Winter Wellbeing: Taking care of yourself this season

Tis the season to get those woolies down from the loft, over indulge yourself, people please and battle with dried out, lack lustre skin to name but a few!

Winter is finally upon us and it's a season filled with mixed emotions; festive fun and January blues, reflecting over the last 12 months and trying to feel positive about the year ahead. Plus the weather — those cold, miserable, rainy days coupled with dark mornings, as well as evenings with not much sunlight is enough to make us all feel mixed about the next few months ahead.

Lately I've noticed how many people I've spoken to that have confessed that they get really down in the winter months, especially once the clocks have changed. The Royal College of Psychiatrists state on their website that 3 in every 100 people will suffer with Seasonal Affective Disorder, this is when your mood and behaviour changes in relation to a change in the season and starts to disrupt your day to day life in a negative way (for more information and advice on this you can visit here and here for support).

For a lot of us who don't suffer as seriously but just need a little seasonal boost, putting our wellbeing front and centre can make all the difference and there are a few simple ways to put some self care rituals into place.

Plan to Succeed!
If you're somebody who puts everyone else's wellbeing first, or maybe your winter calendar is super hectic then planning in some time for you really works. Using a diary - paper or digital - really works! You can still buy 2019/20 academic ones in the shops right now or maybe treat yourself to a new one for the new year! I schedule in chunks of time on a monthly basis in my diary for personal self care and then pop on some smaller, positive things on my weekly to-do list, like taking a bath childfree and uninterrupted! Batch cooking some healthy, warming soup, planning in an afternoon to catch up with a friend or blocking out time for any early night! This is what works for me but you need to figure out what activities or practices work for you!

A family affair!
Do you know what makes prioritising wellbeing and self care easier? When you get other in on the act! Talking to your family, or friends/colleagues about what your priorities are really helps. Let them know what they can do to support you and don't forget to encourage them to think about theirs and offer some support to help them too.

Create a Bucket List!
A simple wellbeing hack is to create a seasonal bucket list of all the things you want to do that you know will make you feel good. You can do this just for yourself or get others involved, and you can theme it too, you can choose to make it a low budget one, an outdoorsy one, a festive one, a food related one, a new thing every day one, whatever you fancy! You can write it out in a journal if you have one, you can keep it private or share it with the world, you can even print it out, laminate in and put it on the kitchen cupboard, hell you can even make a Pinterest board out of it!! Get creative as you like but remember to keep feel good, positive wellbeing at the centre of it and make it achievable too so you feel motivated and inspired to keep ticking activities of the list!

So are you feeling more inspired to take care of your wellbeing this season now? Because you are really worth investing in! If you want EVEN MORE inspiration, tips and ideas on taking care of yourself this season then take a look at my Winter Wellbeing Workbook here.