Winter blues are real! Since I can remember, every year during the winter months, I struggled with depression. Maybe it was the lack of sun, shorter days or too much negative thinking. Regardless, when I was younger I thought it would never end! But then spring and summer would come and I was happy and alive again! As an adult, and having lived though it many times, I know now that this really will pass. It always does.
For me, the fun part is leading up to Christmas. The joy in the air is palpable. Once it hits, you think, is that it? And just like that, it’s gone. Life sure is a ride, isn’t it? You’re up, you’re down, you’re neutral and over and over it goes.
Sometimes my body tries to get my attention. Maybe I have a pain that doesn’t go away. It is then, I am reminded to check in with what it is trying to tell me.
I listen.
I am grieving I realize and I allow the tears to come. Being an empathic person, one can create many walls. It protects us. Keeps us as a functioning member of society. It gets us through the days. So much so, we sometimes don’t realize we have just stored a bunch of stuff in our body. So I check in and really sit with myself. I talk to my pain, ask where it comes from and what message it has for me.
I grieve and then listen to the simple and practical suggestions given.
I continue to show up and do the best I can one day at a time. I allow that to be enough. I am enough, right here, right now.