{"id":11,"date":"2009-02-26T18:14:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-26T18:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.wordpress.com\/2009\/02\/26\/beating-the-winter-blahs\/"},"modified":"2009-02-26T18:14:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-26T18:14:00","slug":"beating-the-winter-blahs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/26\/beating-the-winter-blahs\/","title":{"rendered":"Beating the Winter Blahs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size:large;\">A lot of people are feeling down right now.<\/span><span style=\"font-size:medium;\">&nbsp; Winter has been dragging on and lots of us have been housebound and sun-deprived.&nbsp; Kids have cabin fever, parents are stressed about economic worries and the world tends towards gray and dreary.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been battling winter blahs myself lately.&nbsp; It seems like this time of year always gets to me.&nbsp; I am not a fan of 5 months of cold and gray.&nbsp; \ud83d\ude42&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Here&#8217;s some things that help pick me up&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Simmer a big pot of water on the stove all day and dump in anything that smells good<\/span> (spices, potpourri, fruit peels, a few drops of essential oils&#8230;).&nbsp; It will help beat those winter colds, humidify the air and lift your spirits with heavenly scents.&nbsp; Likewise, bake something that both smells and tastes fabulous.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Take advantage of the sunshine and get outside for a while with the kids<\/span>, even if it&#8217;s cold.&nbsp; Sunlight really does affect our moods, and the fresh air will do you good.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Put on a favorite CD and dance with the kiddos.<\/span>&nbsp; The exercise will release feel-good endorphins, you&#8217;ll burn some calories and happy music can&#8217;t help but make a dent in even the grouchiest mood.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Call a friend who makes you laugh.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Get some perspective.<\/span>&nbsp; As tough as times are, most of us are still pretty darn lucky.&nbsp; Spend 15 minutes reading the blog of a mom who&#8217;s just lost her child to cancer and you really remember what matters.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Ask for help.<\/span>&nbsp; If you&#8217;re overwhelmed with life, whether from a new baby or just juggling too much, it&#8217;s okay to lean on people.&nbsp; Many people are happy to help if they know what you need.&nbsp; Even if it&#8217;s just asking your hubby to watch all of the kids for an hour so you can soak in the bathtub, give people an opportunity to help.&nbsp; Likewise, help others who need it.&nbsp; It&#8217;s one of the quickest ways out of a funk for me.&nbsp; If you feel you are seriously depressed, talk to a doctor or therapist.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Pamper yourself and your family.<\/span>&nbsp; Make comfort food, wear your coziest pajamas, watch favorite movies, sleep in, be especially nice to yourself and each other.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Get enough sleep.&nbsp;<\/span> Sleep deprivation affects everything from health to weight to mood.&nbsp; It&#8217;s tempting to stay up late to catch up on things, but it&#8217;s vital to get all the sleep we can.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Be especially loving.&nbsp; <\/span>When we&#8217;re feeling down, it tends to be contagious.&nbsp; Chances are the rest of the family is too, and that leads to an endless loop of everybody dragging everybody farther down.&nbsp; Be especially nice to your sweetie.&nbsp; Give your kids extra hugs.&nbsp; Tell them you love them and why.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Wear a colorful spring outfit or put on red lipstick<\/span><span style=\"font-size:medium;\">, anything<\/span> that makes you feel festive or pretty.&nbsp; Unless you&#8217;re a dad.&nbsp; \ud83d\ude09<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Be present.&nbsp;<\/span> Really pay attention to your children and take it all in.&nbsp; We get so caught up in coping sometimes that we go on autopilot and next thing we know we&#8217;re wondering how our babies could possibly be so grown up.&nbsp; Get down on their level and play.&nbsp; Watch them sleep.&nbsp; Listen to their funny laughs.&nbsp; Pay attention when they ramble on while you&#8217;re trying to get the kitchen cleaned.&nbsp; Better yet, stop cleaning and play.&nbsp; As crazy-making as these times can be, some day they&#8217;ll be gone and chances are we&#8217;ll miss them.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Laugh and smile<\/span>, like it or not!&nbsp; \ud83d\ude09&nbsp; There&#8217;s something to the old saying &quot;fake it till you make it.&quot;&nbsp; Studies have shown that smiling really does make us feel happier and laughing is plain old good for you.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Make some changes.&nbsp;<\/span> We only get one life and it passes quickly.&nbsp; Don&#8217;t coast through it or waste today waiting for tomorrow.&nbsp; Fix the stuff that you can.&nbsp; Make it good!&nbsp; It&#8217;s worth the trouble.&nbsp; \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:larger;\">Play.<\/span>&nbsp; One of the perks of parenthood is the excuse to do fun stuff with our children.&nbsp; Play marbles or Hyper Dash (we love that game) or Uno or catch.&nbsp; Build block towers.&nbsp; Race Matchbox cars.&nbsp; Make paper dolls.&nbsp; Climb a tree.&nbsp; Have a snowball fight.&nbsp; Play with play dough.&nbsp; Swing.&nbsp; Finger paint.&nbsp; Spin tops.&nbsp; Do the hand jive.&nbsp; Go sledding.&nbsp; Have fun!&nbsp; It&#8217;s good for you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Last week I was in a real funk.&nbsp; The week before that I was too, and the week before that. This week I have sailed down a sledding hill with a grinning toddler, played toilet paper toss in my kitchen, got together with friends, spent several hours in a park on a sunny day, colored with my kids and really got down and enjoyed my one year-old.&nbsp; I feel better than I have in months.&nbsp; I just might survive winter after all.<\/p>\n<p>Oh yeah.&nbsp; Chocolate helps too.&nbsp; \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of people are feeling down right now.&nbsp; Winter has been dragging on and lots of us have been housebound and sun-deprived.&nbsp; Kids have cabin fever, parents are stressed about economic worries and the world tends towards gray and dreary. I&#8217;ve been battling winter blahs myself lately.&nbsp; It seems like this time of year&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[76,103,230,262],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}