I speak to many people who suffer the gloom of the winter months and find it quite a struggle to keep active. The cold atmosphere and the darkness of the days, being short in the winter, can be hard to cope with and hard to get motivation to do activities. The short day makes it harder to fit in all our tasks as when night falls we want to be inside and comfortable. We can find ourselves procrastinating and not really getting much done. The discipline of going to work is good and keeps our psyche in a good place. Staying in bed is not the answer and we need to keep our days with meaningful tasks to perform. 

It is a great help and source of discipline to have a job that you have to go to each day and it helps you to have structure and boundaries in your life. Work takes your mind away from things that upset you and help you to serve others and be useful. If we keep our eyes on the task in hand it can provide adequate distraction and keep the thought processes active and sharp. It is good to have a busy job that needs full attention, as this keeps the mind busy on something outside oneself. 

We cannot do much about the dark, short days but we can help ourselves to cope. Having helpful things to look forward to is good and having family and friends is even better. Knowing that you are loved and that someone cares for you is so invigorating and motivating. We want to please the other people and serving others helps us lift our view from our own darkness. Let us keep a positive outlook on our life and don’t allow the negativity to take hold. It can be hard to break it when it goes too far into our psyche. The brighter days will come and we look forward to that and to seeing the signs of spring in our community. Look to the one who made you and can give you strength that you did not know you had…