Change of seasons affect many of us and listening to the body may not be the best answer

I personally get affected by winter. My body naturally prefers warm and dry weather.

Originally being from a hot country, I have also moved and lived in different countries in the course of my life.

And now I ended up in a place that has the worst conditions for my body. Cold, damp, with long and dark winter months.
I know... 🙃
I wonder how I ended up here.... 😅

All this to say that the trauma resolution work I have done and continue to do has paid off.
I no longer need a SAD lamp. Winter is still not my ideal season, but I have learnt that keeping my body moving in the winter months is a MUST.

In winter, I make a point to do the opposite of what my body wants to do and purposely add extra movement to my life. It’s not easy nor natural for me to do this, but I just do it.

This has only been possible because of the trauma work I have under my belt. In the past I would simply succumb to my low depressive mood and shutdown responses, as my nervous system was not resilient enough.

Although I often share on my page about listening to our bodies, it doesn’t mean we can’t use our brains to assess any given situation, changing course when necessary. If I would listen to my body in winter months I would not move at all and would get highly depressed (due to early life trauma, my body has the tendency to shutdown. So I have to stay on top of any shutdown/depressive states).

My main “tricks” for winter are:

☀️More movement
☀️Happy music
☀️A bit of brain retraining
☀️Nipping in the bud shutdown states.

And you? Do you have any tricks up your sleeve for the winter months? And if you are ok with winter, but have another season you find difficult, I would love to hear about it.