how to deal with seasonal depression in winter (a realistic winter self care pep talk)

Coming to you today from the depths of winter — that stretch where January’s fresh start no longer is motivating us, the holiday magic has long disappeared, and somehow February feels even longer than January did!!

If you’re anything like me, the beginning of the year gave you a little surge of motivation. You make a moodboard, declutter, feel like you were getting your life together. And then suddenly you woke up and all your motivation was GONE.

I know for me, as a girly with ADHD, lack of motivation often translates very quickly into full on shut down, where I do nothing at all. And if we’re already feeling seasonally depressed, doing nothing only makes it all feel heavier. So today we are going to dive into how we can make the most of this season when we are not naturally thriving.

Winter Is Allowed to Feel Slow

I truly believe God designed winter to remind us to slow down!! The days are shorter. The nights are longer. There’s more time to be at home, less pressure to do all the things. If you’re feeling more emotional, more tired, more like you want to hibernate — that doesn’t mean something’s wrong with you or that you are lazy, it is just part of being human!

So if you’re telling yourself you feel lazy or unmotivated, here’s the truth: give yourself grace. Winter feels long, and it’s okay to slow down.

The Art of a Bare Minimum Day in Winter

One of the most helpful tools I’ve developed for myself in winter is what I call a bare minimum day. These are the days when you wake up and your body already feels tired, you know you have low energy. The thought of your usual routines feels overwhelming. This is when I pull out a bare minimum day.

Instead of throwing the whole day away completely, I still showing up, just in a very simple + attainable way.

SOME EXAMPLES:

— Instead of your full morning routine of doing your skincare, makeup, hair you just make sure you brush your teeth, do some basic skin care + slick your hair back

— Maybe you normally track your protein and make a big breakfast, but instead you just eat SOMETHING, even if it is just toast or cereal (on low energy days I am so tempted to just skip breakfast)

— Instead of staying in your pjs all day like you want to, you make sure to get dressed but you wear your most comfy clothes

Little intentional moments help too — I always open the blinds for the most natural light, light a candle & play chill music. These things don’t take super long but can help change the vibe!

A “Hard Day” List to remind yourself how to help yourself

On hard days, even knowing what you should do feels impossible. In my kitchen I have a list of “things I can do when I am having a hard day” to remind myself of my options!!

Some examples:

• Drink a large glass of lemon water
• Eat something with protein
• Tell my husband I’m having a hard day
• Call a friend
• Tell Alexa to play our dance playlist and move for one song
• Make babychinos with my toddler
• Step outside for two minutes
• Take ten deep breaths
• Do a screen time check-in

These are very simple, but when motivation is low, I NEED the reminder.

Screen Time & Evening habits

If you are struggling with feeling low energy, I highly recommend taking a look at your screen time!

Winter makes it easy to fall into doomscrolling, especially late at night when energy is gone and it is so hard to come up with the motivation to do anything else

One thing that’s helped me is creating boundaries with intention.

— Bricking my phone after 9pm so I don’t doomscroll before I sleep (my full review on Brick HERE)

— Rewarding myself with screentime after a certain task: I can sit on the couch and be on my phone as soon as I clean the kitchen for the night

— Having good hobbies also helps! Hands-on things like puzzles, coloring, journaling are a great tools!

Romanticizing Winter When You’re Feeling Seasonally Depressed

One of the biggest shifts for me has been trying to see winter as its own beautiful season instead of something to endure.

Some ways I try to romanticize it: cozy lighting, so many candles, warm drinks, baking cinnamon buns, playing cozy jazz.

Connect with your people

Winter is when it’s easiest to isolate, but the more that you can push yourself to connect with other people (especially IRL if possible), the better

Push yourself to go out past 4pm, to reach out and make plans. You could also do a short phone call or a quick check-in text if your people are farther away.

Connection is so important in lower seasons, and always makes me feel better even if it is hard to take that first step!

REMINDER: We will get through the winter!!

Winter can feel long + make you question your productivity, motivation and worth.

But here’s the truth: Showing up even a little still counts. Bare minimum days still count. Small moments of intention are better than nothing!!

Lean into the cozy. Be kind to yourself. Make yourself a warm drink tonight.

And if you want to go deeper into this conversation, I’d love for you to watch the full YouTube episode where I unpack this with even more heart and practical ideas:

Watch the full YouTube pep talk here