Use Light to Nourish Your Energy in Winter

January 26, 2021

In the Northern Hemisphere, we have ample opportunity to discover and create alternative light sources during the winter months, when daylight is more difficult to access. You may be wondering what this means. Let us explain. Please open your heart and your mind to endless possibilities and keep reading to uncover ways to find and use light to nourish your energy in winter.

Access to the Sun

Clear, luminous days allow a person to appreciate and enjoy moments in the sun. Likewise, sunny days in the winter can be a wonderful and invigorating resource. We may bundle up in weather-appropriate clothing, step outside, and bask in the glorious sunshine.

We can allow the sun’s warmth and energy to radiate through our bodies and know that it is providing nourishing vitamin D and other essentials that have the potential to uplift our moods. In fact, sunlight supplies the best sources of vitamin D while also offering other mood-boosting benefits.

Light Therapy

Yet when getting outside is not convenient, consider other possibilities.

Light therapy lamps are one option. These devices mimic outdoor lighting, promoting chemical transformations in the brain that help boost your mood.

Open the shades or curtains in a part of your home where the windows allow in that gorgeous light sun-filled days. Take the opportunity to gaze out at the luster from warm surroundings indoors.

On those sunny days, find a comfortable chair or move a soft, large pillow toward the sunlit window. Cozy up in that perfect spot. Soaking in that warmth has a positive effect on your thoughts and feelings. Research shows the sun’s rays help to reduce stress, strengthen your immune system, and ward off depression.

The colors around you play a role as well. Variances of white, cream, or pastel hues can enhance your brain to trigger serotonin and dopamine. Dopamine and serotonin are chemical messengers known as neurotransmitters that help put you in a happy mood. Feeling sad or discouraged often results from blocks to the natural flow of these hormones.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Many people frequently experience seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, during winter. SAD is a depression associated with the changing seasons, most likely caused by a reduction in accessible sunlight.

Laurie Grengs Counseling can assess your situation and offer personalized recommendations for transforming your frame of mind. Understanding the specifics of why and how lower amounts of light affect you is an individual process. With gentle guidance, we can help you recognize how less light affects your body and help you learn to make adjustments so that you may better enjoy the winter months.

We welcome the chance to help you explore your own journey. There is hope for increased potential to feel more contentment and joy during a time of the year when sunlight is less available. Light can often be found in the most unlikely places, and we can help you find them. Your abundance of light could be right around the corner if you search with a slight shift in perspective.

Laurie Grengs Counseling can introduce visualization strategies and techniques to potentially help you nourish your energy and increase access to light in the winter months. We hope your winter months are filled with abundant light. Contact us to learn more or to make a request for an individual psychologist to work with you toward discovering happiness this winter.