Ivy Sea Online: Mindset Management - Beat the "blues" and master your mood

Mindset-Mastery Skill-Builder
BEAT THE BLUES AND MASTER YOUR MOOD

For many people, the winter months or rainy seasons or places can bring on a sense of 'the blues'. This can take many shapes and forms, and may be mild or severe. If the weather is cold or gray (or both), the days are shorter, and you’re stuck indoors for greater periods of time, you may have felt some level of effect on your mental and physical state. In more serious cases, the winter 'blues' may lead to a state of depression – a condition that mental-health practitioners call Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD.

What contributes to the 'winter blues'?

According to the National Mental Health Association, one possible cause of the 'winter blues' is a variation in our levels of melatonin, a so-called 'sleep hormone' that is stimulated by darkness. If our melatonin levels increase, we may feel more sleepy, hibernation-oriented, and even depressed.

What’s more, research has shown that chronic stress affects hormonal balance. Like it or not, it seems that the more hurried, busy, and 'high tech' we are, the more out of sync we are with our natural rhythms. Put this together with the hormonal effect of darker days and longer nights, and you may have a potent cocktail that brings your mood down and makes it more of a challenge to be upbeat, positive, and motivated.

How can you brighten 'the blues'?

Assuming that you’ve got a more mild case of the blues, and not a serious case of depression or a physical condition that requires the expertise of a physician or therapist, there are some easy and fun things you can do to master your Blue Mood.

• Add color to your daily routine and environment. Have you ever noticed that when the weather and your mood turn gray, your clothing choices sometimes follow? It’s amazing to note how many people who feel stressed and depressed wear only black, white and gray clothing. Like many other things, color affects our moods, and our moods can affect our wellness and our reality. If you surround yourself with neutral colors, and wear mostly black and white clothing, adopting color can seem, oddly enough, a little scary. Color makes us visible! It makes us stand out! And it can lift our mood and feelings of wellness. For example, reds and oranges are warming, yellow can help us cheer up and focus, blues and purples can be cooling and calming, green can uplift and stimulate creativity, pink can seem calming and nurturing. Different shades, tones, and colors work for different cultures, moods or constitutions. (To learn more, check out the book Discover Color Therapy, by Helen Graham.) Ask your intuition what colors will help you create balance on any given day. Whether you buy a bouquet of flowers, choose a palette of colorful fruits and vegetables, add colorful images and photos to your work-and-play spaces, add color to your wardrobe, or use colorful pens and file folders, you’ll find yourself feeling more uplifted, vibrant, and creative.

• Swap your normal light bulbs for natural-spectrum bulbs. Living in San Francisco, where the fog of July can create as gray a day as our winter rainy season, it’s easy to feel heavy and glum. I had long thought about using natural-spectrum light bulbs, but got motivated to make the leap when I saw the recommendation of Dr. Christiane Northrup, MD. Natural or full-spectrum light bulbs contain a fuller spectrum of color than do the light bulbs most of us use, and can be healthier for your eyes, mind, and body. I noticed the difference immediately. Full-spectrum light bulbs can be more expensive to purchase, but they apparently last much longer than regular partial-spectrum bulbs. (Learn more at Dr. Northrup’s web site: www.drnorthrup.com).

• Be mindful of your nutrition. We are what we eat; there is surely truth to that old adage. The National Mental Health Association says that the darker winter months may encourage cravings of sugary and starchy foods. While these foods may feel satisfying temporarily, nutritionists such as Linda Prout, author of Live in the Balance and resident nutritionist at the Claremont Spa in Berkeley, CA, say that sugary and starchy foods can lead us back into 'the blues' if we’re not careful about our intake. Ensure that you’re getting healthy doses of colorful vegetables and good quality fats and proteins, and drink plenty of pure water (most people operate in a state of dehydration, which can make one feel achy). The web has plenty of great resources, such as the Produce for Better Health Foundation's site (www.5aday.com), and Linda Prout’s interesting and easy-to-read book is one of my favorite resources for nutritional wisdom and guidance. Ask your own health-practitioners to recommend a few good resources or a nutrition expert to help you customize a plan to suit your unique needs.

• Get your body moving. Yes, that dreaded word: exercise. When one observes legions of young, svelt people in health clubs stepping and cycling away towards nowhere, it's easy to understand why a few people might dread the thought of doing the same. If that's you, here's some good news: there are a lot of ways you can exercise. You can cycle, walk and climb stairs at the gym, in your home, or outside in the fresh air and natural light. You can chop wood, haul things, shovel snow, or do a brisk house-cleaning. You can do yoga or dance. Eastern philosophy and healthcare offer a great metaphor to help us understand how exercise can help on dreary, damp, or dark days. These correlate with 'dampness', a condition that helps keep us hydrated and helps our joints stay lubricated, for example. Yet, if overdone or out of balance, dampness can make us feel heavy, sluggish, dull, or overweight. (See Linda Prout's book, referenced above, for more information.) Wind dries some of that dampness, and aerobic exercise does the same. Exercise can also help to relieve built-up stress. Add natural lighting, according to the National Mental Health Association, and you lighten and brighten both body and mood. And, of course, check with your physician or nurse-practitioner if an exercise program is a new addition to your life.

• Spend time in meditation and prayer. Another age-old bit of wisdom shared by all religions, faith and philosophical traditions is that meditation and prayer help us to build equanimity and overall wellness. Equanimity is another way of saying endurance and evenness, where we have built a solid enough inner-foundation that anchors us no matter what our circumstances. Like a boat, if we’re not anchored, it’s easier to be blown hither and yon by the least challenge, or just simply drift with the prevailing currents. According to experts such as Drs. Norman Shealy, MD, and Carolyn Myss, PhD, meditation and prayer time also support physical healthfulness, by allowing our biological system to rest and our hormonal chemistry to bring itself back into balance, since hormonal imbalance from chronic and unrelieved stress lends to the conditions that lead to disease.

• Be aware of your 'thought patterns'. One of the things that great teachers and wise ones throughout the ages have agreed upon is that our thinking affects our physiology and our reality. One might say, then, that we are what we think. There may be certain circumstances or seasons that make this more of a challenge than it normally is, including the darker winter months. All of these suggestions involve the self-responsibility that is key to mastery, but we can also support our mindset by reading positive materials, working with journaling and affirmations, watching our intake of 'anxious foods' (again, see Linda Prout's book for a good resource on what this means), and enjoying the company of supportive, upbeat, positive people.

• Make the most of aromatherapy. No, aromatherapy isn’t just for spas and Californians anymore. Actually, the use of aromatherapy is ancient, since it seems that the ancients knew and practiced what we – in our infinite wisdom and hurriedness – have forgotten. Peppermint, lavender, ylang-ylang, mandarin orange, lemon, and other natural essences can have a wonderfully balancing and uplifting effect on our mood (many integrated-medicine practitioners also include or approve of aromatherapy to support physical healing, as well). Other essences can lend to a healing, relaxing, or meditative atmosphere. Find your favorites, and have some fun. Look for natural botanicals rather than synthetic perfume products, and pay attention to recommendations about when certain essential oils should not be used. Want to learn more? Check out Aromatherapy Blends & Remedies, by Franzesca Watson – a staple reference on my bookshelf, or visit the web site of the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (www.naha.org).

• Mix your music. Some people like to add sound to lift a mood or help them relax. Since we live in a world of vibration, it makes perfectly good sense to include music in our mindset-management repertoire (have you seen or read The Elegant Universe, with Columbia University physicist, Brian Greene?). The vibrational effects of music are also at the root of the use of prayers or mantras that are spoken out loud in various spiritual traditions, and may be at the root of why some churches include singing in their worship services (whether they know it or not). If you prefer quiet, allow that. If you like the sounds of water or nature, go with that. If you prefer rock, jazz, or classical music, play it. Choose whatever style and pace – vibration – that will take your mental state where you’d like it go.

• Ration your exposure to advertising, news, and television. No, I’m not one of the people who felt compelled to give away their television and retreat from the world, though I understand why someone else might do that. There is a lot of wisdom in being mindful, and choosing to watch television or read news materials accordingly. This even extends to the types of people we spend a lot of time around. The reality is this: If we are what we think, then we have to be mindful about what we allow into our minds and our immediate surroundings. Garbage in, garbage out. There has long been a phrase about the media – "If it bleeds, it leads." News outlets insist that people won’t watch or purchase if there isn’t some latest crisis, blood, gore, violence, and negativity. Politicians, likewise, too often rely on fear and antagonism to mobilize their strongest voting blocks. If you’re immersing yourself in that, that’s where your mental state will be, and it will add to your stressfulness, which may well lead to disease. You choose. It’s easy to select a few sources of news and a few television shows, limit your perusal to those, and understand that it's only part of the story. You can also balance 'one-sided' reporting with publications or shows that include 'the rest of the news' – the stories of people doing amazing and positive things that somehow never find their way into the mainstream news, unless it’s a rare 'slow news day'. For example, Hope Magazine or the Lehrer News Hour (PBS) offer a civil, balanced look at real-world people and issues.

Ready to take charge and lift yourself up?

There are no doubt additional ways to brighten your February (or any other time of the year), lift your spirits, and enhance your wellness. What might you add to this list? For most people, it’s just a matter of mastering your mindset and being more in sync with Nature – after all, you are a part of Nature, and are connected to and affected by its variations. You might choose to begin with one or two of these ideas, or integrate a few or all of them into your own personal development and wellness program as appropriate for you.

Remember: if you feel unable to beat the blues on your own, don’t hesitate to enlist the assistance of a therapist, or check out the National Mental Health Association resources (www.nmha.org). The above suggestions are for mindset-management practices; they are not intended to substitute for psychological counsel or the medical advice of your own health and wellness providers for assistance with more serious conditions.

Wishing you a colorful month, and a fabulously creative and powerful year ahead. After all, it's your choice.

The information presented above is from credible sources on mindset management and wellness, available to any layperson who is interested in researching it. This information is not intended to be, nor is it offered as, a substitution for professional medical or psychological care from your physician or therapist.