boosting sunlight. 

• When the sun begins to set late in the afternoon, the widow views in our homes become black holes in our rooms. To remedy this problem, consider low voltage landscape lights outside your windows shining up to backlight the windows. Similarly, grazing landscape light up a tree can give you the same effect. These solutions will also add dramatic exterior lighting for the winter months.

• A light therapy box mimics outdoor light. Supplementing with this light can lift your mood and eases other symptoms of SAD, such as being tired most of the time and sleeping too much. Situate it where you spent time in the morning for about 20-30 minutes in your bathroom or near the breakfast table for the whole family to receive their morning boost.

• Take inventory of light bulbs, increase the wattage to the maximum permitted, go with warm white incandescent bulbs that provide a warm cozy interior glow throughout your home. For workspaces, daylight full spectrum bulbs produce light that closely resembles true daylight, this light is too cool throughout your home as it mirrors winter cool winter light. Notice if lamps are needed for dark corners of rooms. We tend to think of lighting the center of a room, but a light fixture grazing a wall, or a window or a mirror, reflects light back into a room. Similarly, a mood enhancing uplight will flood the ceiling creating an atmosphere of spaciousness that is very important with so much indoor time. Research shows that a morning boost of light goes a long way, so make sure your bathroom and breakfast area is well lit. Remember, it’s important to maximize daylight, but our circadian rhythm wants the light lower in the evening to prepare our brains for sleep. Strategically place a few light times on lamps by entrance ways and windows, will ensure you don’t walk into an unlit home. Having dimmer switches allows us to control and lower the light in the evening.

• Ambient lighting is essential in the winter months, nothing creates a cozy atmosphere like candles. A few beeswax or soy candle’s will burn clean without emanating toxins into your precious air quality. It’s worth investing in good quality candles.

Ambient lighting is more than illumination, think of it as eliminating darkness rather than seeing light.

In the winter months I love the smell and the warm glow from a candle perched on the kitchen window sill over my kitchen sink as I prepare dinner in the early evening. To honor our circadian rhythm, as the day turns back to night, I dim the dining room lights and light a candle on the dinner table to enjoy a calming dinner experience.

Circadian rhythm is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats on each rotation of the Earth roughly every 24 hours.

• Fairy lights are another example of ambient lighting that trigger dopamine, the feel good chemical in our brains — they are no longer just for dorm rooms or the holiday season. These twinkling lights can be used whimsically in any room in your home to add a cozy atmosphere. Similarly, outdoor light that can strung in a neat line on your front porch or back deck to enjoy through your windows.  

2

Color

The colors we choose to surround ourselves in, can be one of the most powerful antidotes for the winter blues. Orange-yellow ranges warm the gray winter landscape, in contrast soothing our souls and lifting our spirits. These warm colors have a similar affect in artwork, brightening rooms that don’t have a lot of natural sunlight. 

• Yellow makes us feel good, capturing the joy of sunshine, supplementing the lack of sun with people spending most of their time indoors away from the sun in the winter time. Cozy warm golden glows can provide the effect of a sunset.

• No other color warms a room better than glowing orange painted walls. Orange is also the most uplifting, energizing and cheerful colors, making it one of the most healing in the spectrum.

• Light earthy sage green can put you at ease, in a state of tranquility similar to a walk in the woods. Greens have long been recognized as renewal and rebirth, provoking feelings of the hope of spring.

• The impact that color has on our wellbeing throughout the winter months can shift decisions to repaint or paper walls to live with year round.  Assess your current room colors. Are there other ways to bring these mood altering colors into our homes? Consider a seasonal makeover, trading out toss pillows and throw blankets, splashing warm orange and soft greens into the mix. An oversized sunset piece of artwork, strategically placed, can offer the same healing effects. 

• Blue in general calls to mind feelings of calmness and serenity. It is often described as peaceful, tranquil, secure, orderly and is known to lower one’s pulse rate. Autumn sky blues help people feel calm and mimic the spaciousness of the open skies. Pulling from nature again, soft blues such robins egg blues distresses, allowing our bodies to relax and lift our moods. Avoid cool grays and blues that duplicate the dreary view outside our windows all winter long.

• Scandinavian countries take a different approach to creating interiors to get through long dark winters, rather than the dark, rich colors and textures used in the northern US. Classic Scandinavian interiors use soft creams, pale blues and white airy color palettes accented with warm wood to create bright, cheerful spaces. Be careful when using whites, they can be bright but also feel too cold and glaring mirroring the winter landscape. This light color scheme, natural wood furniture with a cozy fireplace and bookshelf adds Hygge.

Danish word hygge (pronounced something like \HEW-guh\), is a noun and adjective, to refer to cozy and comfortable surroundings that invoke an inner sense of contentment or well-being. 

3

Biophilic Design

Biophilic design is a concept used within the building industry to increase occupant connectivity to the natural environment through the use of direct nature, indirect nature, and space and place conditions.

“Physiological responses triggered by connections with nature include relaxation of muscles, as well as lowering of diastolic blood pressure and stress hormone.”

Terrapin Bright Green

• Lush vibrant house plants can transform your home into a bright summer-esque retreat with colorful blossoms and greenery in contrast to the white exterior. We don't need the proof of hundreds of studies to tell us that plants boost moods and reduce stress, we experience it ourselves. The very nature of caring for a plant can be very therapeutic. With competition for sunny windows space, consider low light, and low maintenance plants such as Peace Lilies which produce a lovely white flower and Anthuriums offering bright red, pink and white flowers both are perfect to brighten any dark corner. 

• Indoor gardening is another way to surround yourself with plants and improve your health with a supply of micro greens or herbs that are easy to grow on any sunny window sill. This year I’m experimenting with peppermint, thyme and chives. These plants extends the smell of summer with all the aromatherapy benefits and snippets of fresh herbs on-hand. Lined up in clean white metal pots in front of a sunny window by my desk, I can enjoy their healing benefits all winter long. By February, I will set up my grow lights and shelves to jump start another year of basil, kale and broccoli seedlings. Tending to this new life brings hope of spring in every handful of potting soil and the excitement of every emerging sprout.

Surrounding ourselves with elements of nature can be an antidote for the winter blues.

• Art depicting nature, such as a bright warm sunrise against blue sky, is a therapy widely used in institutions to calm and reduce anxiety. Art is personal. Contemplate natural landscapes such as a vast spring meadow filled with flowers or a calming summer seascape, what provokes joy in you? 

Materials derived from nature have been shown to have a positive impact on our health. Add the warm feel of wooden bowls, the texture of woven materials like baskets, sisal and jute. You can be confident that a wool rug your child plays on or a cotton throw pillow you lay your head on, will not off gas like synthetics, leaving behind harmful toxins.

A simple flower arrangement can lift our spirits, as we catch a glimpse and the scent walking by.

4

Spaciousness 

Making space for what is most important to your wellbeing. Clutter makes us feel closed in and stressed, while spaciousness gives us the room to combat the winter blues. In these open spaces you can reduce the common side effects of these winters such as fatigue, weight gain, overeating, sadness and depression, loss of interest and concentration.

• Purge and organize kitchen cabinets and refrigerator, donate unused clothing, declutter bathroom storage, open the windows for better circulation while deep cleaning, feel the sunlight through crystal clean windows, creating a fresh, peaceful sanctuary. During the winter months this can give a sense of accomplishment to clear and declutter.

• Clear a space dedicated to exercising. Weight gain is a side effect of low energy and carbohydrate craving that are common side effects of long, dark winters. With less access to gyms and outdoor activity, it’s more important than ever to dedicate a space to exercise. Set up a yoga sanctuary for meditation next to an area for movement with weights and exercise bands. This area will help maintain a healthy body weight, energy level increase, concentration and reduce depression. Exercise boosts serotonin and releases endorphins to combat the winter blues. Create a space that inspires you with motivational images, quotes, and bright sunny colors.

It’s very common to lose interest and concentration in activities during the long winter months. Beat cabin fever with inspiring activities that genuinely excite you!

Make self care a priority.