A Penny for your Thoughts: Seasonal Blahs
I almost started ranting about things that didn’t belong in this post, but I wrangled my inner demon (to release her another day) and got back on track!
Well, it’s that time of year again, you know what I mean if you live in a place where the seasons change regularly. And even if you do live somewhere that’s warm more often than not, you may still experience what I call the Seasonal Blahs.
The nights are a lot longer now and are going to get even longer. Less sunshine means more blah-feeling days. It also means bouts of cabin fever when there’s three feet of snow on the ground … well, for me anyway. I seem to get this crazy urge to go somewhere – anywhere – for a little while when the snow is at its worst. It’s usually freezing and coming down in sheets when I have this insane urge to go somewhere and do something.
I tend to fight this urge because I can’t afford to have some idiot slam into me and be out of a vehicle. So, I play video games or watch engrossing shows or movies in order to shake it off. I used to get lost in a book during these times, but lately, I have a difficult time doing that. Before Horatio Slice the last book to engross me well enough to read 80% of it in one sitting is The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead. Just an example of what I go through to find a good book.
Good stories, however, I’m never ever short on. Thanks to the writers that participate in Masturbation Monday, Wicked Wednesday, Friday Flash, and more, I always have something fun and new to read at my fingertips. It might be a one-shot story or an on-going serial. I love the ongoing serials, though. They keep me on edge – which is why I enjoy writing them as well. I hope to tempt you back each and every installment.
The Seasonal Blahs are rough, though. I’ve thought of a few ways I can fight them off. One, I can go to a café to write instead of sitting at home writing. If I do that, then I won’t be at home sifting through tv channels or Netflix/Hulu shows. Of course, I can’t miss the shows I do watch for more reasons than just being addicted to them.
The other thing is that I can exercise more. If I get some form of exercise every single day, then it should help me sleep and feel better about the impending snow shoveling heading my way in a short period of time. Yes, I’ll be including shoveling snow as part of exercise, because it is. If you haven’t shoveled wet, packed snow before, try it sometime. It’s more tiring than running uphill. And no, I won’t be buying a snow blower, simply because snow shoveling is an exercise, dammit. (Despite what my FitBit thinks.)
I’ve also started on Fall Cleaning – the opposite of Spring Cleaning – where you wash all the blankets that are being pulled out of the closet for those extra cold nights. Swap out the curtains and cover entryways that let out heat. I have two closets, one on each side, where my front door is. They let out tons of heat, so I cover the archway. The temperature behind the curtain is quite different than the rest of the house.
I’m also taking vitamins. Again. I have bouts of issues when it comes to vitamins. I either feel worse or no better more often than not. I don’t understand that either. I eat healthy, so technically, I shouldn’t need them – but no one eats enough properly to get the recommended vitamins. And, if you haven’t heard, Europe actually has way higher vitamin daily recommendations than we do here in the good ole USA. Yeah, figure that out.
Another thing is adding more music to my Amazon Music. I recently revisited the 80s and realized that Alice Cooper was a HUGE influence on my smutty writing career. Don’t believe me? Listen to the Trash album. I used to listen to it ALL. THE. TIME. It’s smutty as fuck. I’ve also added some INXS, Poison, Motley Crue, Skid Row… you get the gist.
Adding more music, a variety of music, will get me up and moving. Whether it’s doing laundry, general cleaning, or writing. It’ll get me doing something constructive. I won’t be under the black cloud of depression that tends to hang right over me if I keep moving fast enough.
