Winter's Impact on Mental Health

One of the previous answers and this comes in this question as well. How do you find that your emotional or mental health shifts during winter? How does that impact your motivation or health choices? Yeah, yeah, so for me winter is probably one of the hardest times for me for my mental health and, you know, I'm, I'm somebody who has put a lot of work and effort into maintaining my mental health and I'm not ashamed or afraid to say that I've, you know, been involved in therapy for a number of years to try to help maintain my mental health and I can't say enough that for people that need that and would find benefit which I think everybody can benefit from therapy here and there and being able to partake in those things, especially over for me in particular, over the winter season. That's actually when I had started with my therapist was over the winter season, like fall into winter. So I think being able to, you know, have those resources in place, make a really big difference because you know, it is colder, it's longer, you know, a lot more darkness and everything. And that definitely impacts mood. when my mood is impacted, I'm more likely to stray from my habits and I'm more likely to stray from any healthy intentions that I have because I sometimes then I'm just like, what's, what's the point I'm just going to throw in the towel. So having that community, having those supports, whether it's informal friends, family, whether it's, you know, professional therapeutic supports, things like that, I think make a really big difference as well. Um, just to help with your mental health and taking that time for self care in the winter as well. you know, there's less daylight, you know, so being able to still find time to take care of yourself, do things that, you know, help bring your mood up, take care of you, fill your cup, I think all those things are really needed over that time as well.